EV Charging company ChargePoint plunges after sales sag, executives are replaced

ChargePoint Holdings Inc. shares collapsed after the company announced the sudden replacement of its longtime chief executive officer and posted disappointing quarterly revenue.

The stock — which had already lost more than two thirds of its value this year — plunged as much as 38 percent, its biggest intraday decline ever, closing down 35 percent at $2.02 Friday. The electric-vehicle charging company’s market capitalization fell to around $750 million from a peak of $11.2 billion in June 2021.

The company said after the market close Thursday that Pasquale Romano, who had been CEO since 2011, and Chief Financial Officer Rex Jackson were replaced. ChargePoint also released preliminary results showing revenue slumped to between $108 million and $113 million for the quarter that ended last month, down from a year ago and well short of its guidance for at least $150 million.

“Big changes we did not see coming,” Gabe Daoud, an equity analyst at TD Cowen who rates ChargePoint the equivalent of a buy, wrote in a report Thursday. “The EV charging space has endured significant headwinds this year — evidenced by recent weak prints from other hardware/network providers — and despite being a leader CHPT is not immune.”

Charging companies have struggled to compete in the U.S. with Tesla Inc., which has built out a vast network of plugs with a different connector design than the rest of the industry. The superior charging experience the EV manufacturer offers its customers has contributed to almost all major automakers switching to its connector as the new North American standard.

ChargePoint went public in 2021 by merging with a special purpose acquisition company as part of a wave of EV-related deals including Lordstown Motors Corp. and Lucid Group Inc. Investors have soured on many of these companies, many of which were risky, early-stage ventures burning lots of cash.

ChargePoint promoted Rick Wilmer, who joined as chief operating officer in July last year, to replace Romano, who will remain an adviser. Jackson left the company and will be replaced on an interim basis by Mansi Khetani, senior vice president of financial planning and analysis.