Sonepar and ChargePoint Join Forces to Deploy Charging Stations Services in France

Paris, France, February 10th, 2022 – Sonepar, the worldwide leader in the distribution of electrical products, solutions and related services for electricians, installers, and end users, and ChargePoint Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CHPT), a leading Electric Vehicle (EV) charging network operating in Europe and North America, have announced a strategic partnership in France. This will concern the deployment of over 1,400 charging stations in Sonepar’s France network, which covers over 500 branches and six distribution centres and HQs by mid-2022.

As of 31st December 2021, there are 53,667 places to charge open to the public in France. Through this partnership and the addition of 1,400 places to charge, Sonepar and ChargePoint will significantly increase public access across the country. Thanks to this partnership, ChargePoint has become the exclusive EV Charging software partner for all charging hardware installed in the Sonepar network in France.

Based on this partnership, Sonepar will now be in a position to offer to all its French customers a complete EV charging solution and will reinforce its position on a growing market, which is estimated to be worth €1BN in 2025 with 50 percent installed in private companies.

In addition, this partnership will contribute to the electrification efforts of Sonepar’s own corporate fleet. It has already committed to a sustainable target of having a 25% battery EV and 75% plug-in hybrid EV by 2023, with a move to 50-50 by 2025.

This will reduce Sonepar’s greenhouse emissions scope 1&2 in France by 50% by 2025. It is also a clear indication to its partners and customers that vehicle electrification is the future of transportation and that connected networks will become the new standard – up to 50% of companies’ EV chargers (those sold for commercial use) will be connected with the cloud in 2025 providing users ChargePoint’s leading service.

Jérôme Malassigne, President Sonepar France and Sonepar International Services, said: “By giving access to over 1,400 EV charging stations, Sonepar proposes an innovative service to its 100,000 customers as well as its 5,000 associates. Sonepar’s French network represents a major opportunity to make a significant contribution to achieving France’s national in terms of electric charging station capacity. This sustainable service available 24/7 will significantly reduce carbon emissions.” Jérôme Malassigne added, “We thank the Group for making this partnership with Chargepoint, one of the innovation leaders in this domain, available to the Sonepar France network.”

ChargePoint’s CEO, Pasquale Romano, stated “We have an established partnership agreement with the Sonepar Group globally and we are thrilled to extend EV charging in France with our partner Sonepar. This partnership indicates the commitment between ChargePoint and Sonepar to drive the future of transportation and to progress the electrification efforts of thousands of businesses throughout France.”

ChargePoint’s leading open software solution will be used to operate all the charging stations sold by Sonepar in France, offering customers a choice of familiar hardware brands with a host of software enabled features to make charging an easy and streamlined process. This includes streamlined billing set-up, access control, centralized reporting, and real-time data on energy used and greenhouse gasses saved.

Through the ChargePoint App, as well as data on their own energy consumption, costs and greenhouse gas savings, drivers and businesses have direct access to around 95 percent of the public charging ports in France and hundreds of thousands of other ports across Europe. 

About Sonepar

Sonepar is an independent family-owned company with global market leadership in B-to-B distribution of electrical products, solutions, and related services. Through a dense network of 100 brands spanning 40 countries, the Group has an ambitious transformation agenda to become the first global B-to-B electrical distributor to provide a fully digitalized and synchronized omnichannel experience to all customers. Drawing on the skill and passion of its 45,000 associates, Sonepar had sales of €23 billion in 2020. Sonepar makes its customers’ lives easier, over the counter, visiting customers, by phone or online. About Sonepar France Sonepar in France, a subsidiary of the Sonepar Group, is one of the French leaders in the distribution of electrical solutions for electricians, installers, and end users. General Public, which draws on the skills of 5,600 associates and the density of more than 500 branches in metropolitan France and overseas territories, Sonepar had a turnover of 2.2 billion euros in 2020. Its ambition is to become "La Référence" of the market, based on the expertise, commitment, and commercial performance of its teams.

About ChargePoint

ChargePoint is creating a new fuelling network to move people and goods on electricity. Since 2007, ChargePoint has been committed to making it easy for businesses and drivers to go electric with one of the largest EV charging networks and a comprehensive portfolio of charging solutions available today. ChargePoint’s cloud subscription platform and software-defined charging hardware are designed to include options for every charging scenario from home and multifamily to workplace, parking, hospitality, retail, and transport fleets of all types. Today, one ChargePoint account provides access to hundreds-of-thousands of places to charge in North America and Europe. To date, more than 105 million charging sessions have been delivered, with drivers plugging into the ChargePoint network every two seconds or less. For more information, visit the ChargePoint pressroom, the ChargePoint Investor Relations site, or contact ChargePoint’s European press offices or Investor Relations.