As electric vehicles become more prevalent, so do charging networks such as Blink Charging, which just reported a 164% jump in Q2 revenue year over year to $11.5 million. Blink CEO Michael Farkas joined Cheddar News to talk about what’s driving these results. “More EVs on the road. We've just hit 5% of all vehicle sales being electric vehicles,” he said. “They need to fuel and, bottom line, what they need is charging stations that are produced by companies like ours.” Farkas also discussed in detail Blink Charging’s recent acquisitions of SemaConnect and the U.K.’s EB Charging. 


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Blink Charging CEO on The Rise of Electric Vehicles

And as electric vehicles are poised to become mainstream, E. V. Charging networks will become vital one company is already seeing big interest and also big results, blink charging reporting second quarter earnings this week, notably seeing a 164% jump in revenue year over year to $11.5 million. The company also making two key acquisitions that will expand its footprint and joining us now, Michael Farkas, the founder and Ceo of blink charging, thank you so much for being with us. Michael starting with those second quarter earnings. What exactly is driving these results more E. V. S on the road. Um, we've just hit 5% of all vehicle sales being electric vehicles. Um, you know, they need to, they need to fuel and, and bottom line what they need is charging stations that are produced by companies like ours. Yeah, 5%. It doesn't seem like a large number, but it shows some progress. I want to go ahead and talk with you about those acquisitions that we mentioned, one in the us and also one in the UK. Tell us about the US acquisition and how it's going to boost operations right now. Yes, we acquired semi connect which was a large E. V. Charging company, one of our competitors. Um, we have a decent amount of overlap on product lines, but with the supply issues today, it really puts us an amazing position of making sure that we have equipment for our customers. Um, they produce their own hardware in Maryland. Uh, it allows us to take advantage of the buying America programs that the biden administration is mandating um for the charging stations that they're gonna be paying for the deployment of. So it's a requirement and we're one of the only manufacturer in the United States actually comply with these new regulations. They have amazing staff team, very experienced company and we're looking forward to integrating our businesses together. Also want to ask you about that UK acquisition especially as we typically point to europe and other countries for their adoption of electric vehicles and having the infrastructure in place. How is this going to help operation for blink charging? And do you have any other international expansion plans coming up? Yes. Um we're currently operating in about 19 countries. We have a multi lingual and multi-currency network that we've been expanding on and growing. Um but we do business throughout the world. Now. We're growing and it's the the international markets um there's a tremendous amount of utilization much more so the US market today. So we feel it's very important for us to participate in that market. Um We not only did the acquisition in the U. K. And Ireland, but prior to that we bought a company called Blue Corner that was operating in mainland europe. Um Now we're going to consolidate those operations as well. Have a multi multi network instead of operating a few networks as we're doing right now through these acquisitions were now combine them into one. So there will be a tremendous amount of efficiencies as we aggregate these businesses. Yeah. And just to hone in on blink charging itself. One of the biggest issues that have been brought up is whether or not these charging stations will apply to every customer with an electric vehicle, tell us how blink charging works domestically here in the US. Um Our network is open to all users, works for all cards, including Tesla's, anyone who needs to use a charging station or our charges are available. You can use a mobile application to initiate charging sessions. You can open up an account and get an R. F. I. D. Card where you could use a tap credit card to initiate charging. Um In addition, part of the semi acquisition allowed us to now follow regulations in California recently released, which is that you need to have a swipe credit card instead of a tap. Credit card unfortunately are going backwards when it comes to technology. But these are the rules and we don't make them, we unfortunately have to follow them through. The semi acquisition were one of the only, if not the only company that has a product available today with a swipe credit card feature on it um to double charging stations. A tms of output on each court. There's nothing like the entire industry and it's priced amazingly well, so that was another asset that SeMA brought us was being able to immediately comply with California's new regulations. Um And there are other states who have reciprocity agreements with California and followed their exact um ways of doing business again it's an unfortunate thing. We think it's a mistake. But the acquisition with some allows us to really comply with those regulations. I also want to ask you about something that's moving with politics this week. Senate democrats passing the inflation reduction act here. It includes tax credits for E. V. S. And while the details still need to be worked out here like which existing cars can qualify, what are you anticipating as far as the demand or the expansion as a result of this particular legislation? We believe in it. We we support the administration for what they're doing. They're subsidizing the right group of people um instead of people who are earning more than 100 and $50,000 a year. Singley or on a double joint filing, $300,000 people make above that level. They don't need government subsidies on the cars that they're purchasing so that allow a lot more people to have access to to E. V. S. Um in addition it's removing the cap of 200 units sold by each manufacturer will just allow them to sell if they have the right product and the consumer wants to buy their product. They'll be able to at a subsidized rate. Um We think it's something that's going to be very very well received and it's going to impact our business tremendously because it's just very simple, more e V s on the road, More charging stations are needed. Absolutely. All right, Michael Farkas, founder and Ceo of blank charging. Thanks so much for joining us here on Cheddar News.