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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: More on the EV landscape. I'm thrilled to say that

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Speaker 2: we're joined now by Brendan Jones. He is the CEO

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Speaker 2: of Blank Charging. And let's talk about that outlook. Of course,

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Speaker 2: you're targeting one hundred and sixty five million to one

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Speaker 2: hundred and seventy five million in revenue four twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 2: That is compared with one hundred and seventy million that

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Speaker 2: was expected by analysts and the sell side calling this conservative.

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Speaker 2: Could you walk us through how you got to that outlook.

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Speaker 1: So to that outlook, looking at industry trends, our previous performance,

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Speaker 1: and what we see is the growth rate moving into

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Speaker 1: next year. So the US expected to go from eight

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Speaker 1: percent up to thirteen percent this year and growth rate

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Speaker 1: is predicted based off of that and the need for

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Speaker 1: chargers in particularly love chargers throughout the United States. So

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Speaker 1: we're right in line in our predicted increases with where

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Speaker 1: that is. Now, what the street wants us to do is,

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Speaker 1: as we've done in the past, is overperformed, but over

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Speaker 1: the last several years, continue to perform, and you're eventually

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Speaker 1: going to get to a plateau where we have to

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Speaker 1: get our unfair share. But you're not going to see

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Speaker 1: those gigantic exponentialks like we did last year, where we

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Speaker 1: were well over the industry average. He did sixty one

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Speaker 1: million in twenty twenty two, and we doubled that even

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Speaker 1: more this year at one hundred and forty million.

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Speaker 2: And Brendon, I think someone's calling you on Skype. Don't

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Speaker 2: go anywhere yet, because I have a few more questions

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Speaker 2: for you. I want to talk about the broader EV

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Speaker 2: industry though, because of course we've seen a lot of

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Speaker 2: some of the traditional carmakers who are venturing into EV's

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Speaker 2: scaleback their EV production plans, et cetera. And you had

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Speaker 2: Bloomberg Intelligence actually right in December that coin demand for

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Speaker 2: battery powered vehicles and a revival of plug in hybrids,

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Speaker 2: it could cut EV charging companies twenty thirty revenue pool

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Speaker 2: by about twenty percent. Of course, as you're watching this

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Speaker 2: potential coming slowdown in EV demand, what would that mean

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Speaker 2: for your business?

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Speaker 1: Well, we remain very bullish. If we look at the report,

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Speaker 1: you know, we're all one in five vehicles sold in

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Speaker 1: the world were evs, and across the globe, all the

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Speaker 1: numbers were up, and if We even look at what

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Speaker 1: happened in February. We finished, you know, fiscal year twenty

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Speaker 1: three or county year twenty three to eight percent. We

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Speaker 1: came in well over nine percent in February already. So

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Speaker 1: this space continues to grow. There might be some retraction

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Speaker 1: from some auto OEMs on it, but on an aggregate level,

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Speaker 1: it continues to grow. Now, particularly for Blank, we're just

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Speaker 1: not a US based company. We have twenty to thirty

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Speaker 1: percent of our revenue comes from Europe. And if you

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Speaker 1: look at a country like Germany, which is a population

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Speaker 1: of eighty two million, you know they're already well into

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Speaker 1: the twenties and headed to the thirty percent doll in

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Speaker 1: terms of EV penetration rate and Norway, So the trend

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Speaker 1: is moving from China to Europe the United States. You

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Speaker 1: might see some ebb and flows and some contractions, but overall,

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Speaker 1: according to McKenzie, we're expected to see in our industry

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Speaker 1: alone that there's going to be a need for twenty

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Speaker 1: eight million chargers by twenty thirty, and the majority of

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Speaker 1: those are going to be level two chargers. So we

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Speaker 1: continue to see growth. There might be some small retraction,

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Speaker 1: but overall it's a good bet that EV's are here

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Speaker 1: to stay. Well Brendan.

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Speaker 2: That's a really interesting point when it comes to the

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Speaker 2: global landscape, and I mean looking at the likes of Europe,

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Speaker 2: when you look at Asia as well, I think actually

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Speaker 2: we might have lost Brendan, which is a bit of

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Speaker 2: a bummer since you think about this global EV landscape

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Speaker 2: and there's a lot of questions about whether the US

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Speaker 2: EV market is going to see the same type of

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Speaker 2: penetration that you're seeing overseas when you think about the

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Speaker 2: likes of Germany, when you think about broader Asia, and

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Speaker 2: I think we do have Brendan back right now. So

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Speaker 2: let's start with that. When you think about your growth opportunities,

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Speaker 2: do you think that markets outside the US actually present

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Speaker 2: a bigger potential for the likes of Blink.

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Speaker 1: I think markets outside give us the same upside potential

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Speaker 1: as we see in the US. But overall, the US

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Speaker 1: accounts for seventy five percent of our revenue. The rest

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Speaker 1: of the world counts for twenty percent, and that's the

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Speaker 1: general average. We will see some additional growth in Europe,

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Speaker 1: but it's going to be commensurate as we expand in

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Speaker 1: the US, especially with our new manufacturing facility.

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Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about the competitive landscape as well. Of

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Speaker 2: course you aren't the only charging operator out there. You

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Speaker 2: also have the opening of the Tesla network. What does

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Speaker 2: that mean for the field?

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Speaker 1: Well, more importantly just not the opening of the Tesla network,

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Speaker 1: that the next standard is now becoming widely available. So

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Speaker 1: for a company like Blink, it's a great thing because

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Speaker 1: we make next connectors and cables both for our DC

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Speaker 1: fast chargers and for our Level two equipment too. So

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Speaker 1: what this means is our chargers are capable of charging

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Speaker 1: every car, and when we look historically at our numbers,

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Speaker 1: the number one plug in a vehicle into our our

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Speaker 1: network is Tesla, So that's going to continue to increase.

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Speaker 1: It takes more than one company to satisfy the needs

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Speaker 1: of the EV driving public, and Blink is going to

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Speaker 1: be a leader in that space for the foreseeable future.

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Speaker 2: It's a good point that the pie is growing. There's

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Speaker 2: plenty of slices for everyone. And you brought up level

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Speaker 2: two charging a little bit earlier. Of course we're talking

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Speaker 2: about airport lots, we're talking about apartment garages. Can you

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Speaker 2: ask us how quickly you're seeing multi family housing getting charging?

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Speaker 1: So it's a you know, it's a great question because

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Speaker 1: we have to redefine home as it relates to evs

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Speaker 1: at the beginning, and I've been doing this a long time.

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Speaker 1: Home is a single family home, right but home now

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Speaker 1: on a apartment, it's a multifamily dwelling. So next to fleet,

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Speaker 1: which is a very hot end of the EV market

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Speaker 1: and charging market, the next top end is multifamily dwellings.

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Speaker 1: But we have to define that as condos, then as apartments,

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Speaker 1: and then the charging opportunities have their ability. We have

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Speaker 1: to penetrate on an individual level, then on a shared

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Speaker 1: charging level, and then on sable level to really satisfy

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Speaker 1: those needs. So right now we're selling more chargers into

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Speaker 1: those situations than we ever have before, and we're going

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Speaker 1: to see that rate increase throughout twenty twenty four as

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Speaker 1: well as the whole industry is doing a good job

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Speaker 1: at beginning to penetrate that market. Now will create that

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Speaker 1: experience that you wake up every morning and you're fully charged.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, of course that would give a lot of

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Speaker 2: comfort to people who still have that range anxiety. I

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Speaker 2: do want to talk a little bit more about your production.

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Speaker 2: Of course, your onshore and production capacity to Maryland. Of

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Speaker 2: course that will deliver you tax incentives and subsidies and

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Speaker 2: the like, but how much does it risk raising the

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Speaker 2: cost structure relative to building chargers in a low cost

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Speaker 2: country such as India well.

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Speaker 1: To service the US market. The first objected is to

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Speaker 1: make sure we have the requisite requirements for buy America

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Speaker 1: and the federal government and other agencies who we have

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Speaker 1: big customers, such as the Post Office, which awarded the

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Speaker 1: largest from the history of BB infrastructure at forty one

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Speaker 1: five hundred chargers, and we do sure we get them

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Speaker 1: the buy in America chargers, so we can produce up

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Speaker 1: to fifty thousand of them out of the buoy facility.

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Speaker 1: But globally we are going to again also to produce

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Speaker 1: out of our factories that are located over India to

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Speaker 1: service other ends of the market as well. So we

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Speaker 1: have a two pronged approach. The US market will get

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Speaker 1: the buy in America chargers. We've gotten our cost down

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Speaker 1: those to be very competitive. Because every company that wants

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Speaker 1: apply for Navy funds under the two point five billion

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Speaker 1: available for L two charging, you have to be Buying

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Speaker 1: America compliant, and we're one of the first.

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Speaker 2: To do it all right, Brendan Gott to leave it there.

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Speaker 2: Really enjoyed this conversation. Our thanks, of course to Brendan Jones,

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Speaker 2: the CEO of Blink Charging