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EV charging company Blink charging missed its estimates for its fourth quarter revenue due in part to a steep pullback in product sales, which fell 49% on an annual basis. The company expects sales to improve by the second half of 2025, but predicts flat growth in the first half of the year as the EV industry adjusts to the new administration. Joining me now, we've got Mike Battaglia, Blink charging CEO. Mike, great to have you on and thanks so much for joining us this morning. I just want to start with you on how you're looking at the year ahead given the policy uncertainty of this administration. We obviously know that the Trump administration is rolling back government subsidies for EVs. What impact does that have on your business?

Yeah, thanks Madison. Uh, you know, thanks very much for uh, for having me today. Very happy to be here. So first of all, Blink has built uh, our company not on government subsidies and government policy. We built our company on a foundation of commercial success. So we work with commercial enterprises across uh multiple vertical markets. Now, that said, is there noise in the market? Is there turmoil? Uh were there certain programs uh that were under the Biden administration that are now paused under the Trump administration that would have been beneficial? Uh yes, that's for sure. But the one thing I want everyone to remember is that this industry is fundamentally strong. EV sales are still very strong both here and in Europe where we have a significant presence. And the final point to this is that ultimately, the consumer is going to decide how the EV uh electric vehicle market progresses. So it's not going to be government policy, it's not going to be uh any external factors. It's going to be uh attractive EVs that are launched by automotive OEMs and it's going to be consumers that are choosing or not choosing uh those products to buy.

And talk to me about how you are thinking about the impact of Tesla moving forward. You've obviously seen a sales slump in Tesla uh vehicles, obviously domestically, but also more more potently abroad. Does that hurt your business?

No, I mean, I think what you're seeing in the market actually uh are the other OEMs, not Tesla, that are introducing a number of new electric vehicles into the market. I think in 2025 alone in the United States, there's going to be roughly 40 new electric vehicle uh launches in the US. So what's really happening is consumers are perhaps moving away from Tesla a bit, uh and that they're choosing to consider other EVs uh from other OEMs. The other thing is that uh currently, uh Tesla drivers uh make up a significant portion of uh uh uh consumers that actually charge on our charging network. So that's just one aspect of it, but what we're seeing uh are market share gains among the other OEMs. So, you know, our charging stations uh are equipped with uh universal plugs, so uh whether it's a Tesla driver, whether it's a non- Tesla driver, uh for us we're we're agnostic in in in that regard.

And obviously you are also the leading EV charging network in Europe. Are you investing more abroad than you are domestically given what we've talked about and some of the challenges?

Yeah, good question, and just to clarify, we are the third largest EV charging network in the US and a leading, not the leading, but a leading EV charging market in Europe. So, you know, we don't we're not managing our business on on short-term uh vagaries in the market. We're building this company for the mid-term and long-term long-term success. Now, has some of our effort and some of our focus shifted a bit more to Europe? Yes, it has. Uh there's a steadier state there. Um there are interesting opportunities that we're seeing in Europe, especially in the UK, uh with a program, a government-funded program called Levy, LEVI, uh which is actually similar to the US's program of Nevy. So we're well-positioned there, we're well-positioned in Belgium where we have a very strong presence. So the short answer to your question is is yes, we're focusing uh a bit more resources there, but we are still, I want to be very, very clear, we are still very bullish and optimistic uh on the US market.

So what do you think is the biggest tailwind to EV adoption in the United States, just given the slowdown that we've seen, and I know you saw huge pop in 2023 when we all saw that huge pop in EV sales, and of course that's come down from there, but what is the next big catalyst for EV sales that would be good for your business?

Yeah, so first of all, you know, our our business is comprised of two things. We both sell product, and you highlighted that in your chart uh at the intro where our product sales are down. But the real bright spot for Blink and where our strategy is moving uh is to become an owner operator of EV charging stations. And our owner operator revenue in the fourth quarter uh was up uh actually for the year, it was up 32% uh for the quarter, it was up over 25%. So we're seeing tremendous growth on the owner operator side of the business where we own the station and we earn a return on investment on the electricity that goes through that station. So to answer your question catalyst, uh it is for us to continue building upon that owner operator model, have less reliance on the product sale side of the business, and quite frankly, take advantage of the electrification of transportation. And that is an inevitable outcome. It does not mean that 100% of vehicles on the road are going to be electric. Does it mean that a significant percentage of them will? Absolutely. And I also don't believe uh that the United States is going to give up the EV charging market uh to China. So again, I think this is temporary. I think things will settle down. I think we'll see that in the second half of the year. Uh and again, we just remain, you know, very optimistic uh for the market. We remain optimistic for Blink.