big question on everyone's mind as electric vehicles become more popular,
consumers want to know where they can charge their cars.
So joining us now is Michael Farkas,
founder and Ceo of blink charging and Michael,
we hear your company has a new partnership.
Tell us about it.
Yes.
We recently started our collaboration with general motors
and all of the vehicles that they're releasing.
Um, we're gonna be servicing those cars, fueling those cars before delivery
and even at the dealership level, um,
having some charges on the customer serving side.
It's a very exciting development for our company
now when it comes to blink charging,
how is it different when it comes to where drivers can get their juice?
Um,
we are the only completely vertically
integrated E V charging infrastructure company
and we have relationships with different property owners of all kinds,
whether they're multi family residential, mixed use locations, office parks,
recreational locations.
Um, we, we,
we do not discriminate in the locations
where we deploy our charging infrastructure,
We make sure it's available for all types of
people in all areas and disadvantaged communities as well.
Now you introduce some new charging station models at CS. Tell us more about those.
Yes. Um, we, we took CS by storm this year. We by far had more offerings
and new product and services released at CS
than any other eV charging infrastructure company.
We know exactly what our
property owners need and the types
of locations require certain specific equipment.
Um, there's a huge business for multi family.
We had a huge push now on home hardware, whether it's for single family homes,
multi family residential locations, fleet locations, also fleet software, um,
as well as a new mobile application and entire new back end.
Um, it's very important for us to have state of the art equipment.
While our model is quite different than most of our competitors,
um, we own and operate a significant amount of our charging infrastructure,
so we need to make sure that that hardware lasts for a very long time in the field.
Our competitors don't own and operate,
they make their money off the sale of the hardware.
Our main focus is to make the sale off
the fuel that's dispensed through our charging stations.
So their model is to have, you know, obsolescence built into the hardware.
Um, we have the opposite, you know, the exact opposite intent.
We need our hardware to be looked as more like a hot water heater.
Our competitors look at it more as a cell phone,
where the consumer has to upgrade that equipment.
Quite often, completely different philosophies and developing the hardware,
building that hardware.
And we believe it's one of the reasons why we were selected by GM.
Um,
these dealerships have to invest in these locations and
make sure that this hardware is workable um,
for a very, very long period of time,
they have a similar philosophy to what we have and hence that's why we believe we were
selected out of all the other vendors to
be GMS hardware partner at the dealership level.
Now, when it comes to making sure your hardware is the best that it can be.
What kind of challenges do you face as the nation is trying so hard to create all these
vehicles and keep up with the demand for charging
stations that need to be manufactured as well.
We need to be made as well.
Well, people really do not understand the scale of how much work is ahead of us.
Um today we have only a couple of 100,000
viable charging stations in the entire United States States.
Um by 2030 we're only going to see about 20 to 30% of all new fleet sales being E. V. S.
We need between 12 and 16 million chargers.
Imagine going from only a couple of 100,000 units
Um to 15, 16 million units globally.
That number is closer 40-50 million units in the same timeframe.
This business is not at its infancy, it's really um at its its embryonic stage.
Yeah, I know, I totally hear you,
I keep seeing these headlines every day that
so many manufacturers are going towards E V.
S and I'm thinking the same as you, what about infrastructure,
because there'll be a lot of dead cars on the
side of the road if we don't invest in that.
So one of the things that are most important is the fact that compatibility,
when it comes to charging, how does your company deal with that?
Because it's not just one car that you can offer this charging too.
Our cars are charging stations and infrastructure work on all cars,
including Tesla's and every standard we comply
with the standards that are out there.
It's extremely important for people to understand
that even though build back better,
um, is not being implemented.
There's already been $7.5 billion in the first program
earmarked for charging infrastructure that has not, I've been started
to flow through the system just yet.
Um,
we're gonna start seeing that in the second half of
the year and in the oncoming years that's $7.5 billion.
That's being invested by the us government to deploy charging infrastructure.
And we believe that blank will be a huge,
massive beneficiary of those deployments and of the capital.
I have about 30 seconds left, Michael, I just wanted to ask you really quick,
how does your hardware help ease the concerns of folks who feel that they
might not be able to get to a charger book and charge at home.
Um, you know,
the fact of the matter is most charging will
take place at home by our numbers roughly 80%.
But you really
have to look at the demographics,
most people do not live in single family homes where they could drive
to their garage or carport and just plug into their own charging station.
Most people are going to need public charging infrastructure to fuel their cars,
whether it's at their multi family residential facilities that have garages,
subterranean in them.
And we're partnering with with with companies that
own those properties and property owners throughout,
Not only the us but but globally now.
Um we're operating in 49 states here in the US18 countries globally,
but it's important for us to be able
to have infrastructure wherever people have their cars,
especially in a residential environment.
Again, whether it's multi family,
um mixed use, dense urban charging or even the single family home market.
And the thing about blink is we have the hardware for each and every one of
those locations in the back and software to manage not only the energy usage um,
but being able to partition, you know, charging stations,
um, allow invitation um, uh,
reservation systems where you could earmark that
charger specifically for you as you're traveling.
We have a lot of amazing technology as we've seen and demonstrated at CVS
and we have a lot more to go. It's very exciting times.
There's a lot of money being invested in charging infrastructure
and we expect to maintain our leadership position,
Michael Farkas, Founder and Ceo of blink charging.
You got me Energized Michael, I appreciate it so much for being on the show.
Thank you so much for spending your time with us