Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us for this session of the WTR Insights Conference featuring XCharge. I'm Eric Goldstein, Managing Director of Mobility and Industrial Technology here at Water Tower Research, and I'll be your host today. We're pleased to be joined by Joel Gallo, Chief Financial Officer of XCharge. Joel, welcome and thank you for being here.
Hi, Eric. Thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate it. Good to see you, as always.
Good to see you as well. XCharge participates in the global DC fast charging market for electric vehicles. Founded in 2015 by two former Tesla employees, XCharge is an integrated EV charging and energy solutions company with operations in Europe, North America, and China. XCharge offers a comprehensive range of EV charging solutions, beginning with its flagship, highly advanced battery-integrated systems, the NZS, which was introduced in 2022, and GridLink, introduced in 2024. NZS and GridLink enable fast charging at low-power sites or at locations with aging grid infrastructure that typically cannot support high-power equipment and is able to do so much more cost-effectively compared with competing products. XCharge develops both hardware and software internally, and the company also sells its non-battery-integrated C6 and C7 DC fast chargers.
Before we begin, please note that XCharge's safe harbor statement can be found on the investor tab on their website. Also, this fireside chat may not be reproduced, nor may a written transcript be distributed without express written consent of Water Tower Research. We'll aim to address investor questions submitted during today's conversation in a follow-up email or in the management series report that will follow. Please enter your questions in the chat. Investors interested in scheduling a meeting with XCharge can indicate that interest within the conference portal. With those housekeeping items covered, let's jump right into it. Joel, can you explain what the GridLink value proposition is, and what benefits does the customer derive by installing the GridLink?
Sure, I'd be happy to, Eric. Thank you. I think the immediate and compelling value proposition is solving the grid capacity problem. What do I mean by that? Well, traditional DC fast chargers require massive, expensive grid connection upgrades that can cost hundreds of thousands dollars and take months to approve. GridLink requires only a low power AC input, as little as 10 kW-44 kW, and its internal 215 kWh, scalable to 430 kW, battery buffers its low input to deliver high powered DC output. In addition to that, site operators, whether they're CPOs or others, can install these ultra-fast charging chargers really in locations where the grid is simply too weak to or too expensive to upgrade, rural corridors, urban lots with too many transformers, remote travel plazas, the occasional mini mall here and there.
That's part of the constraints that we will address. In terms of the financial value and revenue generation, for example, GridLink is one of our products. GridLink is designed to turn a cost center, which is electricity, into a profit center through active energy management. What do I mean by that? First of all, there is peak shaving and demand charges. By charging the internal battery during off-peak hours when the electricity is at its cheapest rates, such as, for example, overnight, and discharging during peak hours, such as during daylight hours, GridLink avoids the expensive demand charges that typically crush the margins of fast charging sites. In addition, GridLink can seamlessly integrate with PV arrays up to 60 kW, allowing the operators to charge EVs directly with stored solar energy, avoiding the feed-in tariffs or low payback for selling solar back to the grid.
There's also the operational value that GridLink will provide, and that's the speed to market and resilience. What we do is we reduce the friction for the operator. There's fast installation because it doesn't require bringing in crews to dig up the streets and for high-voltage lines. It's more of a plug-and-play nature, which means that the installation can happen in hours or a couple of days and not months or even longer. There's also blackout protection in that GridLink can operate independently off the grid during blackouts, offering a unique resilience feature that traditional chargers just simply don't have. In terms of deployment, GridLink has been deployed in a number of different locations across North America and not just in the United States.
Great. Thank you. Can you discuss your strategic partnership with EnBW, who is Germany's largest charge point operator and has some very aggressive growth plans, which seems like could bode well for your company?
Sure. Absolutely. I think one of the first things is that we have a shared vision that has brought EnBW and XCharge together. EnBW is one of the largest utility companies, not only in Germany, but all of Europe. They're very well known in the European utility landscape. I think what brought us together is that you have two visionary companies that are incredibly optimistic about the future of the electric vehicle industry and really the larger electric vehicle industry. Our outlook is not just based on some unrealistic optimism, but it is actually backed by significant investments that both companies have made on solving real-world infrastructure problems. Look, Eric, ultra-fast charging is already the norm in a lot of places, and it will only become more pervasive as time goes on. It's here to stay.
At the core is a vision on building a more resilient, more reliable, and of course, technologically advanced charging network. Some of the background and sort of what brought us together, I would say probably the most innovative part of this partnership is looking back, and our history with EnBW does go back a couple of years. Looking back, I think the most innovative part was what started out as a pilot project a few years ago soon became a true joint development program. To that end, we did several things, and we actually had to do several things. Number one, we had to create a transparent feedback loop so that EnBW's input became project requirements. Plus, we reviewed design actions together.
We back-tested results, and sort of that rigor of a disciplined approach drove our efforts to move fast and reach major milestones in just a few quarters. And that's the spirit of collaboration that continues to drive our partnership forward to this day.
Can you discuss some of the benefits the hardware provides to the person behind the wheel?
Sure. Absolutely. I think out of all the benefits, probably the most important one is confidence that stems from having a high-quality product, and it's reliable, and it is safe. For a user, especially someone like a parent charging their car with their kids in the car, the charger needs to feel safe, simple, and dependable. That would be someone like me, where I will charge a car with my two little kids sitting in the back seat. Sort of that's what our project teams strive for, that reliability and safety that should just be automatic. As a user, as a consumer, you really shouldn't have to think about it.
Yeah. That's great. Thanks, Joel. Can you give us some insights into the revenue decline the company saw in 2025 and the path back to growth going forward?
Sure. Absolutely. We did our IPO in 2024, and leading from 2023, 2024, we're very excited about our growth prospects. We had a very good year in 2023. 2024 was even stronger, and we were extremely excited about our growth prospects for 2025. However, we did see early on that the new Administration made moves that proved to be, let's say, challenging and disruptive to the larger industry. First were the tariffs that were raised across the board, making our products more expensive and eating into margins. Second were the sunsetting of the Biden Administration tax credits for electric vehicles. Of course, such macro actions affected not only us, but really all the players in the industry. The immediate effect was that our customers and potential customers put their spending on hold.
I would say over the summer, over the third quarter of last year, the industry recalibrated, and by the fourth quarter, the market did start to reawaken, realizing that spending could only be put off for such a period of time. Customers began to get our calls. We're visiting many more sites at potential customer locations than we had been earlier in the year. We actually finished 2025 with strong momentum that continued into this year in 2026. The culmination of that effort has been our announcement with the partnership with EnBW that we did earlier this year. I jokingly comment, and I think you and I have also had a similar conversation. I tell my colleagues that whoever backed the horse and buggy industry over the automobile 110 years ago surely lost that bet.
I think we're at a similar inflection point where as more and more vehicles will continue to be electrified, and that's obviously a megatrend that it's simply not going to be stopped. It can be slowed down with tariffs and other actions, but the trend is clearly there, and it's not going to go anywhere. If the U.S. is a slow adopter of EV technology, it is surely going to give up that market space to foreign competitors who are laser-focused in moving into that space, not only specifically for the electric vehicle industry, but the larger ecosystem overall, which includes charging, which is where we come in.
Joel, along those lines, you guys have announced a number of new partnerships over the past few quarters. Can you highlight some of the partnerships that you've announced and discuss your pipeline?
Sure. Absolutely. I would say, even despite what was happening in 2025 and which I just described, we finished the fourth quarter strong with a steady drumbeat of exciting corporate news that we released several times each month, going back to, like I said, Q4 last year, and that has continued into this year. It really covers a lot of different markets, not only just in the United States, but Europe and elsewhere. For example, in November 2025, we announced a strategic partnership with Electromin, which is Saudi Arabia's largest electric vehicle charging network operator. This collaboration is positioned to support the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 initiative, which aims for 30% EV adoption in Riyadh by 2030.
At the core of this deployment is a GridLink solution, no surprise there, which uses that patented 250 kWh battery to deliver 200 kW of DC fast charging power while requiring only 44 kW of grid input. It's ideal for locations with limited grid capacity. Electromin will provide comprehensive turnkey solutions, including the installation and commissioning, and some of the maintenance services, while we supply the advanced charging technology and some of the technical support as well. That is one that we had in Saudi Arabia. Moving to the other part of the globe, we entered into a strategic collaboration with FAZT Charging in Mexico to deploy EV charging infrastructure across Soriana, which is a very large supermarket chain in Mexico that has about 800 different locations throughout the country.
This initiative aims to deploy up to 1,000 fast and ultra-fast charging points by 2030, and it's actually one of the most extensive e-mobility projects in all of Mexico. We're going to be supplying our C6 chargers, offering charging power from 60 kW-200 kW in a compact format with compatibility across different NACS, GBT, and CCS1 connectors. It can serve virtually any EV model. The first 30 stations are scheduled to be operational later this year, and we're going to have about another 440 charging points later on this year. We're very excited about the deployment in Mexico.
Coming a little bit closer to home, in the United States, in New York, earlier this year, actually in January, we announced a partnership with Energy Plus, which is a New York-based energy efficiency contractor, to build actually one of the largest EV charging depots in the United States. The site that was selected is actually in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It will feature 44 GridLink units. It's going to be serving about 88 different parking spaces when it goes live later this year. This site is going to operate under Energy Plus's E-Plug brand that is designed specifically for dense and high-demand urban areas such as New York City.
As someone who lived in New York, as a longtime New Yorker who lived in New York for several decades, I'm particularly excited about this project, and I can't wait to visit the location once some of the GridLinks are deployed, and they go live. We also had another announcement just a few days ago, actually earlier this week, with JOJO Superfast EV charging in Illinois. We're going to be overseeing some of the completion and formation of their turnkey solutions. The partnership is going to bring about 800 kW of ultra-fast charging capacity to about nine, 10 initial locations. It will start spreading across the state. This solution is going to feature our C6 smart DC fast chargers. We're very excited about the partnership that we have in Illinois with JOJO.
Perhaps lastly, just a different part of the U.S. in Vermont, we're selected by Cellerate Power to deploy Vermont's fastest EV chargers. We're going to be deploying our C7 ultra-fast chargers in different parts of the state. This is particularly interesting because Vermont is a place where cold winters can definitely set in mountains. The cold winters and the mountainous roads, they certainly exacerbate the range anxiety concerns for being able to charge your electric vehicle. We're very excited about these locations that we're going to be opening up, not only Vermont, Illinois, New York, but as you can see from some of the examples that I've provided, really all around the world.
Yeah, that's great. Okay. For those that aren't familiar, can you just maybe go into a little bit more depth in terms of XCharge's competitive positioning and how you differentiate versus your other competitors?
Sure. I think our competitive differentiation rests on several key pillars. Number one, we're able to solve the grid bottleneck as core technology. Unlike traditional charger manufacturers that require costly grid upgrades, we have built a competency around battery buffer fast charging, effectively bypassing grid limitations. This is something that I spoke about earlier in this interview, and it ties back to, I believe, the first question that you asked me, Eric. Let me go into it a little more detail. The first thing is the GridLink advantage. The GridLink system requires only 44 kW from the grid to deliver up to 194 kW of DC charging by drawing from an integrated 250 kWh battery, scalable up to 430.
This allows the operators, for example, a CPO, to deploy bulk fast chargers in locations where the grid connections are very, very weak, expensive, or it would take a year and a half, two years. It would take a long time to upgrade. We can bypass all of that. That's part of the plug-and-play reference that I made, too, during your first question. This is highly relevant, for example, in Europe. I've just spent the last 10 minutes or so talking about some of our initiatives in North America. Let me go back to Europe, which is where you started with one of your earlier questions about EnBW. This whole grid constraint is certainly relevant in Europe, where in several countries, such as the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy, they're facing severe constraints for electric vehicle charging.
By enabling fast charging at gas stations, urban on-the-ground garages, bus depots, even rural locations without grid expansion, XCharge is really solving a fundamental infrastructure problem that other competitors probably cannot address. Beyond just charging, we see GridLink as more of a comprehensive energy ecosystem, where GridLink can be seen as a distributed energy asset, not just a charger, because it integrates directly with solar PV, avoiding those low feed-in tariffs by using solar energy directly for fast charging. By doing so, it provides blackout protection, something that I spoke about earlier, and it enables peak shaving to reduce demand charges. It transforms the actual charging unit, the asset, from being a cost center into actually being a revenue-generating grid asset.
The other thing that I would say is that because of the partnership with EnBW, we've actually been able to get this strategic validation, sort of a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. The partnership with EnBW, as I explained before, it goes back several years. It involves at least a two-year field test with numerous C7 ultrafast chargers operating across a bunch of different EnBW locations. We logged over 20,000 charging sessions. Really the goal for EnBW was to secure the quality of our fast charging network in the long term and bolster the resilience. This is a significant endorsement that should not be sort of overlooked and glossed over very quickly because it demonstrates that we as a company are able to meet some of these very high exacting standards that are required by a market leader who is very famous, known for their technical rigor.
That is something that we're justifiably proud of. Three, I would say we don't just compete on price, we compete really more on total cost of ownership. We emphasize that the purchase price is less important than the total cost of ownership, which includes service response times, energy efficiency, charging losses, maintenance costs. All of that really has to be taken into account. We emphasize the ease of maintenance. The C7's power modules only weigh about 20 kg and can be replaced by a single technician. We have a co-headquarters in Hamburg where we maintain local spare parts in our warehouse for rapid response. GridLink's battery packs are modular.
They're individually replaceable, and so it negates some of that long downtime, and it makes it easier for our technicians to be able to address them as quickly as they're able to field a call. Another advantage, I think, is the vertical integration and customer co-creation. We design and develop our own custom hardware and software rather than relying just on third-party vendors. This allows us to meet the unique site needs and maintain reliability. We're also moving towards in-house battery pack and BMS production, only sourcing cells externally to increase flexibility. I mentioned co-creation in that XCharge practices co-creation with customers and quickly adapting to specific requests as highlighted by the EnBW collaboration that goes back several years. We also think that we have some very high safety engineering standards.
Our multilayer safety system, it includes liquid cooling, maintaining temperatures below 37 degrees Celsius, about 60 different sensors for monitoring gas, heat dissipation, infrared anomalies, and an integrated 35 liter fire suppression tank at the battery pack level. It's built to U.S. standards, but it's also been certified for Europe, and so we have very high technical standards to make sure that we meet the highest level of safety that is required by whoever the players may be in the marketplace at a global level.
That's great. Thank you. Final question. Can you maybe talk about just some of the macro tailwinds that your company may be benefiting from? Can you talk about just the stress on the grid, and then opportunities that you see in energy storage?
Sure, absolutely. Let me go back to the grid stress because I think this is one of the big factors that is actually in our favor, and I've talked a little bit about it already in your previous question. Let me just describe sort of the scale of the problem. In the United States, grid interconnection queues now contain approximately 2,300 GW of active requests, more than twice the country's total installed generating capacity. Projects can take up to five years from interconnection request to actual commercial operation. That's just unfathomable. Five years. Europe faces similar challenges, very long connection times, probably because EV charging has increased, and there's been faster than expected EV adoption, certainly faster in Europe compared to the United States. The grids are stressed, right?
There is a lot of high power demand, and there's also highly intermittent usage pattern, which is what happens when you're using chargers, right? These charging sessions can be quiet for a while, and all of a sudden they'll hit you with a very certain sudden spike that are very difficult for utilities to forecast and manage. A single charging plaza, depending on how busy it is, believe it or not, can draw actually more power than small neighborhoods. That gives you scale and the complexity of the problem. The solution is really energy storage, and battery storage has really emerged as the most direct and economically viable solution to grid constraints. How does storage solve that problem?
Well, connection power reduction to the storage allows the charging plaza to, say, draw low steady power from the grid over time, especially at off-peak hours, as I talked about earlier, delivering that high power burst to vehicles drawing from the battery first and not the grid as needed. By doing so, you're controlling, you're smoothing that ramp rate, and sort of those rapid fluctuations in the grid power draw on and off, high, low. It helps the operators comply with future ramp rate limits. Those storage chargers during off-peak hours when electricity is cheap, and then discharges during peak hours when the rates are more expensive, is going to improve the operator's bottom line. I think you could see the economics there.
More from the macro tailwind and really looking at the global energy storage demand, it's really just exploding. I've read somewhere that Bank of America projects that global energy storage systems will grow about 39% in 2026, and JP Morgan is forecasting even more aggressive, estimating that energy storage system will grow 50% in 2025. Sorry, it grew 50% in 2025 and 43% in 2026. There is a shift to ESS as a primary driver. We are actually going to be one of the beneficiaries of that. How is that going to happen for us? Well, the GridLink system only requires 44 kW of grid input to deliver 194 kW of charging power. That directly solves the grid constraint problem that 100% of the operators cite as a barrier to expansion.
This is not just a nice-to-have feature, it's actually becoming a must-have requirement for deployment in grid-constrained locations, which unfortunately abound throughout the country, not only in the United States, but also throughout Europe. With the grid update timeline stretching for as long as five years in the United States and two years in Europe, operators cannot wait for these utilities to catch up. Systems like GridLink will be increasingly in demand, and we hope to benefit from those major trends that we are seeing.
Okay, that's great. Thank you, Joel. As everyone can see, XCharge is very interesting. Very interesting story. A lot of growth opportunity, some really great, unique, differentiated products, and a really great backlog. Joel, I just want to thank you for joining us this session of the WTR Insights Conference and I just want to thank everybody who participated as well. Please look for additional content on XCharge at Water Tower's website, which is www.watertowerresearch.com, where you can also find our initial coverage report that was published in January. For those with further questions or for investors wishing to meet with management after this event, please reflect that interest through the conference portal. Our next conference session will be starting shortly and we invite you to stay with us. Thanks, Joel.
Great. Thank you, Eric. Appreciate it.