Though neither stock is on my interest list anymore, a filing yesterday by FNGR caught my attention and I thought I might share a quick thought for anyone who may still be involved.
NAAS was first added to my list in January 2023 at a price of $5.44, while FNGR was added to my list in September 2023 at $7.02. Both are substantially lower today.
The part of the FNGR filing that caught my eye was their entry into the Chinese EV charging market via their Da Ge app. What their app does is direct EV cars to available chargers that are signed up to their network. According to the release, they now have access to over 400,000 chargers.
“As per the arrangements, to be formed with Jiangsu YKC and Shanghai Anyo Charging Technology Co., Ltd, a SAIC Group-owned service provider operating over 400,000 charging terminals for electric vehicles, the Da Ge app will integrate with both Jiangsu YKC and Anyo Charging’s app, thus allowing electric vehicle users subscribed to Da Ge to access direct connections at these terminals.”
NAAS, of course, bills itself as:
“the first U.S. listed EV charging service company in China”
and their primary asset is something called Kuaidian, which they describe thus:
“Kuaidian boosts the visibility of charging stations and charging piles and connects end-users with suitable charging infrastructure.”
At last count, NAAS had something over 875K chargers in their system from over 77K charging stations. Not sure how either of those numbers lines up with FNGR’s 400K “terminals” claim, though I’m thinking NAAS has a bit larger of a network at the moment, but it sounds like some more competition (even if it is a bit crummy) is coming down the pike for folks over at NAAS into what is becoming a pretty crowded space.
A final thought.
NAAS was only able to build out their network of charging stations and chargers by offering “incentives” to people using their Kuaidian app. These “incentives” typically account for almost every dime’s worth of revenue they are able to recognize by directing any traffic to any specific charging station.
If FNGR is forced to play the same game in order to gain any appreciable volume for their app (if the Kuaidian app gives me a 10 cent rebate on every KW I spend then will FNGR’s Da Ge be going even higher?). Plus it sounds like FNGR is going to have to reimburse in some way the folks who run the apps that they will be integrating with. An already horrible business is about to get even more horrible.
Either way, sounds like both companies may wind up the losers in the end.