Fastned B.V. (FAST.AS) Q3 FY2025 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to today's Fastned Q3 2025 Trading Update Conference Call. My name is Serge, and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. [Operator Instructions] And now, I'd like to hand the call over to Michiel Langezaal, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to everyone on this call as well as to those joining via webcast. You can find a copy of the presentation used during this call on our Investor Relations website found at ir.fastnedcharging.com. Moving to Slide 1, the Title Page. Hopefully, everyone has that in front of them now. As always, I'd like to use the cover to show something I'm really proud of. This quarter, it is the opening of our 2 stations at Gentbrugge, on the route from Amsterdam to Paris roughly in the middle, two large charging stations with 16 chargers for cars each and a separate charging area for trucks. On top of this, you will find there a fully branded large Fastned restaurant. The road next to it has some 50,000 cars passing by each day on either side to ensure great station economics. Already today, after just being open for a few weeks, we see more than 100 sessions and even more shop visitors per day and only growing from there on. But there's more to this flagship location. It is the first zero emissions service area that was standard out and built in Europe. An important development to ensure ample space is made available for charging along the motorway. This instead of just adding a charger or two to an existing petrol station, which unfortunately is still happening way too often. Logically, I'm very proud that Fastned was able to win this important first tender and was among the parties that helped shaping it. This not only gives us a several decade-long investment horizon on the strategic location, it also gives us tools to work with governments across Europe to accelerate the build-out of our network, and there's more to come. Moving to Slide 2. With reference to the information provided in these slides and discussed during this call, please take note of the disclaimer. Moving to Slide 3. My name is Michiel Langezaal. I'm the CEO and one of the founders of Fastned. Normally, Victor Van Dijk, our CFO, is with me on this call presenting this webcast together. Unfortunately, Victor is on a temporary leave of absence and is unable to join us today. So it will be just me presenting this. For the Q&A, I'm accompanied by our Head of Investor Relations, Patricia Allam, who many of you already know. So warm welcome to Patricia. Today, I will take you through the highlights for Fastned during the third quarter of 2025, and I can tell you there is a lot to talk about. Logically, we will discuss the latest top line results, an update on network growth and electric vehicle sales is also on the agenda, and as always, we will discuss station performance for the quarter. After the presentation, we will be happy to answer your questions. If possible, please limit them to 2 questions per analyst so we can give everybody the opportunity. We've scheduled this call to last for 1 hour. So let's get started. The following slide presents the highlights of the third quarter of 2025. Starting with growth, we are continuing to deliver strong profitable growth, growth that tracks the rise in electric vehicle adoption and revenues of EUR 31.5 million set a new quarterly high for Fastned, up 44% year-on-year, and this is no small feat, especially in a market that showed a temporary shift in the balance of supply and demand to the supply side over the last 2 years. Moreover, and something we discussed in our calls previously, a market with some new entrants, significantly discounting prices in attempts to boost station utilization, yet Fastned continues to win. Energy delivered was up 32% year-on-year to 46.8 gigawatt hour, which compares to an increase in EV stock of 30%. So we roughly grow with our fair share of kilowatt hours sold, but revenue related to charging grew by 44% year-on-year, significantly outgrowing the market. This is an important and unique differentiator. We have great pricing, fair but with a decent margin. We have good sales volumes that grow fast like the EV market. So we have both. We're not just putting down chargers. We're building a sustainable, profitable charging business. Our gross profit growth, up 40%, clearly demonstrates the fast growth of solar power. With solar prices dropping, sometimes even negatively during midday hours on sunny summer days. Most people use their cars during daytime when the sun is out, and fast charging, when needed, is happening in that same period of time. So the takeoff profile of our fast-charging stations quite nicely follows the sun's radiation curve. This feed allows Fastned to benefit from fast-growing solar generation capacity and low or even negatively negative energy prices. Our network at the end of the quarter encompassed a total of 380 stations, and we are extremely proud of our construction achievements. But we're not resting on our laurels. We're acutely aware of the ambitious goals we've set, reaching 1,000 stations by 2030 means ramping up our build pace to 100 and eventually 150 stations per year. On top of this challenge comes the fact that we are constructing much larger, more complex stations, which demands more from our teams and our contractors. The average station size has grown from 4 charge positions on average to more than 6 nowadays, representing a 50% growth in capacity deployed. We're also accelerating the rollout of retail facilities, offering coffee, sandwiches and toilets at our sites. While these don't add to our station count, they are vital to our customer experience. But at the same time, they ask a lot extra from our construction teams. Just think about the build of the 2 shops we've seen on the title page. Those 2 shops alone are to work for several people for full year. So yes, we are proud of our progress and our results this quarter, but we also recognize the road ahead. As we start 2026, we'll have less than 600 stations to go to reach our 1,000 station targets by 2030. That requires a sustained build pace of 100 to 150 stations per year. Our teams are focused on this. In this fourth quarter, we will be delivering at an annualized build pace of above 100 stations. Our aim is to maintain and grow this momentum quarter after quarter. I'll share more details on this later on. Turning to site acquisition. End of the quarter, we had a total of 624 locations in our portfolio, of which 380 are operational today and 244 under development. With our acquisition pace now consistently above 100 locations per year, we are firmly on track to meet our 2030 goal. A particularly point of pride this quarter, the opening of our very first 2 stations in Spain. Fastned is now active in 9 countries with each in-country team having people for the scouting and developing of locations, people to design our stations, people to manage construction and people to maintain our stations. This setup is to ready the company for the next scale phase in our development, further accelerating our build pace and allow our kilowatt hour delivered to scale with the massive BEV growth ahead of us. Having scaled our organization from a leading Dutch charging network to a leading European charging company while continuing to deliver the same reliable charging service is one of those experiences that gives our team confidence, the confidence to deliver on our ambitions ahead, such as scaling our build base. Moving towards cash. At the end of Q3, our cash position was standing at EUR 87 million. Fastned is currently issuing its third bond round for 2025, which will close at the end of this month. Concluding, we're pushing hard to deliver on the ambitious targets we've set, and we're seeing very positive momentum and continued growth. The stations we've built are delivering strong results, even in a market with slightly fewer cars than previously expected at this point in time. In this context, the gap between Fastned and the competition is widening. Yes, some other companies are deploying charges quickly, like we do, or sometimes even faster for periods, but none of them have stations and a concept generating revenues anywhere near ours. Several are discounting prices in an attempt to attract traffic to less desirable locations, which negatively impacts their revenue. Moreover, after a wave of big oil companies entering the charging markets, we're now seeing divestments and a slowdown in investment from that sector. Our status as a pure player charging company with a profitable station concept is placing us in a strong and unique position in that market. We're continuing to build our network and our competencies to thrive and lead discharging markets. We're doing the hard work, the work that is needed to build charging stations on great locations to deliver a great charging experience and deliver on all these other items that make up a great charging concept. We're taking down bottlenecks. It is the hard work that leaves behind a very serious barrier to entry for others. That is part of the value we create. We remain ambitious on network growth, but we will not compromise on investment discipline. This combination is what makes Fastned unique. On that note, let's move on to the next slide to talk about BEV sales. On the left, you can see that Q3 was another great quarter for EV sales with year-on-year growth in practically all markets. The sales share in Belgium grew slightly from an already very high basis. The sales share in the Netherlands was stable at roughly 1/3 of all cars sold being electric. The much larger markets, Germany, the U.K. and France made significantly larger strides, moving towards or even beyond 20% of new cars sold being electric. The absolute registrations, you can find at the bottom of the slide, show the impact of market size with a country like Germany registering more than 300,000 new electric cars year-to-date. Also, when adding these up, it shows that the total number of EVs in Europe is growing strong. In terms of outlook, we expect to see even more. In H1 of this year, around 850,000 EVs were added to Europe's fleet. Schmidt Automotive forecasts 1.2 million more arriving in H2. So the fourth quarter of this year will be ramped up even more. How does this fit the bigger picture? Well, earlier this year, Brussels gave OEMs some extra wiggle room on the fleet average CO2 targets. Instead of having to comply with the 95 grams fleet average per kilometer in each year over the period from 2025 onwards, they are now allowed to average for a period of 3 years. This gives them some flexibility to delay the scaling of their EV sales by some months, but make no mistake, those electric cars still need to be sold in order to deliver the same 95-gram average, and this is why more growth is expected in the months to come. Looking further ahead to 2030, there will be a significant step down in the target emissions with a maximum of 49 grams CO2-fleet average. To achieve this milestone, roughly half of all cars sold will need to be electric. So there's a lot more to be done. Which brings me to the 2035 roadmap and discussion with the European Commission and OEMs on this topic. Moving to the next slide. The President of ChargeUp Europe have had the privilege of sitting at the table in some of the highest-level discussions shaping the transformation of one of Europe's largest industries. Our automotive sector, a sector worth hundreds of billions and with roughly 7% of GDP, representing a significant share of our continent's economy. The fact that we, as Fastned, are at this table and not other players in our industry is a testament to our commitment to shaping the future of mobility, and to Fastned's position, as a true industry leader. The photo you see on the right of the slide is what they call the family picture and was taken during my recent visit to the European Commission's Automotive Dialogue Session. But this is just one of the many moments where Fastned leadership has met with high-level officials, which happens in the member states and in Brussels, each time driving the change our industry needs to deliver on its mission. So when we talk about industry leadership, this is what it looks like. Now let's return to the topic of 2035 and share our perspective on the ongoing conversations in Brussels, in Germany and how the media is covering these developments, along with what is expected to move forward. To put it simply, we recognize that the European automotive industry is uneasy about the growth path ahead. Achieving 1,000 Fastned charging stations by 2030 is an ambitious goal for us. Reaching electric vehicle sales, representing roughly half of the total is an equally bold target for the car industry. Without a growth mindset and the right organizational culture, it is a daunting challenge. When we look at these interactions, they can largely be summarized like this. The European Commission is asking the industry for ideas on how to accelerate progress and increase certainty on delivering on the targets set because, as they say, the future is electric, no matter what. Meanwhile, the industry is often asking for concessions and a slower pace, seeking comfort and maneuvering space. So far, we've generally seen the European Commission insisting the 2035 goals will not change. While carmakers request that those goals will be watered down. Given the political situation, it is prudent for the commission to show some flexibility, but the goals remain unchanged. We see an example of this in Germany where Chancellor Mertz has declared that the future is electric and intense to open the tab of incentives to boost EV demand, while also negotiating for wiggle room with the commission. So the future is electric. That is the stance of the car industry, that is the stance of the commission and the stance of the member states. So we expect to see more incentive packages coming in order to scale BEV demand and deliver on the targets set. And yes, we most likely will see some small wiggle room provided to industry to deliver comfort. That is the summary. With our team and ChargeUp Europe, we do much more on shaping our industry. Through European channels, we work on the progression of AFIR, the alternative fuels infrastructure regulation, or simply put, the law that sets the direction for the development of Europe's charging infrastructure. Through this channel, we work on ensuring market access and competition. This is incredibly important for Fastned as without access to great sites, we cannot build charging infrastructure. And a great example during the third quarter was the visits of Commissioner Ursula, just ahead of the opening of Gentbrugge, the first zero-emission service area in the European Union. This is the station I proudly showed you on the Title Page. Commissioner Ursula is responsible for the climate policy of the European Union and ensuring that Europe reaches its climate commitments. Thus, it was a significant opportunity for Fastned to convey the importance of what we do more. And for policy, changes are needed to allow us to compete more freely across Europe and accelerate e-mobility transformation. We informed Ursula about the importance of AFIR competition and gave examples of issues we face in some markets, such as bundled tenders, short-term concession contracts and nontransparent administrative processes. By walking around our Gentbrugge station, we were able to show him what can be achieved when market rules are applied correctly, and the best player wins. Moving to Slide 7. And I think our Gentbrugge station really shows what the best means, but it's worth looking at the time line of development of a great location like this, which can stretch's to several years. It all starts with initial discussions with policymakers, in which we bring our experience and best practices formed over more than a decade in all our markets. This means we can bring innovative new ideas and best practices for tender processes and location design, which is exactly what we did here. This was a bare patch of concrete with no mandates beyond installing some chargers, and we turned it into this. Our concepts are the best in the market and give us a chance, a great chance to win key tenders like this one, the first tender for a zero-emissions service area in Belgium, in Europe with a concession for 25 years. And why is this zero-emissions element so important? Well, we see that governments across Europe are obliged to update their policies for motorway locations and get ready for an electric future where fossil fuels are a thing of the past. This shift means there is overcapacity of petrol stations and an urgent need for more charging infrastructure, especially on highways. Zero-emission service areas, like Gentbrugge, are important because they demonstrate the value of developing additional new electric-only service areas that deliver crucial charging capacity to the markets and decouple such developments from locations where contracts with sitting petrol station owners can delay deployments. Any roadmap to decarbonization must include a step-by-step phaseout of petrol stations, which can well be triggered by the regular concession renewals for motorway locations. Gentbrugge is a showcase on how to progress with such roadmaps and should give policymakers guidance on developing their motorway service area policies in relation to this phaseout, but this takes time as the time line shows. If you're not in a market for such locations now, and you're not in touch with policymakers now, you will not be able to build something sizable in the period up until 2030. And speaking of Gentbrugge, with restaurants, and toilets, and playgrounds and fresh coffee. Does this mean we're coming baristas? No, we're not. We are working with a range of partners and developing different commercial setups to cater to different situations. So sometimes, we invest in the restaurants and work together on a revenue-sharing basis, whereby our partner operates and Fastned provides the concept. In other cases, we choose to rent out the building and have a more hands-off approach. This approach gives us a pile of options, allowing us to be flexible in how we introduce our amenities to our great charging stations without falling into the trap of thinking we would also be great baristas ourselves. And this wasn't the only big opening for Fastned during Q3. Moving to the next slide. In September, our first 2 stations in Spain opened to electric drivers. With the official inauguration taking place just last week, this is our ninth national market and a crucial time for Spain. The market share for EVs is growing fast and reached 9.4% in June this year. So I'm extremely proud to see our iconic stations opening on a fantastic motorway location, just down the road from Barcelona, but it is only a success for Fastned -- but it is not only a success for Fastned. Spain's car industry is Europe's second largest. It is a crucial contributor to the country's economy and it brings with it many jobs. This means that embracing the transition to electric cars, the next evolution of technology is vital for Spain. And we're delighted to be bringing our expertise to the country. What is key to rolling out charging infrastructure at speed are simple, efficient tenders, long-term concessions and the removal of bottlenecks related to grid connections and permitting. The latter is the bureaucracy that can add several years to a project's time line in Spain. The official inauguration was intended -- was attended by dozens of guests, including many distinguished politicians and high-placed officials. Most notably, the Spanish Minister of Industry, whose speech aligns with our views on what needs to change to roll out charging infrastructure faster in Spain. So the opening of these 2 stations and having the right people at this opening is a great step forward for Fastned. And continuing with our market updates, moving to Slide 9 to talk about Germany. In Q3, we also delivered our first charging station built under the contract with Autobahn Gentbrugge, our very first charging station on the Autobahn. And yes, this station isn't as beautiful as you would expect from us. It's a lot more plain and basic. This wasn't our decision. The design was decided by the tendering authorities beforehand, based on German highway regulations. That said, I'm incredibly proud of us for making this happen. The German motorways were, until recently, completely exempt from any competition, be it for fuel, for charging or for food. All of this was in the hands of Tank & Rast, which has also held back investments in charging infrastructure. With the tender to realize charging stations and motorway service areas, this will now change and Fastned is happy to be part of that. This charging station has 6 charging positions, a great addition to the charging options EV drivers have on German motorways. I am very proud of this result, especially given the complexity of these works in Germany. The cultural barriers to break are significant. Just like how the car industry in Germany is struggling to adopt a growth mindset, one can imagine how difficult it is for a transport authority to do so and for Fastned to gain pace. So lots of things to learn and improve for all actors. In the coming months and year, we are gearing up the deliveries of roughly 30 such motorway locations in Germany. And that brings me to a summary. Next slide, please. Before we move on, I wanted to show how Fastned is becoming a pan-European charging network. This delivers on the accelerated plan we embarked on in 2021, to see us hit the milestone of entering the ninth country in Q3 validates our decisions to put teams in place in each of these countries. The decision to invest in scaling our organization and invest in the acceleration of our rollout base. Scaling our company and organization while continuing to deliver that incredible quality of our charging service we are known for across 9 countries, has been a serious milestone and experience for the team and its leadership. It is in this context that we look with confidence at the challenge of further scaling our build base. It is amazing to think you can drive across these 9 countries using only Fastned's renewable energy to charge. And that's what we're seeing more and more during the summer period. Our network now spans many holiday routes that can cater for it. And with long-range and very fast-recharging cars on the market, the EV family road trip is becoming a reality for many. Logically, we're very happy to see drivers preferring our charging stations to take their brakes and charge their cars. We've seen this holiday -- the seasonal holiday traffic playing a role in our great results for the quarter, so I thought that would be valuable to say a little more about this, including talking about other seasonality effects. Moving to Slide 11. With the fourth quarter coming up, it is an interesting moment to talk about this. When you look at the graphs on the slide here, there are roughly 4 important factors influencing monthly sales of our business on top of the holiday traffic we just talked about. The first is the growth of our markets, with such stellar growth of the number of EVs on the road, the customer base in January is just very different to that of December. For 2025, the impact is significant. We started the year with some 6 million BEVs on European roads, adding 850,000 BEVs to this in the first 6 months, growing the fleet by 14%, and the expectation is that the fleet will grow by another 1.2 million in the second half of this year. This means that December will have some 30-plus percent more EVs to sell kilowatt hours to than in January. Two, in summer, many people take their cars on holiday trips, leading to a lot of charging sessions to power their journeys, the typical Black Saturdays with waiting lines in front of petrol stations are a great moment for our business too. We analyzed the impact of this and estimated to be in the high single-digit percentage of revenue. Three, cars and especially EVs needs more energy to drive around in winter than in summer. Air density is higher when air is colder, and thus, it takes more effort to push a brick through the air. So cars need more energy to drive around. On top of this, people like to have the cabin needed and batteries also like room temperature, both adding energy consumption. In total, this adds up to easily more than 25% when colder. Last but not least, when it rains, people more often choose their cars instead of cycling or walking to the train station. It is these effects that accumulate sales growth towards year-end. And that you can see on the graphs here for the years before. So we are readying ourselves for another record quarter, whereby, as always, September is a slight slowdown after summer. And as soon as business starts moving and temperatures gets colder, growth hits our network. But there is more to mention on growth of our network. Moving on to Slide 12 to talk about London. We've said it before and it's worth repeating, if there was one tender to win in recent years, it was that to create London's charging network in a joint venture with Places for London. Securing this project was a major achievement and one we're incredibly proud of. Now just a year after winning the tender with Places for London, we are very excited to share the very first construction pictures with you. Our inaugural site is at Hatton Cross, right next to Heathrow Airport, a prime location with some 80,000 cars passing by every single day. This station will feature 12 charging points, double the amount of our #1 station in the U.K., which is Ramac Way, and which, by coincidence, is also in the city of London. This station operates at very high utilization rates and sells EUR 1 million plus in kilowatt hours annually. So you can imagine, we have high expectations for Hatton Cross. If all goes according to plan, we'll be opening the sites before the end of the year. Getting from tender win to contract, through permitting and all the way to the start of construction in such a short time frame is a massive accomplishment by our team. Also, it is a testament to what is possible when governments implement best practices for tenders and create the right conditions to accelerate the rollout of critical infrastructure. On that note, I wanted to give you an update of our pace of construction. Moving to Slide 13. Already earlier, I mentioned that construction pace is our current challenge. So where do we stand in tackling this? Well, let's start with our goal for the year. We began the year with 346 stations in our network. In the first 9 months, we built a total of 34 new stations. Right now, we have 30 stations in defenses with active construction underway as we speak. We expect the far majority of these sites to be completed before year-end. Additionally, we anticipate opening even more construction sites this quarter, although most of these will likely be commissioned next year. Altogether, I think this should give you a good ballpark of where our network will stand by the end of the year. Now let's talk about construction pace. In the first 9 months, we built 34 new stations and expanded another 13. These expansion projects require nearly as much effort from our teams as building entirely new sites from permitting to the on-the-ground work. On top of that, we delivered two large restaurants, a major achievement for our project delivery teams, and realized several unmanned shops and built 3 truck charging facilities at existing stations. All in all, this means we completed a total of roughly 54 construction projects in the first 9 months, including some very sizable new developments. This figure demonstrates how we are ramping up our construction capabilities. Just to compare, over the full year 2024, we delivered a total of 58 construction projects. At the current rate, we're on track for an annualized build pace of 72 construction projects, that is an increase of 24% compared to last year. So we are ramping up. And if you look at the number of sites currently in the fences, with contractors on the ground, that pace is above 100 sites per year. So things are moving in the right direction, and we're moving forward with determination. To construct stations, we need locations, great locations to build. So let's look at how the site acquisition is delivering. Moving to Slide 14. So let's start with the facts. In the last quarter, we ended -- we added 20 sites to our pipeline, bringing the total for this year to 60 sites signed. By the end of the quarter, our portfolio had grown to 624 locations, 380 of which are operational and with another 244 under development. I mentioned these numbers earlier in the highlights section. So how are we tracking towards our goal of 1,000 stations? With 624 locations already secured, we have fewer than 400 to go to reach that milestone. On this slide, you can see our acquisition pace for last year and over the last 12 months, both consistently above 100 sites per year. With the ongoing onboarding of the already planned for growth of our development teams, we expect this to increase even further. So we are firmly on track to meet our 2030 goal. To give you a bit more context on these numbers, there has been a notable shift from public to private sites in our pipeline. Unlike last year, when the German highway tender added a large batch of sites all at once, this year's growth is close to completely driven by the ramp-up in deal volume of single sites. It's also important to note that our tender win last year with Places for London, covering 25 large charging stations in the city is not yet included in this overview. That's because the contracting for the individual locations is still underway. However, most of these sites have already been identified and their development is far more certain than a typical prospect, thanks to our signed joint venture agreement. And there's more of this, as the same more or less goes for our German regional tender wave. That gives us access to 92 search areas in Germany where Fastned has been appointed as the concessionaire to realize charging infrastructure in the region. For us, the key aspects of securing new locations remain unchanged. We focus on high-traffic sites, long lease tenors and the ability to build according to Fastned's quality and concept standards. This is what ensures a strong business case and our industry-leading customer satisfaction. In conclusion, we don't trade off quality for quantity. We'll continue to invest with discipline. This is where doing the hard thing really matters. We approach it with a growth mindset, always looking for ways to increase our pace while maintaining both quality and quantity. We're not cutting corners. Moving to Slide 15, to start talking about station performance. This graph highlights the results of our unwavering commitment to building only high-quality stations in prime locations. It's about getting every detail right, what we often refer to as delivering the best charging concept in the market. Over the last -- over the past 3 years, we've nearly tripled the number of charging sessions per station, all while maintaining a significant lead over the market average. Throughout this period, there have been frequent predictions that the competition would quickly catch up, yet, as the market enters its next phase of acceleration, our absolute leads remains just as strong as ever. In fact, with time, now being much more precious than before, our relative advantage over the competition is actually widening. This higher level of sales per location translates directly into outperformance on a unit economic basis, which brings me to our usual update on station performance. Moving to Slide 17. As said, our stations continue to outperform the market. We grew energy sold per average station by 13% since last year. So that is the combination of organic growth of selling more at existing stations plus the sales at new stations. About organic sales growth, the sales growth at existing stations, this came in at 21% for the quarter and tracks nicely with fleet growth, which was 22% for the quarter. The gross profit per kilowatt hour was at the same level as last quarter at EUR 0.54. Operational EBITDA for the average station is at 38%, which puts it also in the guidance bracket given earlier this year. These results are really unique for our sector. They are a testament to our high-traffic locations, our best concept and customer experience. It is this proven concept and business case that gives confidence in continuing to expand our network and build the capacity to cater for the massive growth in BEVs in the coming years. And that brings us to the final slide of the presentation to talk about guidance. Throughout today's presentation, Slide 18, we've explored the context and details behind each of the guidance items you see on this slide, so I won't go into each one of them again. Instead, I want to leave you with a final thought about culture. When faced with big audacious goals, there are 3 ways to respond. The first is to feel uncomfortable. And as we've seen with the German car industry and how they try to deal with the goals now. The second approach is to cut corners, hitting the numbers, perhaps, but losing sight of the basic business case and business sense. We've seen some in our markets take this path. The third way is the hard way to stay strong, to embrace a growth mindset and to constantly ask what more can be done to achieve the goal or to increase certainty in attaining it. This is about engaging teams and working together to remove bottlenecks. It is only the third path that creates real and long-term value. And this is the path Fastned has chosen and continues to choose. It is this culture that explains why the gap between us and the competition keeps widening. And on that note, I'd like to conclude by saying, it's been a great third quarter and an even better fourth quarter is ahead of us. Thank you all for listening. And on that note, I also hand the word back to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question is from Thymen Rundberg from ING.

Two very brief ones from my side. The first one is on the charging volumes. So charging volumes per station, I think you just alluded to it, they grew 13% year-over-year in Q3, is an improvement over Q2, but it's still well below the 22% growth in BEV penetration. So I think it's interesting to compare those two. So what are the key drivers behind this gap? And could you maybe share how year-over-year volume growth looks like, specifically for more mature stations? And then the second one is on pricing. So revenue per kilowatt hour remained stable versus previous quarters. Gross profit increased per kilowatt hour. So basically my question is, should we expect any changes to pricing levels going into the fourth quarter or even beyond?

I wouldn't comment on any price changes, let's say, going forward, but yes, nothing I can basically give you there at this moment. I think maybe what we can say, I think, is that we're happy with this level of gross margin. So I think that gives you some content and some color on the topic. I think on volumes, I think -- yes, I think what I said is in that sense, if we go to the slide on the station performance is the organic growth, so the sales of existing stations, that grows basically in line with EV sales. So roughly at 22%, 21%, and I think that's something we're very happy with. If you look at the growth of all stations, so including the new stations, there is, of course, ramp up in there. So new stations simply need to be found and that ramp-up period in the first couple of weeks has a significant effect. If you look at that on a total year because they are new. And that basically means that, that 13% is lower.

It's also the fact that we are obviously expanding in countries with lower BEV penetration. So we're just for the -- what you would call mature stations. We're in countries where the BEV penetration is simply higher. So this is something that is going to be an effect in the coming years, but eventually, it's going to even out when the BEV penetration catches up.

Yes, true.

We will now move to our next question from Luuk Van Beek from Degroof Petercam.

So I have 2 questions. So first of all, about the efforts you put into new construction. You've done quite some things in the past year, including some very large sites. So can you comment on how that's helping you to become more efficient in building new sites? And also I was wondering with the shops that you've developed, is that now a blueprint that you can more or less apply with changes on new sites? Or is it something that's still figuring out what's the best approach and that you ramp that being from spread for every new site?

I think this is a very good question, Luuk. I think -- in the end, what I wanted to show and tried to show a bit is that -- and it's, of course, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, but we looked at a bit basically at these construction projects. And I think if you look at it, what I wanted to explain is there is capacity in team to do permitting and to manage these construction projects. And in that sense, building a shop also requires a permit, the whole permit process. It also requires our people on the ground to manage that project. So that is, I think, one thing. And I think there, what we see, we see is that compared to last year, we're ramping up that capability. So we're roughly 25% above the capability of last year. We're using it a bit more to build shops. So that doesn't help in that sense to deliver on the station pace, that's one thing. Two, is I think -- and that is a nice detail that you're adding here, I think, is that, over the last 1.5 years, 2 years, we've been building a platform, so a standardized shop we can build, we know what we're building, a standardized kiosk system, a standardized concept for trucks. And that, of course, will accelerate the deployment in the years to come. And I think that is an effect that we haven't seen yet, but we will see in coming year.

And maybe to add to that, Luuk, also, I would say the same goes here. We just opened up in Spain as a new country. Of course, building in a new country always comes with unforeseen new circumstances. But I think now that we've opened in all countries, we're also improving and getting faster in each country where we're operational.

Yes. Does that give you the color that you were looking for?

Yes, that is helpful. And I have one other question about the Spark Alliance. I know that you're still building out the cooperation. But can you give some comments on the first experience you had this summer? And how do the follow-up steps will go in the coming quarters?

We've seen the first integrations happening with the basically technical cooperation working between Atlante and Elektra, some rudimentary sort of integration between the other parties. And we see that people are using it. People also give us nice feedback on the fact that they can see a bigger trusted network in the apps. But yes, it's also to be said, it's not that you deliver this us within a couple of months. So we have a -- we have an aim to really deliver, yes, year-end early next year, the full integration to make that technically available for all -- across all networks. And logically, we expect to see much more then.

We'll now move to our next question from Paul de Froment from Stifel.

Two questions for me. The first one, can you give us some feedback related to grid connection in Spain? I mean, did you experience some delays? What's your view on the grid in Spain? And my second question is, did you have the chance to test the new BYD fast charging points?

Yes. Maybe on fast charging. So, yes, we're in good contact with BYD, most likely, we're not the only ones. I think what for us is incredibly important that they are well supported in bringing these cars on the road, and that's for our business important, and that's also for the EV drivers important, and it's important to the mission, because in the end, it is BYD brings are definitely that step to affordable electric cars. In that sense, we're happy with their support on faster charging, and we're logically testing a lot of charges in the market, but we haven't decided on any technology from BYD at this stage in time. So yes, that's basically why we have our testing center, but no decisions yet. And I think maybe on faster charging, I think it's good to mention Alpitronic's has launched a 1-megawatt, 1,000 amp charging solution recently that is already in the market. We are testing that. ABB is coming with a very similar system as well. So we see basically, yes, let's say, that the development of what BYD is doing and some other players in the market, that is adopted by larger markets, and I think that's really important to get to get the innovation and the delivery keep pace to our networks happening. So I think that's really, really good, and it has an impact on also less cable theft, for example, we've seen some things in the news. Moving to more liquid-cooled cables, higher power level, of course, increases the number of visitors on the site, but it also leads to lower cable theft, because there's less copper in the cables. So a lot of good news on innovations there. Maybe on grids, yes, I think the grids in Spain and the processes to get access to that are probably amongst the very -- among the most difficult ones in Europe, the development of that station in Spain, and we've also mentioned this, I think, in the press has taken us at least 3 years or so. And a large part of this is permitting an access to grid. The key issue, basically, there is one, the way that they organize the process. So they want basically the stations to first be built before they take an application into processing, which is the opposite of what happens in all the other countries. And two, is they're just incredibly slow, bureaucratic, you could say. I think the great thing is that this is recognized. So it's recognized by politicians. They know, it needs to change. There's a bill to parliament in Spain. It's on the radar of the commission. So I expect a lot of change to happen there on this topic in Spain, but across Europe, because it needs to change to deliver on the infrastructure needs. Does that give you an answer to -- yes, does that give you the color on that topic that you need?

We'll now take our next question from Robert Vink, from Kepler Cheuvreux.

I have a question on the average station economics in Q1 and Q2 had -- was a strong increase in operating cost per station. And in this quarter, we see a more modest quarter-over-quarter increase in operating cost per station. And as a result, you see more operating leverage kicking in, resulting in more EBITDA on average per station. So previously, at the start of the year, I think you said operating costs were mainly increased due to grid fees organization expansion. So I'll be interested to have a bit more color on why the operating cost per station, why the dynamic is improving this quarter? What is kind of happening there? And the second question is on the rollout. So currently, you have 30 stations under construction. And then maybe you can still launch some more constructions that could finish by the end of this year. So I'm wondering, why you have decided to maintain the lower bandwidth of your current station guidance for the year-end. So currently, it's standing at 400 to 425 stations. So why have you maintained the lower end of that bandwidth and maybe not raised that outlook?

Yes. Maybe on guidance, I think we -- I think we've basically given sort of what we can say now. So I think it's very difficult for us to deliver more detail than what we've given you on that topic. And I think that should give everyone, I think, very nice sort of detail where we're expecting to land year-end. I think on station economics, I think if you look at there, I think this is really in the end, the secret sauce of Fastned right? And yes, we -- over the last 2 years, did a very significant ramp-up in our organization, FTEs also associating other costs, to get to a higher build pace, a higher acquisition pace, to build this organization in those countries across Europe, to make sure that we everywhere can deliver that same reliable service, but that goes in step changes to some extent. So we're moving now towards territory to start optimizing, let's say, that FTE base and accelerate the deliveries that, that FTE base does. So I expect significantly -- yes, significant further acceleration of that leverage. Does that answer your question, Robert?

I think that gives a bit more color. And maybe the grid fees, did that picture change quarter-over-quarter? Or is that still the same trend?

Yes. I think -- so on grid fees, I think, basically, there's a couple of moving elements there. So one is the element that, as a consequence of the energy transition, grid fees are increasing in the whole country for everyone, et cetera. So that's one. I think we've implemented a significantly more data-driven approach to our -- yes, to the buying of contract power in that sense and how we manage that. So that's -- yes, let's say that puts a little bit more strategy in place to, let's say, how we look at grid fees, and that does manage costs also somewhat, although, yes, if you would try to optimize for today, they could be significantly lower, but we just don't want that given the need of power in the years to come. So in that sense, there is an inflation of cost as a consequence of investments in our future. Does that come across helpful? It might be a little bit complex, but I think, it's good to say it's one investment in the future. On the other hand, there is significantly more control over that.

Yes. It's a balancing act, long-term growth and also keeping the cost at a reasonable level. Very good.

Perfect.

And the next question is from Jeremy Kincaid from Van Lanschot Kempen.

Just following up on Robert's question about the operating cost per station. In the third quarter '25, you say that, that number is 142,000 per station, but I see it's based off the first half '25 average. So my question is, can you confirm that, that number hasn't changed that much from the first half moving into the third quarter? And then my second question is just on access to grid connections. Obviously, the grid in the Netherlands has been congested for a while and arguably less congested in other parts of Europe, but obviously, the world is now changing with AI and data centers. So I was just wondering if your ability to get a grid connection is changing in other parts of Europe because of that dynamic, or if it's not really a factor?

Good question. Yes, maybe quickly on the cost level, I think this basically is our policy. So we've always been doing that, basically looking at a P&L reporting on a half year basis, year and half year. And so the costs always are basically lagging to that previous period. So that's correct. And when looking at grids in the Netherlands, I think you're spot on. The economy is electrifying, the energy transition is accelerating and that puts a strain on the grid and the movement to AI in that sense, makes it even more congested. What does that say to our ability? Yes. Let's say, I think what we've seen is basically the Netherlands hit the wall the earliest. So that was mostly a consequence of the fact that it's also that far ahead in that transition. And yes, I think basically, what you see now is that on the one hand, we hit on a, let's say, a spreadsheet level, the nominal maximum capacity in the grids. So there is a peak level where, let's say, once a day, twice a day, a couple of days a year, the maximum of the grid capacity is reached. On the other hand, 70% of our grids are not utilized today, the average utilization is below, maybe 30%. And that is the key discussions that we are having with grid operators, whether more flexible contracting of capacity is possible. So we're moving forward with the first projects on that. Initially, most likely, this is going to be what they call time-based power availability, for example, in night, hopefully, also partly in daytime. And that's basically with a significant battery of 1 or 2, 3-megawatt hour per site would also allow the build of a charging station. And that is most likely future where we're going to see across Europe, especially in countries that are moving from coal-fired power plants and gas-fired power plants to renewables. So I think the negative is it delays basically our build-out in the Netherlands, our -- but that of any other party in the market that scales the revenue on the existing locations in those years. And the benefit in that sense that we see is that we are among the very first to build a capability to deliver energy solutions, energy managed charging stations with batteries in a situation of grid-constrained areas, which will be needed all across Europe. So yes, it's a bit of a step change, you might say that we expect there in the coming years. And that is happening. And the main thing is that the grid operators, they need their information. So they're working very hard to get their systems digitized to make such projects available. Does that give you a bit of context on this topic?

Yes. Very helpful. And maybe a follow-up, what percentage or how many of your stations already have batteries attached to them?

And so we're currently having our first site with batteries available, and we're working on a pipeline of several more. But logically, given the battery prices are going down year-over-year, we rather buy them at the latest point in time. So any capacity we can get on the grid, we would always buy first, but we will see a significant ramp-up in batteries over the coming years.

Sorry, go ahead.

Sorry, go ahead. I was just going to say, so does that mean you're also prepared to deploy batteries to locations even if they don't generate -- the battery itself doesn't generate the economic return because it would give you access to electricity and give you access to that location?

Yes, I think you can only use a battery once, right? So you can choose to use the battery to deliver services on the FCR market or frequency control reserve, for example. But yes, you do need to clearly define its winter time, for example, I need that battery. And then, yes, you can't deliver two business cases at the same time, right? There's only one piece of technology. So then we have to choose, but in our case, we choose to, in that sense, use that to deliver electricity to electric drivers with a margin of EUR 0.54 per kilowatt hour. And I think that's a very good business case.

Yes. Jeremy, sorry, just a small note to your first question and to clarify that the estimate on per charger cost is indeed H1. So we do not have the exact Q3 numbers in yet because we only do the top line. So it is indeed an estimate, but we don't think there's a massive change to that, but just to make that clear, it's an estimate.

We have a question from Thijs Berkelder from a sell-side analyst (sic) [ ABN AMRO, ODDO BHF ].

From ABN AMRO, ODDO BHF, you mean. And so yes, I've heard you -- our long bullish speech on what you all have accomplished, but let's -- at the same time, you're mentioning in your speech that it's about getting every detail right. In the financials, I'm not seeing every detail right in the sense of coming back on the stage and dynamics. It's an outdated picture you're giving, and you're comparing it with an adjusted version of last year's presentation. Last year, you presented an operational EBITDA in Q3 of EUR 125 million and now EUR 127 million. So that's a minor change year-on-year, but now you've downward adjusted last year's presentation. On the OpEx per station, making the calculation on the details you've given today, I'm already at EUR 23,000 per charger in the third quarter. So again, 4% higher than in H1. On the initial investments, you're still presenting EUR 802,000 per station, which is an outdated number because you've delivered that fantastic Gentbrugge location in the third quarter. So that number must be way higher meanwhile. Coming to a conclusion to a question, cash out in the third quarter has been EUR 30 million, 3-0 million, and you are still not yet investing and that wave is close to coming in, in the new Alpitronic's 1-megawatt chargers. So what is the -- when do you plan to start rolling out these 1-megawatt chargers? What will that cost? How much will the investment per station go up, et cetera, et cetera? I'm really worried about seeing only a growth of 13% in electricity sold year-over-year per station versus 22% for the fleet. And that while you benefited from the holiday traffic, all the Dutch people traveling through France and Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium themselves, local for local was not -- was even weaker. So a lot of questions in one. I want to have as financial analysts also on the financials, all details right.

Thijs, let me talk a bit about Alpitronic because I think that was a clear question. I think they looked at this -- let's say, at this topic as well. And their goal is actually to the opposite of what your risk or worry is. They're thinking about making the system more CapEx efficient. So we expect also to start rolling out after our first testing cycles, et cetera, et cetera, with a system that actually is able to deliver us similar or better CapEx efficiency for our sites or at a little higher investments, allow with low investments to add truck charging options. So it's definitely a development that is really in the right direction, faster charging at similar or lower CapEx levels.

CapEx per offered kilowatt.

Definitely per offered kilowatt, but lower CapEx in general, I think that's an important thing. We don't expect the system, and that's a consequence of its integration to significantly be more expensive than separate stores and -- the reason why that is, is that currently, if we would, for example, put down 4 cabinets that was 400 kilowatt in there, then you put 1.6 megawatt hour of -- sorry, 1 megawatt of power stacks in a location. If you would look at, like what is charging there, the average charge peak is currently 70, 80 kilowatts will go up, but not to 400 within 5 to 10 years. So what that system of combined architecture allows us to do is to scale down instead of 1.6 megawatts in power stacks to only put down 1 megawatt in power stacks to deliver the same needed charging speeds, but for cars that have the ability to charge much faster, even go higher. So it's just a smarter system.

But do you mean that you plan to use that 1 charger for 3 or 4 spots for sourcing 3 or 4 spots, but then your station needs more or less a redesign, a quite large need to be done.

Not necessarily because basically, the power stacks, the big box that you see, and I think basically Alpitronic isn't the only one, right? ABB and BYD and others are coming with similar systems. Those big power stacks that would stand, let's say, quite close to the transformer stations and deliver to stores, which basically only have liquid cooling and some connections taking place, the HMI, and that being close to your car. So it would actually even make our stations look lighter, more customer-friendly than they are looking today.

Well, I'm really curious to see, but point is, you are heading for a new CapEx round in replacing your existing charges for new chargers. So that was the point when can we expect that starting to happen. Same for the batteries, we said we are waiting until the time is right. Is the time right in '26, '27?

I think the answer is not never. I never say never, but that's definitely not going to happen before, let's say, 2035. Looking at the technology we're deploying that is 400 kilowatts capable already today, like a single charger can deliver 400 kilowatts. The layouts of the stations are built in a way to future-proof them already on that path. So what we will be doing is, first, basically, we have 400 kilowatts split over 2 cars that today is more than sufficient for the current fleet. In due time, we will take off a single cable, enabling 400-kilowatt nominal per charging position on the existing technology platforms already installed. We would add another 400-kilowatt charger to enable that. So there will be expansion at existing stations that is relatively low investments. And when looking at the deployment, of the 1 megawatt Alpitronic or other technology basis then we're basically moving on very similar cost levels, but just increasing the capabilities of our stations. So it becomes smarter and it allows for higher peak power delivered to cars. So we don't expect any significant investments to do renewals. We might see beyond 20 -- let's say, 2030 or so, that we will be moving towards 400-kilowatt nominal position at existing stations that are already built.

And Thijs, just to add to your first question, it's the same answer as I gave to Jeremy, which is that last year in Q3, we reported an estimate based on H1 costs. And the number for 2024, we're reporting now is the actual assets in the footnote based on the full cost per charger for 2024. So that's why there will be differences. And it's a trade-off. We can either decide to report later once the costs are consolidated and reconciliated and in place, but we like to be ahead of the curve and get quickly out with our reporting. So we have to make some compromises. So apologies for that, but we'll see where we can improve. Thanks for your questions.

Yes. I have another one on -- is there any progress in your discussion with the Dutch regulator on their plan to get to operators per highway side?

I think you know, we don't have a government in the Netherlands at the moment, right? Or let's say, not...

We have the regulator.

I think -- yes, I think the answer is in that sense that the ingredients for new policy have been out already for several years. The markets, the ministries are working on a plan to get that into legislation. But the base of that, given the fact that there is no government enforce in that sense, it's not very, very fast. And I know I've seen the report as well that you've seen. It's a bit of a -- yes, it feels a bit of like a rogue report from the regulator. There is -- yes, there's been quite a bit of feedback by the market to say like that is a strange publication that they did because it doesn't comply to a lot of regulation and legislative, let's say, regulation and legislation out of Europe. So we don't expect much from it anyway. Basically, the expectations of it by the ministries and the markets are nice opinion, but no backing in law and research. So I think in that sense, I think what we see is the government is continuing or the ministries in that sense, are continuing their preparation on the path that they embarked on. And that's good. That's a good path. So I think that's admirable. The pace is not as high as we hoped for. So I think in that sense, the risk that we see going forward is that -- and I've mentioned this recently, I think, a bit more is that the risk we do see is that, we will get the question from ministries in due time. Dear Fastned, can you enlarge your stations because electric drivers are waiting for it, then we will have to say, yes, we can only do this based on new 15-year concessions. And we cannot do that just on a yearly extension or whatever. Is -- that's basically, I think, the trap that we're falling into now is that government is not on a pathway or on a time pathway from all that we hear that they're going to be ready in time, and that is going to mean that it will be difficult to make significant investments in these locations. And that will mean that the infrastructure in that sense will be very highly utilized, which is not great for electric driver, but this is what it is.

But sorry for getting, why are you then managing your Dutch utilization at staying at the low 13% level and not make them -- forced them to wake up, because also in your famous station economic slide, there's a kind of suggestion that your utilization will go much and much higher. But for now, for the past 5 years, you're simply managing it at staying constant at 12% utilization. That's not yes, bringing, let's say, an urgency feeling to governments and to customers.

The typical mistake that we've seen made by many in our industry had to focus on utilization. And then in the end, you have to sell no when the growth is changing. So we're focusing on sales and not on utilization because in the end, that is cash in the bank.

But that then also will mean that next year prices will go up further, because costs will go up further as well.

From what?

Well, your cost price per unit will rise further consistently because you're introducing all kinds of new shops, full electric? Are you making all kinds of expensive grid connections, whatever, everything gets more expensive.

Shall we move to the last question from others, Thijs, given the time, because I think it's good to -- I'm more than happy to talk about it, but I think looking at time, I think we also -- I took a little bit more time, but I think we need to move to the end.

We'll now take our last question today from Nikita Papaccio from Deutsche Bank.

I would have also two. The first one is on the contracts, which were discontinued during Q3. Could you give us some background information? And should we expect similar quotes or even rising figures for the next quarters? And the second question, in your presentation slide deck, we are seeing that you're targeting for new markets, which are Ireland, Poland, Luxembourg, and Austria. Do you have any time line on when do you expect the market entrance or how they're developing currently?

Yes, Nikita, thanks a lot. Yes, on contracts, I think just checking like what kind of contracts are you looking for? Do you mean like location contracts or ...

Yes, exactly. On your first slide, there's like written that two contracts were discontinued in Q3. I think it's about the secured locations.

Yes. So I think the explanation is quite simple. In the end, we -- out of the whole pipeline, we, in the end, sign sites, developments, lease agreements. And in very rare cases, we have locations where after a couple of years in the end, it's just not possible to either develop a connection to grid or we cannot get it permitted. And then in the end, we sometimes have to choose to abandon the sites. And that's just what we report on here. So that's on those. So looking at...

Talking about for the next quarter -- sorry, just as a clarification. So this is really a rare case and nothing to worry about in the next quarter?

No, it's just ongoing. We've had them, I think, every other year or so, there's 1 or 2 sites, which just in the end, with all desirable, sort of, let's say, development works, just are not are not desirable to permit or cannot be permitted. And then we decide to abandon. It's also a commercial decision at some point. As said, we want to maintain investment discipline. So we don't want to develop sites if it in the end doesn't make sense. So it's a combination of these things. New markets, yes, time line, we're putting people in these places, putting teams in place. So we are putting a team currently in Austria in -- yes, in the country. So we have people on the ground there working on tenders, working on building a pipeline slightly similar in Poland. So we're working there on scouting, but not having a team in place yet. So we're really working towards basically, let's say, ready in these countries for rollout, let's say, probably more geared towards 2027. We really now focus what I just said on -- a bit earlier in the call, we've made a massive step in the organization growth, and we're working on optimizing that organization to deliver more. So slight developments in these 2 new countries, but not something that we want to actively focus to scale in the coming year. We really are building our pipeline in that sense to get towards scaling in 2027 in those countries. Does that give you a bit of color on those? Any other final questions?

No, sir, this was the last question today. With this, I'd like to hand the call back over to you for closing remarks.

Well, thank you very much, everyone, for listening. Thanks for all the great questions, and looking forward to see you in Q1.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect.