Blink CEO: Our Business isn’t Built on Government Subsidies
It seems the biggest names in electric-vehicle charging aren’t too worried about the impact of President Donald Trump’s recent actions on EV incentive programs and tariffs. Leaders at Blink Charging Co., ChargePoint Holdings and EVgo Inc. all fielded questions about the topic during recent conferences and earnings calls.
Most recently, Blink’s new CEO, Mike Battaglia, discussed the (non)-impact that the recent, ongoing suspension of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) might have on the business during the 37th annual Roth Conference on March 18.
“I want to make clear that Blink does not build its business on subsidies,” he said. “We don't build our business on government funding. We build our business on the commercial viability of what we do.”
Battaglia, who assumed the role on Feb. 1 after the planned retirement of Brendan Jones, went on to clarify that federal funding is still helpful in how fast it helps get more chargers in place. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the company contracted, sold and deployed more than 4,000 chargers—slightly under the 5,100 chargers in the same period of 2023. For the full year, that number came in at nearly 20,000.
The comment from Battaglia echoes his sentiment from Blink’s March 13 Q4 results conference call, where he said the company had little exposure to NEVI, and that it was more focused on its UK counterpart, LEVI.
Rather than the large-scale, interconnected nature of NEVI, the Local EV Infrastructure Fund helps local authorities in England plan and deliver charging infrastructure for residents without off-street parking. So far, the program has awarded 25 projects with roughly $74 million each. Earlier this month, Blink was named the preferred bidding partner by Brighton & Hove City Council for a 15-year contract. The project is one of the first to receive LEVI funding and is valued at over $650,000 for a minimum of 350 chargers.
Blink’s preference for local projects also came up during the Roth fireside chat, where Battaglia brought up what he considered the most favorable program under NEVI, the Community Fueling and Infrastructure (CFI) program.
Rather than a nationwide network, the CFI program focuses on placing a mix of Level 2 and DC fast chargers in local communities where it is needed most, based on EV registrations.
“For [Blink], it wasn't about an EV driving from New York to Maine […] We still think it is about an EV driving within their local, daily commute, going to the shopping center back and forth, where the vast majority of the use of the car is. So, we do hope that CFI comes back,” he said.
While tariffs didn’t come up at the Roth gathering, Battaglia did comment on it during earnings, saying his team didn’t expect tariffs to be a “significant burden” on Blink’s gross margins since the company sources most of its materials and components in the United States and India, where its production facilities are located.
“Will we get hit with some tariffs on steel and aluminum on our India-finished goods? Yes, but our cost base on those chargers is lower so we can absorb it,” he said.
Battaglia’s outlook was echoed by EVgo CEO Badar Khan, who said March 4 that his team expects “minimal impact” from tariffs and NEVI losses.
“We don’t source our chargers from China. Our supply chain is really not impacted by Canada or Mexico tariffs. Our hardware vendors have operations in the United States for BABA-compliant shipments,” he said.
As for NEVI: While EVgo has benefitted from several awards, Khan said the focus is more on growing usage. The company ended 2024 with 4,000 charging stalls and hit a new record of 24% network utilization. In 2025, Khan and his team expect NEVI and government programs to represent approximately 10% of capital expenditures.
“As we said before, this is not a business particularly reliant on federal incentives, and our next-generation charging architecture program is targeting at least a 30% reduction in gross capex per stall, significantly more than the value of these federal incentives.”
The story was much the same for ChargePoint, which released its earnings on March 4. ChargePoint, unlike Blink and EVgo, only builds chargers, which CEO Rick Wilmer pointed out.
“ChargePoint does not own and operate charging infrastructure. We do not sell electricity to drivers, nor are we reliant on federal funding,” he said, adding that NEVI-related deals made up an “insignificant” portion of 2024’s $417 million in revenue.
On tariffs, he had similar thoughts to Khan and Battaglia: The costs will be inconsequential.
“Luckily for us, we diversified our manufacturing footprint substantially over the last year and a half. We’ve got factories in multiple countries now, including the U.S.,” he said. “Based on everything that’s been announced thus far and put into play—and, even to some extent, things that have been rumored to be put into play—our analysis shows that we should not have a major impact on our supply chain and therefore [cost of goods sold] as a result of tariffs.”
