The EV charging industry is entering a market-rate moment. Incentives are fading in many markets, growth has slowed from the early-2020s surge, and operators are under real pressure to prove their business models. In this start-of-year episode of In-Between Charges, Kevin Spangenberg and Mike Hawks reflect on what 2025 revealed about the state of EV charging, from shifting government targets and cooling investor sentiment to the growing importance of site quality, reliability, and utilization.

They unpack what the much-talked-about “shift to profitability” actually means in practice, where operators are getting it right, and why some networks are starting to pull ahead while others struggle. The conversation also turns practical: Mike and Kevin put on their investor hats and answer a simple but important question: if you had $10m to invest in EV charging today, where would you put it? A candid discussion about what really matters as the EV industry turns the page on a rocky year and looks forward to 2026.

Some DC fast charging sites print money. Others quietly ruin portfolio-wide ROI. In this episode of In-Between Charges, Kevin and Mike sit down with Rohan Puri, CEO & Co-Founder of Stable Auto, to unpack why. Stable Auto works with many of the largest American CPOs and investors to predict utilization, pick winning locations, and set smarter prices for DC fast charging networks. Rohan shares how he went from building robotic charging arms for autonomous fleets to running a software company that underwrites the profitability of EV charging assets.

Together, they dig into what actually drives DCFC performance: traffic patterns, EV penetration, trip distances, amenities, competition, hardware choices, and even how many ports is the right amount for a site. They talk about why “put it near a highway and a gas station” is often wrong, why co-locating with competitors can increase your utilization, how to think in IRR and margin instead of just kWh per port per day, and where dynamic pricing and energy arbitrage could unlock new revenue streams. If you’re a CPO, retailer, investor, or just trying to understand why some sites thrive while others bleed cash, this episode goes straight to the core of DC fast charging economics.

Getting from A to B in an EV isn’t as simple as swapping gas for kWh. It is a fundamentally different experience. The companies - CPOs and eMSPs - that serve EV drivers have to navigate a challenging maze to profitability.

Gideon van Dijk from chargetrip joins Mike and Kevin to unpack what CPOs must own - digital, physical, and everything in between - to put themselves in a position to succeed in a world of electrified transport.