With me today I have CFO Kurt Østrem. We are happy to talk to you today about our second quarter. Our second quarter was a testing, trying quarter, offering everything from production stops to revenue highs. Overall, I'd say Zaptec has navigated very steadily in these uncertain times, and we continue to show a very strong and unwavering commitment towards our goals. Our cumulative numbers to date show that we've now sold over 130,000 chargers. We've established six sales companies, and our increase in order intake year-on-year is 84%. Our export share has risen again. We're now at a percentage of 70%, and so has our number of employees, where we are at 120 at this current stage.
We have over 400,000 parking spaces with infrastructure ready to deploy Zaptec Pro chargers.
Highlights from the second quarter. We have a strong purchase orders registration of NOK 280 million in the second quarter, and this is an increase of 84%. Despite the production stop in the whole of April, we still managed to have a revenue growth of 65% from the sales in May and June. Production going forward is secured and Westcontrol will increase their production of Zaptec chargers for us, and our second production partner, Sanmina, is on track and will soon start production of Zaptec chargers. The export continued to increase and the export share was 70% in the second quarter. We had a gross margin of 42% and adjusted EBITDA was NOK 7.7 million in the second quarter. Next page.
When we look into the key numbers more in detail, as Peter said, the second quarter was a special quarter for Zaptec since we had three months in the quarter with expenses but only two months with deliveries and revenues. The booked revenues in the second quarter was NOK 151 million. This is up 65% from the second quarter last year. The booked revenue for year to date was NOK 283 million. This is up 72% from year to date last year. The export share is up from 41%-70% in the second quarter. Year to date is up from 40%-69%. A strong gross margin for almost 42% in the second quarter, up from 36% last year.
Year to date, the gross margin was almost 44%, up from 35% year to date last year. The operating expenses was NOK 55 million in the second quarter, up from NOK 21 million. Year to date, the operating expenses were NOK 107 million, up from NOK 40 million last year. This is also a high increase in operating expenses, but this is as planned. If you look at the operating expenses as a share of booked revenue this quarter is of course too high. We like to see the operating expenses as a share of order intake. If you do so, the share of operating expenses would have been 25% in the second quarter. That's number we are pleased with. The adjusted EBITDA was NOK 7.7 million in the second quarter.
This is down from NOK 11.7 million last year, and this of course is due to the production stop in April. Year to date, the EBITDA was NOK 16.8 million. This is slightly down from NOK 17.3 million year to date last year. If you look at the EBITDA margin as a share of revenue, of course it's too low in this quarter with 5.1%, down from 12.8% in the last year. Year to date is 5.9%, down from 10.4% last year. Again, we had only two months of deliveries.
If you look at the EBITDA, in the light of order intake, we could have EBITDA margin of 16% in the second quarter and 13% year to date. That is according to our plan. We still have a strong cash balance and had NOK 245 million available at the end of the quarter. This is down from NOK 286 million last year, and the reason for that is that we have invested heavily in inventory of components to secure a future production and revenue stream.
Regarding market developments, our European expansion continues. We've signed a country manager for the Benelux countries. In Zaptec Deutschland, we've signed ChargeGuru providing Germany-wide platform of certified installers. Zaptec Denmark has signed two larger resale agreements with NRGi as well as K.W. Bruun. When we look at the EV markets in Scandinavia and Switzerland, some of our largest markets, Q2 showed a decrease compared to last year. However, the overall numbers for first half of 2022 show a slight increase of 1%. In markets of UK and Germany, there's been a 9% decrease, however, that hasn't touched Zaptec. In relation to the international expansion, our export share, as mentioned earlier, is now at 70%. That's up from 41% Q2 2021.
Our largest export markets are Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and Iceland.
Yes. We installed 1,527 car parks ready to go with Zaptec Pro in the second quarter. This is up from 1,470 car parks installation last quarter. With car parks installation, we're talking about winning a building or other large parking spaces. There are several parking possibilities in each car park where typically 20% is equipped with a Zaptec charger. As the EV demand increase, the car park owner can add multiple Zaptec Pro charger to the same car park several months or maybe years later, which may add to demand. That means that we have a quite large revenue stream already secured for the future.
Our recurring revenues in our subscription for payment services, we have now two services. Charge365, which we've had for a couple of years, is our payment service solution for Pro-end customers in Norway is steadily increasing, now with more than 13,000 active unique users. On top of that, we've added this quarter Zaptec Park, which is our way of expanding quickly into new markets. Zaptec have entered into an agreement with Monta to provide end customers with the best and most flexible payment solutions. Zaptec Park was launched in Sweden in June, and further expansion in other European countries will happen during the autumn 2022.
The component situation that we had in the spring is now secured. Components are back in stock and production is increasing at Westcontrol. We expect even higher production in the months to come. Action is taken both technically and also within supply chain to prevent further delays. When it comes to our new production partner, Sanmina, this is on track. They have started production of the first circuit board, and they are ready for ramp up production in November and will have mass production in the Q1 next year. We expect that the backlog of Zaptec Go will be eliminated by the end of the third quarter.
The Zaptec Pro, we will have a backlog until the first quarter next year.
All in all, when we look at the outlook, we are still very positive. Shift towards e-mobility remains resolute and unchanged, despite the varied fluctuations in the markets. Production is secured to follow Zaptec's growth rate, so we will continue to aim at a minimum of 70% growth. Long-term EBITDA margins remain in the range of 15%-20% in our goals. That concludes our report this morning. However, we will now be taking questions.
Yes. As I said, this high increase in OPEX is as expected. We are aiming for at least 70% yearly growth, annual growth in Zaptec. We are expanding internationally. This growth is like we have planned for and in NOK or in value, the OPEX will increase also going forward. We will keep the percentage versus the sales in line.
I would say overall, despite we see some quarters where we have reduction in the overall sales of electric cars, the year-on-year numbers will definitely show a rise. Each of the markets that we enter into are always based on the uptake of EVs. And of course, the lack of components will have an effect and has had an effect. But we do not expect that this is going to hamper our international like expansion, since many of our customers are based on the Pro chargers, which are in the B2B segments. We have currently our product developments are based on developing our two existing products, the Go and the Pro.
We have and are working very hard towards ensuring that our products have and will remain at the forefront of the technology that's on the market. Specifically, we are focusing on the software elements in order to ensure that our chargers have and are capable of being at the forefront of the technology side, both in relation to future-proofing our chargers for our customers' benefit, but also to ensure that our chargers can and will be a technological part of the expansion of the electrification of the grids, not just here in the Nordics, but also throughout Europe and potentially globally as well.
We can say that the last year we have spent a lot of time to adjust our product and develop our product to fit into the requirements in new markets. We are ready with the UK version of the Zaptec Go that goes into production now in September and fulfill all the requirements from the U.K. We are also soon ready with the MID certification of the Zaptec Pro, and that will go into production in November for the German market. Maybe that is one of the.
In relation to our growth, we cannot necessarily say whether we're growing faster than our competitors, but what we can say is that, when you do look at the current rise of EVs in the market, our expansion and rise in revenue is somewhat higher. We've seen that in the numbers that we've seen. Obviously that is a clear indication that we are taking market share across the board. That's definitely a conclusion that one could arrive to that we are indeed growing faster than the competition. Yes, there is consolidation going on in the market. I would expect this to be a very strong part of what we'll be looking into over the next 24-36 months.
That consolidation within this market will continue specifically with newcomers as well as some of the larger established companies that we'll see that there will be some price to pay for the growing competition in this field.
Now, we don't see any capacity issues during the second half of 2022. With that, I mean that we have secure components, we have production capacity, but we have a backlog, and we have a very strong order intake. As I mentioned, we will not be rid of the backlog and delivery times for Zaptec Pro during second half of 2022. The production will increase further in the first quarter with Sanmina up and running and also Westcontrol are increasing in the first quarter. When we come to the first quarter 2023, we will have full production capacity versus the order intake.
Please repeat the questions before asking. Okay. Yeah. How is the expansion in the U.S. coming along? Well, in relation to the U.S., we are still very committed to going into this market. It's a long-term commitment, and we are currently doing all the testing and validation of our products, specifically the Pro, and of course are looking into the most efficient and quickest way of going into this market. We have recently hired, and this was in Q2, an M&A director to the team with a specific focus on how we will enter the U.S. market.
It is still the plan to re-register on the main list in Oslo this year. Yes, we are working towards our plan to uplisting at the end of this year. So far, we are planning for that.
We're asked what kind of contribution to production capacity could in the yearly revenue?
We're not telling you about the number next year, but we have said that we should grow with at least 70%. We have orders placed for 2023 which exceed this number because we also want to build a stock. The orders placed for 2023 are huge. When we will have a lot of production capacity next year.
Do you see any production capacity?
No
issues which will happen during H2? No. At this point.
This is an old question.
Okay. Old question, yeah.
Yeah. With that shortage of components improving in the industry, do you believe there will be more competition on price in the industry? We see now that the raw material prices is going up. It's hard to say about the future. There is a hot competition today. We believe that we have a level that will remain like this today, but of course there will be new players into the market. There will be different products, simpler products, not so advanced as Zaptec. You have to see on the specific product. Can you scroll a bit down? We don't see that question. Yeah.
What is your view about decreasing figures in the EV market? Are we on the edge of a recession in Europe? How do you anticipate that for your business? What's your view on that? The EV markets are showing a glitch right now. I think it's very much a sign of the insecurity, uncertainties in the markets more so than it is a specific on EVs. I would say if you look more into detail of the markets, you'll see that there is a decrease in vehicle sales in general. In fact, the overall decrease is much higher on combustion engine vehicles than it is on EVs.
If anything, we will see that due to the high costs of fossil fuels, that we will see a much higher focus on sustainable energy and therefore also, of course, an even bigger push to electrify markets throughout the Western world. I think what we are seeing right now is a sort of slight bump. In general, as we also mentioned in our presentation, we're quite strong believers that the market will continue going up. We've only just scratched the surface in relation to the number of vehicles on the road. We believe that there are still in the millions, if not billions of vehicles that will be turning towards electromobility over the next couple of decades. Therefore, of course, the need for infrastructure will remain extremely strong.
Can you comment on, how the German market is developing in terms of sales? Are you happy with the progress? The adjustment and the development of the MID certification in Germany has taken longer time than we expected at the start of the year. We are not happy with that. Now the plan is that we are going in production in November. Of course this has an impact on the sales in Germany. However, we see that the sales are increasing every month. We are now building a strong organization and building a network of distribution channels. We are very optimistic about the German market still, but we have not had the large sales in 2022 so far.
Are Zaptec chargers compatible with 100% of new EVs on the market? Yes, is the answer. I would say even more so. We've taken steps in late Q2 in relation to and as I just mentioned, in relation to focusing even more on our software developments as well as our software partnerships in order to ensure that our product is and will be future proof, and therefore not only being 100% compatible today, but also being 100% compatible tomorrow. I can only speculate that I don't believe everybody in the field and all of our competitors would be able to say the same. Zaptec stock has been lagging in the peers during 2022.
Is there a risk of Zaptec not going to be in the driver's seat for the market consolidation phases?
That's not up to us to say. We don't control the pricing for the stock. We are just focused on deliver at least 70% growth every year and an EBITDA margin for at least 15%. Then the market will decide the price and our position versus the rest of the market. We strongly believe that Zaptec will be in the driver's seat in the year to come also.
I would just add a note there, and of course, being a stock on Euronext Growth, and taking that next step of the uplisting will of course expose us to even more and stronger investors which I believe will help ensure that we end up on a level that is very similar to what our peers are at, if not higher.
That was the last question for today.
Yeah. We would like to give one minute.
Okay.
All right. We'd like to conclude today. Thank you very much, and thank you.
Thank you.