Beam Global Gets New Federal Customers--Plural

Investment Analysis Clubs Saul’s Investing Discussions
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From their press release this morning:

The new federal customers, most of which are receiving numerous sustainable EV ARC™ charging systems powered 100% by renewable energy, are:

  • Defense Media Activity (DMA)
  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
  • National Park Service (NPS)
  • Small Business Administration (SBA)
  • United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR, federal contractor)

“Rapid deployment, energy resiliency, energy security and disaster preparedness are becoming key decision factors in the EV charging infrastructure build out, for federal, state and local government entities. The continued expansion of EV ARC deployments demonstrates the increasing need for rapidly deployed, energy resilient and highly scalable solutions,” said Desmond Wheatley, CEO of Beam Global. “Disaster preparedness and energy resiliency are fast becoming national security level imperatives. We agree with the goal to have 25% of EV charging infrastructure be off-grid, locally generated, locally stored and locally delivered, powered by 100% renewable energy. We expect to continue to deepen and expand our government business in the U.S. and globally.”

Here’s the full release.

JabbokRiver
Long Beam (BEEM) 6.89%

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If I look at this as a razor and blades business…I don’t see any blades here. It would seem they can expand a bit, but once the chargers are on site…that looks to be the end of revenue?

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They are having a call for all interested investors on Thursday after the close. They invited anyone to submit questions, so I just submitted one on either current or future opportunities for recurring revenue.

However, even if it is razor and blades with no blades, there are only a few people in the world who currently own the razors and the need is huge. The new acquisition of Beam Europe is also putting them in the solar streetlight business (including the ability to charge your car while under one) and telecom infrastructure.

A huge reason (in my mind at least) that the “EV’s are eating the world” promise hit a huge speed bump across the last quarter is that the charging infrastructure is not there–especially not in the US. Price, too, is a problem, but the infrastructure is a more difficult problem, imo.

Europe, also has net zero mandates that everyone from governments to companies are scrambling to meet, so it seems to me that there can be a multi-year S-curve just on the razors before a re-examination on recurring blades. The CEO, Desmond Wheatley, has said that their biggest opportunities have opened up as a result of the acquisition of Beam Europe, which just happened last October.

I’ll be on the call Thursday and hope they’ll address the question you raised!

As others have said–VERY small company, so tread wisely, but they’ve been putting out promising releases very frequently over the last few months.

JabbokRiver

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The power produced by these free standing units is enough for one car, if it stays there all day. Something is better than nothing, but their business model seems to be to appeal to amenity buyers, not functional buyers.

A functional buyer would put a high power density, grid connected service into their unit.

An amenity buyer will seek form over function. The extremely low power density may be what slows down expansion of these units among buyers who would contract for additional unit purchases, charging station expansion, etc.

But what about grid connection?

Sure. As soon as these units are grid connected, they immediately compete with fixed charging infrastructure, which is considerably cheaper to install at a site which has power connect already figured out.

But it takes longer to install a fixed charger unit.

This is true. Since these units are portable, their benefits are to move them around… unless they are connected.

The time to connect them to the grid (and the permitting and hoopla around connecting to the local utility) is the same as a fixed unit charger.

So, we are back to mobility and amenity buyers. I see they are targeting local municipalities. I don’t see this as a huge win unless they are going after grant capture.

I love the idea of this product (and therefore the company purveying it), however, I cannot see a useful ROI for a private or fleet buyer unless they are getting intangible benefits not related to the power delivered to a car.

Maybe that is investable. Maybe not.

BEAM-EV-ARC-2020-Info-Sheet-v1.1.pdf (beamforall.com)

Does anybody have the unit cost for these devices? I see $65,000 quoted online. It would add more substance if we had accurate costs to deploy.

Fixed chargers installed by a local integrator are less than $5,000 per unit for fixed installation. This includes solar panels and grid connect.

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Striking visual appeal, but the currently advertised price for a unit is $65K and the unit has the 24 hour solar capacity to power a Tesla only 50 miles. Are there other numbers that may support a presence of either a commercial or residential market?

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$65k is probably a good assumption for a unit with a single charger and 22 kWh of battery storage. Upgrade to 43 kWh storage is $10k.

The mobility trailer for rapid relocation costs around $40k. A cheaper alternative is a “stow kit” for $3-4k.

(Sources: https://www.gsaadvantage.gov/ref_text/47QSWA21D0006/47QSWA21D0006_47QSWA21D0006_Mod_27.pdf and https://www.dgs.ca.gov/PD/Resources/Find-EPP-Goods-and-Services/Transportation/Electric-Vehicle-Charging-Stations)

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