Good morning, and welcome to Blink's Fireside Chat, titled CEO to Future CEO. My name is Vitalie Stelea. I'm the VP of Capital Markets and FP&A at Blink Charging, and we are located at our headquarters in Bowie, Maryland. Today, with us, we have Brendan Jones, our President and CEO, and Mike Battaglia, our Chief Operating Officer. Just to remind everyone, this is a live session. We'll be recording the session, and we appreciate the questions you've sent us in advance. In addition, keep in mind, you can send us a live question through the webinar interface that you're watching the webcast through right now. So with that, let's start our questions. The first question will go to Brendan, and Brendan, it's a pretty simple question, I think, maybe not, but how are things going at Blink? Or maybe said differently, what's keeping you up at night these days? Things are going pretty good at Blink. We started out this year with a record year from 2023. We've moved in very optimistically into 2024. The first quarter was very, very, very good. We've seen some stagnation or a bit of a slowdown in the market, although there still is growth. The growth is a little slower than expected. However, as we're moving into the fourth quarter, we're also seeing some pickup in volume and some increase in our bookings, which is our leading indicator of revenue, so overall, still growth. You know, there's some noise in the marketplace that we are working through. It is a big political year, as we know, and also, but we're seeing growth continue out of China, continuing out of Europe, still growth in the United States. So what we'd say is, the future for Blink and the industry as a whole is very optimistic. We're positioning ourselves. The key thing with the company is to make sure that you're doing the things necessary to be sustainable. Are you cutting costs? Are you finding new opportunities for revenue? You've got everybody on the same page with your short-term tactics and your long-term strategy. And all those fundamentals are what we've been working on diligently for the last four years, and indeed, in a very aggressive way, for the last two years. And we're fairly confident that we've got Blink on the right path for sustainable growth and for long-term success. Thanks. Thanks, and we got a few questions about your announced retirement. Congratulations, by the way. Thank you. But, you've been a leader at Blink for since 2020. You've taken the company through a massive transformation. So the question is, why retire now? The retirement, it's been in the long term in the planning, and that's what everybody, you know, needs to understand. I've said this to a lot of people, but it is, you know, hard to believe. It's hard to believe for me, it's actually here. When I joined, you know, the plan was to work five years, structurally adjust the company, and really see what we could build this into. That five years is almost approaching. It's gonna hit about the time I'm leaving at the end of January. As always happens in life, there's some personal issues and some interpersonal things that combine in this decision. It's never one variable, and those have happened as well. You know, there's been, you know, some deaths in the family, some transitions. We're empty nesters now. All those typical things that happen, they arise at this one point in time, and you're able to make that decision. We're quite happy about the decision, and we're also... What's key is I wouldn't have made this decision if I didn't know that we had a great leadership team, and that our transition plan and our development plan had been put in place a long time ago to make sure we position. Blink for success. That's what we've done. You know, Mike has gotten the pick to be the next CEO, and let me tell you, he's well deserving. I wouldn't, and Blink wouldn't be where it is today without Mike being part of this great team we built about four years ago. Great. Thank you. Congratulations to Mike as the new CEO. Mike will become the new CEO at the end of January 2025. And Mike, we have a question here about what should investors, but also employees and stakeholders expect from you when you become the CEO of Blink Charging? Yeah. So, yeah, thanks. Great question. So first of all, you know, there's short-term plans, there's medium-term plans, there's long-term plans. So the number one in the short term is very much a continuation of what Brendan has started and the great path that he's led us on. So, you know, first of all, I couldn't be happier with, you know, the process and the board of directors and the trust that they've put in me, along with my colleagues. So as you guys kind of indicated, this is absolutely a team effort. This is not about any one individual. It's about the team that Blink has created over time, and that'll take us into the future. So to answer your question then, number one, it's going to be a focus on revenue growth. That's no change. I mean, that's our number one priority as a company. We're gonna focus on revenue growth. Number two, we're gonna focus on cash management, as it relates especially to cost containment. Are we gonna cut some costs? Yes. Have we cut some costs? Yes. That's just a healthy company, doing what it needs to do to position itself correctly. So we're gonna preserve cash through cost cutting, through cost mitigation actions, et cetera. The third thing that we're gonna do is we are going to invest in the technologies that are gonna propel us into the future, and that's a really, really key point. So while the market right now is temporarily a bit soft, the end game has not changed, and the end game is the same, which is the electrification of transportation globally. Blink is very, very well positioned to do that. The final thing I'll just mention is we are going to continue to execute on the strategic plan that the management team developed along with the board of directors, and that's important. That was a partnership, and it was really a great process where we laid out our long-term strategic plan, and we're gonna continue to execute on that plan. We're gonna put the right milestones and dates in place, and the accountability internally for all of us in order to make sure that we achieve that. I think generally speaking, that's what you can expect. Great. Who will be the new COO? Oh, good question. So we actually made the decision not to replace me as CEO, so, or COO, excuse me, a little slip of the tongue, but, so, you know, that was a move that we decided to do, really, we felt it was responsible. It's a cost-saving action. So when you look at, hey, we're gonna eliminate the COO position, and basically what we're going to do is empower more of our leaders to take on more responsibility. And look, we have the team, that's ready to do that, so, in no way, shape, or form is that a concern for us. Yeah, and I'll add to that, that the way Mike and myself have structured it is that we have two global vice presidents of operations, one based in Europe, one based in the United States. We've built up staff under them, so we have this really robust operational framework right now, and then we have a chief revenue officer who sales and sales operations report up to. So we had a long-term vision of structuring it just to meet that, and now it's presented us with that opportunity. And this is great for the bottom line of Blink, but also, it's attributed to being nimble and being efficient and driving profitability via cost reduction and revenue growth. And also having the bench, if you will, among the management team, that is ready and can do it. So, you know, certainly, you know, we trust them to do it, and they're gonna take it out and do it, so. Thank you. Thanks for that. So let's shift gears a bit and talk about the industry. We saw the statistics that came out for August for U.S. The EV penetration was about 8.5% just for battery electric vehicles. If you include the plug-in hybrids, it was about 10.6%. It depends on the source and the company that's reporting this, it's moderate growth or relatively flat, right? So the question for Brendan is, Brendan, any comments on the statistics and how you think that's impacting Blink in the short term? So first, let's look at the macro question first, 'cause that's what you gotta do, and then you can back into the details. So on a macro perspective, globally, EVs are growing. They continue to grow. The need for infrastructure is growing, and it. There's a deep need for more infrastructure right now than for the EVs that are in operation, in fact. If you look at what's going on in the United States, it's still growing. Is there a bit of stagnation? Is there a bit of repositioning in the marketplace? Absolutely. It's an election year. We've got some concerns. Interest rates certainly played a role in whether I'm going to do a massive capital investment. But what we're starting to see on the micro level is we're starting to see people come off the bench now, get back in. We're starting to see charger sales in terms of bookings increase in the fourth quarter, which is a great harbinger for what's gonna happen in 2025, so very optimistic, and when you think about it, you know, 8.5% of total industry volume, there is OEMs today, car manufacturers, that don't have 8.5% market share, and the EV industry does. That's phenomenal. That represents a tremendous amount of EVs on the road, and I think we're adding 1.5, or it might be 1.3 or two EVs- Million. Million. Million. million globally every year. In the U.S. You know, there's... You know, you hear some statements out there, but the reality is we're continuing to see growth. We're continuing to see the need for chargers, and we haven't hit the sweet spot yet. Exponential is still the word we're using for the future in terms of growth. We believe the industry is gonna see that, and we also believe that Blink will see that as well. And from the charging utilization perspective, Mike- Mm-hmm. How, what are you seeing out there in the US, but also in Europe? I mean, I'm glad Brendan mentioned globally, because Europe was up 20% in August, or it was actually, the penetration was 20% in the top five European markets, and China was over 50%. So we're seeing global, still pretty strong penetration. But what are you seeing from a utilization perspective? Yeah. So if you look at Blink's business, we primarily operate in the United States and in Europe. What's very interesting about the company is the makeup of our revenue in both of those markets. So when you look at the U.S., we are far more heavily weighted towards product sales and less weighted towards the owner-operator model. In Europe, it's exactly the opposite, and part of that is because the electrification market in Europe is further along than it is in the U.S. So we actually have the benefit of seeing into Europe from the U.S. on what is going to come here. So again, to answer your question, number one, we see very, very strong utilization rates for our owner-operator assets over in Europe, and we think that's only gonna continue. In the U.S., we are seeing really strong growth in the owner-operator assets, in terms of both utilization and dollar growth, from last year to this year, even quarter over quarter, so when you look at 8.5% EV penetration, and as Brendan mentioned, that represents over 1.2 million cars hitting the streets in the U.S. that are battery electrified vehicles this year alone, it is naturally creating that increased utilization and demand for EV charging infrastructure, so we continue to be super bullish on the owner-operator model, and at the same time, we're gonna continue to sell product into the market for customers that want to buy product from us. It's a pretty simple equation. Great. Great. We'll shift gears a little bit more to financials. Mm-hmm. There's a question here about gross margins. So our first half, twenty twenty-four gross margin was 34%. That's on a GAAP basis. If we were to adjust it or a non-GAAP basis, probably be higher. But the question is, how is Blink able to maintain that margin, especially when compared to other companies in the sector? And what else can Blink do to increase that margin going forward? Maybe we'll start with Brendan. Sure. So I'll take it from the big picture perspective. So we've talked about this before. Vertical integration on the product side is key to margin and profitability. As the industry goes through a degree of commoditization, how do you stay above that? And that's what we do by vertically integrating. So we design, manufacture, and produce 60% of our hardware. Our plan is that to grow to 80%. We don't think we're gonna go above 80, 'cause there's specialized hardware that you don't have the scale to really be efficient at, but 80% is a big goal. So right now, when you think of that, and then you add the additional equation to that, that we develop our own firmware and software solutions in-house. We don't go to outside companies and pay a margin on that. It gives us this ability to stay very competitive on a product basis in terms of the margins, and we're gonna continue to do that. Now, that doesn't just stand alone by itself. It has to have other elements, and I'll let Mike talk about how you have to be efficient in how you run your operations in order to maintain that margin, and indeed, at times, increase it. Yeah. One of the things that I just wanna touch on with vertical integration is, you know, say, why, why are you vertically integrating? And Brendan mentioned it. Number one, it's the cost side of the equation, and it allows us to keep our costs lower, and we have this really great team in India that helps us on the manufacturing side with the component level. And then what we were able to do is we're able to bring those components to the United States, and right around the corner here in our new manufacturing facility, we're able to assemble those products with other American-made components to become Buy America-compliant chargers for our L2 line. That's one aspect of it. The second aspect of it is we wanna own the entire technology stack. So that's fundamentally what we mean when we say vertically integrated, is we not only manufacture the hardware, we, develop and deploy our own software network, and we control the firmware on the hardware itself. And that's where the industry can get tripped up, when it comes to, reliability and uptime and all of those things, right? Because when you don't own those two pieces, you're worried about compatibility, and there are compatibility issues. And for Blink, the more we vertically integrate, the more we're able to control that technology stack and get better, and better, and better in terms of uptime, you know, and across the network. So that's fundamentally why we vertically integrate. You know, and again, in terms of margins, because we have these two pieces of our business where we manufacture the hardware, we're able to sell it at a decent margin, and then we also own and operate these assets, which have, you know, the fantastic profile of recurring revenue and high margins. So you put those pieces together, and that's why we're at, you know, 33%-34%, and why our eye is on how do we continue to expand that? Okay, and actually, this ties very well into the next question: When will Blink launch its single-port charger in volume? When, when, when is that expected to happen? From my perspective, I hope it's sooner than later, but Mike is leading up that project, so I'll, I'll let him give all the comments on it. So yeah, yeah, thanks. So our new single port Series 7 is actually gonna go into manufacturing in October and be available in volume in November. And so why is it important? It's important because we have a segment of our chargers that are single plug that we now source from a third party. So this is really, really important for us where we can launch our own single plug unit that is manufactured by Blink. And again, as Brendan mentioned, you know, we're at 60% vertical integration. That, that product is really key in pushing us above that, that 60%. And again, that represents yet another product where we control the entire technology stack. Okay, so continuing with financials. Second quarter operating expenses were down quite a bit, 41% year over year. The question is: Should investors expect further reduction in operating expenses before January thirty-first, when Brendan's gonna pass the reins to Mike? Yeah, absolutely. We have objectives that we've talked about. We've been very transparent with our analysts. We've been very transparent with the public and our shareholders and even with our employees, that we're gonna continue to reduce expenses. We have targets that we have yet to achieve this year, but we will achieve them, and we're gonna continue to make sure that Blink is an efficiently run machine. We still have some technologies to deploy to create sameness in operations and in the financial systems, HR systems, and even in manufacturing processes as well across the company. Those are gonna create additional cost saves. So look for more. We will have some announcements on that as we move forward, but definitely, you know, this is not something that begins and then ends when you're talking about cost efficiency and cost reduction. It becomes part of your culture. If you're gonna be a company that's focused on long-term sustainable growth, you also have to be a company that's focused on continuous improvement, and that improvement is encompassing quality, the way you sell product, the way you market product, the way you manufacture product, the way you look at your purchasing decisions. And everything has to be that we are not wasteful, and we're cost efficient. And when you talk about margins, again, say, going back to that, this is how you maintain higher margins in the industry. So we've got more to come this year, but look at Blink to continue to develop and go with this method of constant improvement in our operations and everything we do to be a company that is focused on revenue growth, but is also focused on cost avoidance, cost mitigation, and cost reduction. Yeah, and, you know, Brendan and I come from similar backgrounds. It started from me. He started at Nissan, and I started at Toyota. And that whole concept of continuous improvement at Kaizen, that gets drilled into you, you know, very, very early in your career. So I think, you know, we'll continue to use that term, you know, at Blink. Great. Next question comes from an investor, and he's asking about the portion of revenue that comes from product versus services. Mm-hmm. The absolute value of the services revenue is still relatively small when you look at the product. The question is: Why even be in services? Why, why invest the time and money and, you know, we talk about services quite a bit- Mm-hmm. -but why? Yeah. So fundamentally, it's services that create a valuable company, period. I mean, I believe that super strongly. So you know, I think right now, our services revenue makes up about a quarter of our total company revenue. You're gonna see that... You're gonna see that grow. So eventually, what we'd like to see is kind of a the flip of that. So instead of 75% coming from product sales, 25% roughly coming from services, we wanna see that invert. So the question is: How do we get there? We get there through continuing to deploy Blink-owned charger assets globally, number one. Number two, we start to get into more sophisticated technologies as it relates to energy management services. And number three, we start to pursue more software as a service offerings through our, again, in-house built network. So that's how we are gonna, you know, that's how we're gonna continue to evolve margins. It's how and so to answer your question, why? Is because it's that high margin, recurring revenue that investors value, quite frankly, and it's just the right way to go. I look at it almost the same way, but let's rephrase the question. Because we get locked into percentages, and what we need to look at is that revenue growing? The answer is fundamentally that revenue is growing. And the reason, simplistic reason why, is units in operation globally, in both the United States and Europe. They continue to grow. The more EVs on the road, the more utilization revenue we're gonna get. Now, we're also victims of our own success. When you win part of the largest chargers award in the history of the United States, 41,500 chargers from the post office, your sales percentage goes up dramatically. So then you're looking at a% and going, "Wow, we're doing great over here." But that constant revenue from the owner-operator model is also consistently growing. And your sales eventually, not today, you're going to see this smooth shift. And what's unique about Blink is better than any other company, we're positioned to take advantage of that shift and make it a natural transition to more and more revenue from the owner-operator model. I mean, no company is positioned like we are. Yeah. So we're gonna continue to pull that sales lever, make great revenue off selling product, especially as we're vertically integrated, and we're continue to invest in the owner-operator model, and as the industry transitions, we're gonna transition with it. Yeah, and just to add one small thing to what Brendan said, and just it, it was great. We listen to the customer. So there is a group of customers that will always wanna buy product. That's just who they are. It makes sense for their use case and their application, and we will be there to sell them that product. But then we think that there's going to be more and more a growing population that is going to want Blink to own and operate that equipment. And so it's not only an internal intentional focus, it's also market dynamics that are going to push us there. So again, as Brendan mentioned, what's fantastic about Blink is that we're able to accommodate both, do both, and we think we address the entire market by doing that. The next question actually ties into services. It's about DC chargers that Blink owns. The question reads: Historically, you've talked a lot about L2. On the last earnings call, you mentioned DC and starting to lean more into DCs. What does that mean for Blink, and can you provide an example of, like, DC economics at a location? So I'll start again, and I'll take the big macro equation for everybody. So, you know, Blink actually started out, and they had quite a few DCs, but over time, questions of it, were they in the right place, the right time, the right charger, right place, right time for the right customer? And we've looked at that equation, and as the marketplace has evolved, we've become very purpose-driven in what we are doing when it comes to chargers. So we're not in the beginning, there was a lot of companies out there that we do what's called plant a flag. Let me get as many DCs or other type of chargers out there, and we say, "Hey, look how great I am. I've got this many chargers in the ground," well, we're a revenue driven company, and we're a publicly traded company. So what we have to do is make on each site, we have to make positive economic decisions, and we have to look at station economics. So when it comes to DC, if our evaluation, using a bit of AI that we have from a third-party company, looking at our own internal processes and procedures, is that gonna have a positive ROI? Now, that may come from that you get a bit of federal funding on that project. You might get capital offset due to a partnership, but whatever that equation is, when we go into the DC fast charger market, we're going into it knowing that we're gonna hit profitability on the site at X day. Now, the reason why it's gonna always be a little lower% of our portfolio than L2 owner operated, is the return on investment is much quicker on L2. If you look at our average install on L2, since we really went to this dynamic site evaluation process, you know, that revenue per site on that, since it's about mid-2020 and on to about the beginning of 2021, when we really reinvented how we were doing that, is the utilization per charger, it had to be at 10% just to get break even on our hybrid model. But the average of those chargers that went in the ground now are 15% growing to 17% on utilization. Your return is so much quicker because the amount of capital that you put into that equation is dramatically less than DC. So you're always gonna see us have a strong position there, 'cause we make money quicker, but also, we're gonna keep going DC. I think Mike will talk about how we're reengaging in some potential bigger things with DC, so I'll let him answer the second part of that. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, really, this is about responsible capital deployment. And so, as Brendan mentioned, the capital required to deploy L2 is much lower than DC. So where does that bring us? It brings us to, when we're looking at DC projects and the capital that's required to deploy those, there are certain criteria that we use. So it's the site analytics that Brendan mentioned, but it's also what funding is available out in the market. There's government funding, there's utility funding, and so what we want to do is find the right site, and we want to take advantage of that offsetting cost in order to put those chargers in responsibly. So we started that process actually a few years ago, and it takes a while. I think, as most people know, it takes a while to get DC charger sites up and running, and we now have several Blink-owned DC charger sites up and running, and we like what we're seeing, and that's the bottom line, is we like the throughput, we like the revenue that's being generated, and so that means that I think you'll see us dip our toe into the water a little bit more, on the DC side, but again, it's going to be sticking with the model that we've employed, which is responsible capital allocation and making sure that that return on investment for that DC site meets our criteria. You know, look, we've led with L2, we've augmented it with DC, we're gonna continue to do that, but we're starting to see more and more of those DC projects come online. Okay. The question is, are you running into transformer issues, and how long does it take to deploy a DC charger? Yeah, I'll start with the macro view, and again, as has been our habit on this call. The transformer issue has improved significantly as the utilities and others have worked with the transformer manufacturers to improve the supply chain. It's still, in terms of equipment, the longest lead time that we have, but it's better. And really, the industry, again, is, you know, it takes a bit for them to structurally adjust and rally when they face this shortage, additionally, and we still need to improve, you know, that lead time on it, but it's gotten a lot better. You know, you'll still see some, depending on the utility in and the utility out, that we're still gonna have a bit of delays than previously on there, but it's getting better, and I expect it to get much better. But Mike actually deals with this daily. So Mike, any follow-ups for you on this? Yeah. I think one of the things that everyone needs to remember is that this is still a young industry. This, you know, while it has gotten a lot of attention, a lot of exposure, it, but it's still relatively young. So when you look at the population of companies out there, whether it be Blink or, other companies in our space, we've all learned a lot over the last few years in terms of the coordination with the utilities, with the sites, with the landlords, and that process has gotten better in terms of the coordination between all of the constituents that need to come together to put a DC site in. So the industry has gotten more efficient with it, in addition to the transformer issue improving a bit, too. It's still there, but as you mentioned, it's gotten better. But I think that generally Blink and others have gotten better in terms of installing DC sites in a more timely fashion. And you're starting to see those ninety sites come online more, et cetera. What's a perfect location for a Blink-owned DC charger? Is it one on a highway, or is it more in an urban environment? Let me tackle this, because I'm very passionate about this topic. Yes, it is. You know, there's no question that if you're looking at let's isolate to the utilization model, and if you want maximum utilization and a faster return on your capital investment, you need to be in the suburban-urban rim. So that, that is maximum. So let's be there, and let's focus on those. Now, you may be able to get respectable utilization on a highway site. Now, you're gonna have to dollar cost average to see how that plays into the portfolio. But we've made a decision as a company to avoid sites that are just a capital dump, and if it's not gonna have any utilization, then we're probably not gonna build that charger, even if we have the opportunity to do so. Michael? No, no, yeah, absolutely. Look, it, you know, it's, you know, it depends what you're trying to accomplish. And what we are trying to accomplish is right charger, right place, right time, that's gonna provide a return on investment for the company, for its shareholders, et cetera. So in terms of the question, the best place to put a DC fast charger is where there's population and where there's traffic. Now, one of the things that we've learned, especially over the last 12 months, is that those sites can look very, very different. You know, we have a site in Philadelphia right now, which is doing incredibly well, and quite frankly, we weren't sure if it was gonna do that well because of the profile of the site, but it actually has wound up being our number one site that we own and operate. So, you know, again, it comes down to the refinement of the analytics around that site, and it's about learning from the chargers that we've already installed and what the profile of those are in order to predict forward as to what will be successful and what won't be successful. You know what, what's great about our business is, you know, and this is the industry as a whole. It's evolving this way: data really sets you free as a company. And when you're utilizing that data to make better economic decisions, I mean, you take the stress off because you're looking at. This isn't just predictive analytics. This is past behavior, current behavior, using that to predict future behavior. And with AI and other great analytical tools, we can really lean into the data. And what we've done at Blink, we've just actually expanded our data analytics team, and we're gonna continue to do that because they make business decisions much easier. Data, we joke a bit about it. We go, "Hey, go out and get some data, and when you're done getting that data, get more data. Hey, and after you get that more data, we might ask you to go get some more," just to make sure that we're not making anal decisions, we're not making anecdotal decisions, we're not making emotional decisions. We're looking at the data, looking at future analytics, and making a sound decision for the company, for our shareholders, and for our employees. Great, thank you. The question is: What type of innovations or technological advancements is Blink working on in the U.S. and also in Europe? We're working on several things, but we're not at a point where we're gonna divulge those. We'll say, stay tuned to some future announcements as we continue to evolve the company. So we don't have anything to disclose at this time, but we're definitely working on several things. How do we improve the customer experience? How do we improve energy management as that becomes more prevalent and more dynamic, both in Europe and in the United States? You know, how do we say that, "Okay, at one given site, before we entered it, you need, you only had this much energy available." Then how do you go in that site and say, "Hey, through energy management tools, we can expand that availability of that energy and cost-effectively manage it." So you can still run a building, you can still run your HVAC, you can still all this, but at the same energy level, you can do EV charging without doing anything. So these new tools that are coming on, that we're developing, that other people are developing, this is really gonna make the industry more efficient. And as we continue to talk about efficiency is really. It's not just internally, but it's a go-to-market strategy and energy management and other new developments like that, that we're working on, what will come out. We'll have announcements on that at a future date. Nothing to report right now. Yeah. Brendan, you touched on something actually that triggered a thought. So, you know, you're often gonna see. So first of all, to answer Tyler's question a little bit, you're gonna see new products from us on the hardware side and on the software side. As Brendan mentioned, no specifics on this call. But what you will see from us is it's very often that you will see Blink out front. You'll see the Blink brand, you'll see the Blink Network, you'll see us front and center. But what we also want to do is make sure that the Blink Network is ubiquitous, meaning that it is integrated into other platforms that are out there that customers are using. It might be a building management system, and that customer is utilizing that building management system, as Brendan mentioned, to manage their HVAC and lighting and all of those things tied to the building. But why not integrate EV charging into that? And in that situation, Blink doesn't need to be front and center. What we do need to do is be plugged in. So as an example, that building management system not only runs the building itself, but it can extend out to the parking lot to run the chargers and to do things like demand response, energy management, things like that. Blink will be out front in some situations, but Blink will be under the hood in many other situations as well. Okay, great. Next question is about supply chain. Mm-hmm. So the question is: Where does Blink have its manufacturing facilities globally? And then, is there any risk about tariffs? So if there were any type of tariffs imposed, is Blink at risk? So right now, we have very limited tariff issues within the company. And, you know, we don't know what the future holds on the tariff situation, but we've positioned the company in such a way we're out of India for our vertically integrated model and chargers. You know, we do a lot of the base part. There's some fabrication involved in that process as well. There's a lot of global sourcing involved, but what we learned through the pandemic is, and Blink really grew through the pandemic, and one of the reasons why we grew through it is we figured out how to develop redundant supply chain mechanisms. So where, you know, four years ago, and this is true of a lot of industry today as well, is where you had one supplier, and you really milked that one supplier, and you fed them, and you're like: We need you to grow. We know where our backup suppliers is, where they are in different countries around the world. It never is an ideal situation, but we can mitigate supply chain delays and issues now better than we ever could in the past. We don't, don't necessarily want that to happen, but if it does, we can take advantage of it. Now, we have set up a system, though, that we can build chargers in the United States. If we need to, we can build chargers in Europe. And most of the tariff situations, Blink can successfully avoid. And I'll give you an example. The U.S. Buy America compliance, the big issue is that, can you build a sub-assembly?... Right? Because just assembling the various parts doesn't do it, and the labor associated with that doesn't count towards Buy America. But we figured out a way to do sub-assemblies here in the United States, and there's a couple of reasons why that's great: because it adds jobs. These are high-tech jobs. These are well-paying jobs. These improve the economy. And we can do that right down here at our facility, and we've committed to the state of Maryland, and we have job targets as a result. So to mitigate tariffs, you have to have this flexible model if they arise. You have to be able to build in Europe and assemble in Europe, build in the United States, assemble in the United States, and be flexible about your global supply chain. And that's what we're doing today at Blink. Yeah, the only other thing I would add is, you know, in our old assembly facility, manufacturing facility here, it's actually kind of right next door to us. They were able to produce about 20,000 chargers a year, and since we opened our new manufacturing facility right down the street, you know, we're looking at upwards of 50,000 a year. And as Brendan mentioned, we can augment that with production in Europe, and we can augment it with production, finished goods, final assembly, if we so choose to do that in India. So we can expand the manufacturing footprint and the production footprint of this company pretty quickly and pretty in a flexible manner. And also, you know, when you touch on supply chain, because, again, because we manufacture those goods, we have more control over the supply chain because we're the ones that are dealing with the component level issues, as opposed to, you know, a little bit of a barrier, let's say, between us and maybe a third-party company or a third-party manufacturer that sees that. So again, our team can, you know, is closer to the action, so to speak, on making sure that we are delivering on a supply chain basis. You know, it's really funny because Mike and I were around here and trying to figure it out in 2020 and 2021, where our predominant mix was third-party manufacturing. And what we gained a degree of expertise at is we were starting to source parts for our third-party manufacturers and find these parts from redundant, you know, gray market suppliers and everything. And when we moved towards, you know, building our own chargers, this just became an expertise. But, you know, you develop that out of necessity. Okay, how do we help our own manufacturer here who's building our chargers? They can't find this component. We went out, sourced them, got them. In some cases, we backstopped it to make sure they had a supply of it, and now we round it up in vertical integration, and we've become very good at it. So, you know, it's interesting because a global crisis, you know, it necessitates change, then that change becomes effective in efficiency for other situations as you move forward. So out of a, you know, a crisis comes good. Great. And does Blink plan to build its own DC charger and moving? That's a great question, and we get asked it a lot. So right now, we do build our own charger. It is a 30- and 40-kilowatt fleet charger. It's predominantly distributed to fleets. A lot of dealerships are using that product now today. We have our own product design for a 240-kilowatt, all-in-one silicon carbide unit. That design is solidified. Right now, the question is: What is the market for that product right now, number one? How do we get to scale with it, number two? What we're finding is it's better for Blink to have good third-party relationships on the high-end DC end, because that product is going through a great deal of metamorphosis. It's getting more efficiencies. It started out with power modules that weren't silicon carbide. Now, it's all moving to silicon carbide. It's going to go from a... Right now, it moved to an 800-volt architecture, and now it's 800-volt with silicon carbide is the new way. And now, you know, crazy enough, people are going, "Well, even though there's no vehicles that charge at 500 kilowatts, we've got ones that people that want that." So that's a, that's an intensely moving space, right? We're better to help a manufacturer, help them achieve scale in innovation. And then on the L2, it's much more simplistic. What we always forget about this, is that we call L2 chargers, but they're not. They're just devices that convey electricity into the onboard charger in the vehicle. DC fast chargers, they're chargers, and they do have a direct current into the battery. Much more complex and much more subject to innovation over time. Yeah, the only thing I'd add, Vitalie, is that it's also about price stability. So when we look at L2 versus DC, we see a lot more price stability in L2, and the numbers shift in DC. You know, you have the power outputs increasing, you have prices falling, and so when you look at your inventory investment, you've got to be careful. And again, it becomes a capital allocation decision. And for right now, it makes sense for Blink to manufacture our own L2, but as Brendan mentioned, to source DC, because we think it's lower risk, and our supply chain on DC right now is actually quite good. So there's no necessity for us to start building our own DC tomorrow. Okay, so last question from our participant, and then I'll ask you a couple more just as a final one. But, manufacturers sell chargers that are compatible with multiple networks. How important is software in the charging industry? And maybe you can talk about from the product perspective, firmware, but also the network perspective. So it's key, and there's a lot of focus in the U.S. and a lot of focus in Europe, and has been to Europe for a much longer period of time, on interoperability in all its various iterations, whether that's the roaming aspects or the product compatibility aspects of it. So when you control your software, then you're able to build a new technology stack that, as Mike has referenced this several times in his statements, where you can plug and play other technology into it. And whether that's someone's fleet system or, as Mike mentioned, a building management system, et cetera, it's key. And everything we're doing in our technology stack is to be able to adapt to somebody else's technology in a new and innovative way. We don't have an old network. As, I mean, as a matter of fact, our network is still developing. Daily, our production teams in the U.S., Europe, and in India, where the bulk of our developers are, they're developing new features, advantages, and benefits in the network every day. Based on what our customers are saying, we assess it, we say: Okay, here's the time we need to deploy that. The key for a company like Blink is to stay flexible, is to be able to say to a customer, "Yeah, we can develop that." It is cost effective to be able to do that. It makes sense, and then it has a play or a scale to it for our other customers out there, and that's the way we look at it. So we're gonna continue to evolve and develop that. We're, we don't see a future in which we're gonna go to a high degree of third-party developers out there. We're gonna contain the cost on this and preserve our margin. Michael? Yeah. So I would say, software is incredibly important in this industry, and for us, there's really four areas that it touches upon. Number one, it's the mobile app that drivers use every day to find and charge at a Blink charging station, so the mobile app needs to be great. The second thing is the Blink Network platform that our customers use in order to understand the profile of the chargers that they have installed on site, and all of the reporting that comes with them. The third is the firmware development on the hardware itself, so on the charging stations itself. So again, where things in the industry often break down, it's when the network and the charger don't talk to each other properly, and that's largely on the firmware side, which is the software that runs the charger itself. So again, we own that. So that's the third piece. And then the fourth piece is the software, is the API software around integrations, as Brendan mentioned, this concept of integrating. So we need to be good, and not just good, we actually need to be great in all four of these areas. And the team knows that, and they're focused on that. And look, nobody's perfect, but you know, look, we get better and better and better every day. So as Brendan talked about, it's Kaizen, it's continuous improvement, and we're gonna continue to focus there, and we're gonna continue to invest in it. Great. So we're done with questions from participants, but I'd like to ask you a question as your last question today about your- Oh, no. Here we go. It's a vision question. I think it's important for our participants to hear it, and we'll start with Brendan. Brendan, you always talk about the team, right? You talk about the team at Blink, but the team talks about you as a veteran, and I think you have to explain a little bit. Many people think that Tesla was the first mass-produced EV in the U.S., but also the world, but in fact, I think it was Nissan LEAF, and you were at Nissan, rolling out the car to the North American market. So that's the first, and I think when you were at LEAF, you were actually sponsoring some of the early networks. You were helping them implement the chargers, roll them out. You spent a number of years at Electrify America, and you've probably installed numerous or a large number of DC chargers, and we know you also spent some time at EVgo. So you've been around, you've seen the industry where it started, and the question is: Where do you think it's going? What's the next tipping point or what's the next frontier that charging needs to get? So it's a great question, and I say that a lot, but you know, the great thing about EVs and the great thing about EV infrastructure is where we are today and then where we have to be tomorrow. So let's go, and let's drive an analogy back to the Model T. Well, we're going way back. The first mass-produced internal combustion engine, right? And when that car came out, it you know, it had a very low efficiency rate. It was brand new. There wasn't any innovation in it. It was very mechanical and clumsy and completely inefficient. But that's the way the mass-produced internal combustion engine started in the United States and globally. And, you know, depending on where we get, we can get into arguments of who started mass-producing internal combustion engines, but, you know, there's some other manufacturers that claim to fame, not just Ford on that. But when it began, you think about the technological advancements in internal combustion engines, where they went then and where they're at today, and look at EV and EV infrastructure, and we're still at that infancy. We're at that very, very beginning. So think about the future over the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years of what we are going to achieve, and you see this bright, beautiful future. And, you know, part of that is new jobs. Part of that, for countries like the United States, is energy independence. You know, it's domestically produced energy that creates more jobs throughout the energy sector, and it's new spin-off technologies. The ecosystem, when we started back in the day with the Nissan LEAF, and we said, "You have to charge this," people looked at us like, "What are you talking about? I got to charge it. I fuel it at a gas station." We go, "No, you have to plug it in, and we got to sell chargers." And we had to explain all that. If you look at where we have to go in, in future years with this new technology and the amount of new revolutions that are gonna happen, you know, we go from a charger and a vehicle to a charger and a vehicle and an energy management system. We go from a charger, vehicle, energy management system to big batteries as a mitigator of demand charges, as a storage unit. Then we integrate into solar, then we integrate into microgrids, then we help the country develop, you know, distributed energy management that are more efficient and less drag on the grid as a whole. This has exponential growth. We can really revolutionize the way that energy is used and dispensed in this country through the electrification of vehicles and the electrification of all modes of transportation. So when you take that concept and you lay it down in a business model, you see nothing but promise. There's very few things that stand in our way. Sure, there's going to be setbacks. Sure, there's going to be political fights. Those always happen. But when you look at historically over time, when you latch onto a technology and then you invest in that technology, it becomes dominant over time. China's at 50%. Europe hovers between 20% and 25%. We go between 8% and 10%, and then the world's fourth-largest economy, which is the great state of California, they're at 20% to 25%. So this future is incredibly bright. This industry is going to grow exponentially, and, you know, we're happy to be a part of that. We believe fundamentally that the future for Blink, as well as the future for the industry, is going to be very, very positive. Can I add to that? Please. All right. So I think, like, when I look at this industry, I see, I think about it in terms of the consumer, and the consumer says, "There's not enough range. There's not enough range in the car, and that's why I'm not buying it." We hear and read articles about uptime and the challenges associated with uptime, and the third is we hear naysayers talk about the grid and the capacity of the grid, so number one, when it comes to consumers, the last time I checked, the OEMs were developing new products every day, and they know that range is an issue for consumers, and guess what? The battery technology is getting better. The range is going to get better. That is going to get solved. There's absolutely no question about it. The second thing is charger uptime. Again, this is an issue that is front and center. It is an issue that Blink talks about every single day as to how do we ensure that that network is up and running. And by the way, it's challenging because we have direct control over the chargers that we own and operate, so we can repair or replace those things at will. But we also have a whole population of chargers that we do not own, that somebody bought, and so now we need to figure out a way to wrap that all together. And the third is the grid. And, you know, this may be too simplistic, but I believe in American ingenuity. I believe in American invention. I believe that where there's a problem that sits out there, and grid capacity is one, that guess what? People are going to solve it. So I'm not worried about any of those three things because I think that they will be addressed. And when you look at Blink specifically, we think about our mission, our vision, and our values. And our mission is to be at the center of the transportation, the electrification, of transportation, and we're right there. And our vision is to ensure energy independence for all. I mean, one of the beautiful things about electrification is that it's all electricity is all produced here in the United States. We don't import electricity from another country. So when you talk about energy security, electrification provides that. And when you talk about our values, what Blink talks about is listen, learn, and lead. We listen not only to our customers, but to each other internally. We learn from those conversations and that feedback, and that enables us to lead in the market as a company. So that's what I'm really excited about. And, you know, look, the future is super bright. I wouldn't be here if I didn't think so. It's incumbent on me to leave with a final word on this, and this is true at Blink, and this needs to be true, and I believe it is becoming true everywhere, that there's not one person. It's not, and nothing gets done with one person. You can't be a me guy. You got to be a we guy. Yeah, and you have to invest in we, and at Blink, you know, when we re-transformed the company, that was the first thing we did. We put the emphasis on team and collaboration and decision-making and fact-based decision-making. We developed our leaders from within, and we promoted our leaders from within and helped them take on new challenges and continue to develop. And that's why, at this point in time, you know, when you're asked, "Okay, what about this transition?" Well, Blink is positioned so well for a multiplicity of transitions because that's our philosophy, is that you're going to get there as a team. The team is going to get you there. Make sure they're working together, provide them the resources to work together, provide the culture where the freedom of ideas flows. Don't get angry with someone or come down on someone if they make a mistake. Let's remember, we're all here, and we're all bright, mostly because of the mistakes we've made, not because of we started out and we had all these great successes. We learned, and we learned from our own mistakes, and we create opportunities, and we learn as a team from our mistakes and create future opportunities. That's the essence of Blink Charging today. I believe, as I depart in late January, that's going to continue to be the essence. Listen, learn, and lead. Those are our core values as a company, and we're going to continue to embody that. Mike is going to continue to embody that as the future president and CEO of the company. And I'm going to sit back on an Alaskan cruise somewhere, happy to see how great the company is doing and see the stock price elevate due to all the efforts of the new team. Thanks. Vitalie, anything else for us? No, I think this is a good note to end, and I actually do remember both of you pointing to the fact that there's no letter I in Blink. If you look how it's spelled, there's no letter I in it. There is really no I in Blink. I'm glad we're closing on this note, but we'd like to thank all the participants on the webinar today. We'd like to thank Brendan and Mike, and congratulations to both of you, and thank you to our team in Bowie. So at this time, we're going to conclude, and we got some more questions in the last couple of minutes, but we'll make an effort today and tomorrow to respond to them via email or maybe phone calls, but we're open at any time. Please send your questions to ir@blinkcharging.com. Thanks again.