Three Quarters of Growth: What Orange Learned Building EV Charging for Multifamily

Context: A deep dive into Orange’s last three quarters—covering GTM execution, revenue growth, hardware challenges, and the unique dynamics of selling into multifamily properties. Focuses on business model design, utilization, connectivity, and why Orange’s approach is fundamentally different from traditional EVSE providers.

Post Body:

When we started Orange, we weren’t trying to build just another EV charger. We set out to re-architect how EV charging works for the places most Americans actually live: multifamily housing. In the past nine months, we’ve grown bookings nearly 400% year-over-year, expanded revenue over 200%, and more than doubled our deployed footprint—while proving our business model is not only scalable but necessary for electrification.

Here’s how we did it—and what we’ve learned.

1. The Multifamily Problem is a Systems Problem

Over 52 million Americans live in multifamily housing. By 2030, 27 million EVs will be on the road. But today’s infrastructure wasn’t designed for this. Properties don’t have the energy capacity, budget, or staffing to support large-scale EV deployments.

Most solutions assume:

• There’s unlimited electrical capacity
• Drivers have assigned parking
• Buildings can absorb $5,000–$8,000 per stall in install cost
• WiFi/cellular always works

That’s fiction.

Orange built a system grounded in the reality of multifamily:

• Plug-in chargers that require no panel upgrades
• Software that optimizes energy usage building-wide
• A mesh network that operates without WiFi or cell
• Hardware and install for under $2,000 per stall

2. Our GTM Motion is Built for Volume, Not Hype

We’re not doing $100K pilots. We’re doing 50-unit deployments. And we’re doing it repeatedly.

• Booked 11,041 chargers in 2024, up from 567 the year prior
• Achieved 70%+ quarter-over-quarter growth in revenue and backlog
• Installed base grew from 220 units in Q3 2023 to 1,187 in Q3 2024
• Active drivers rose from 52 to 248 in the same period
• Energy delivered jumped 700%

This isn’t just growth. It’s repeatability. We closed deals with the top 10 multifamily operators in the country, deployed in 120+ properties, and saw bookings from expansion increase 269% YoY.

3. Why Our Business Model Works

Most hardware companies get crushed by:

• Capex cycles
• Service contract overhead
• Installation complexity

We sidestep those:

• Hardware is simple and modular
• Property owners don’t pay upfront for software
• Drivers pay per kWh ($0.08), which covers network and platform
• No cellular or backend IT systems required on site
• Utilities get real-time usage data through our submetering platform

Result: hardware gross margin scales, energy revenue compounds, and we control the user experience end to end.

Our ARR engine:

• ~$800 per charger (hardware revenue)
• $240 per active EV driver annually (energy usage)
• $100M ARR target with just 1.4% of multifamily EV drivers

4. What’s Hard—and What We’ve Solved

Multifamily is brutally difficult:

• No two buildings are alike
• Retrofits are messy
• Property managers don’t want one more thing to deal with

We solved it by:

• Pre-scoping buildings with proprietary tools
• Standardizing hardware to 12/8 AWG configurations
• Offering zero-maintenance devices
• Allowing billing to be added to tenant utility bills via our PCE submetering grant

And, most critically: we proved installation can scale without breaking the property or the budget.

5. How We’re Positioned to Win

The EV charging industry is full of overbuilt, overpriced, brittle solutions. Companies that raised $60M+ are stuck with 5 installs and bad product-market fit. We grew past them with:

• A $1,750 installed cost vs. $7,000 industry average
• Fully offline-capable charging sessions
• No networking gear required—even in underground garages
• Seamless mobile app that works in airplane mode

CalGreen 2024 requires 50% of parking to be EV ready. Orange is the only company that can meet this with one unified system.

6. The Next 12 Months

We’re on track to reach cash flow positive by Q1 2026.

What’s coming:

• Production ramp of OrangeOS with edge-based energy management
• Launch of V2G-capable hardware with Range Energy (pending $2.7M CEC grant)
• Expansion of utility billing integrations
• Self-service portal for property deployment

We’re building not just a charger—but the foundation of a distributed energy utility.

Final Thoughts

In the last three quarters, we built the most scalable EV charging company in multifamily. Not because we raised the most, but because we built the smartest. We optimized around the market reality, not the fantasy.

We’ve grown 3x+ YoY, proven a profitable business model, and laid the groundwork to own one of the most important energy transitions of the next decade.

And we’re just getting started.

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