And another one bites the dust

[Richard230]

Blink files for bankruptcy and blames the government for their troubles (along with a few other things).
So it looks like there will be a lot fewer charging stations around that actually work.  I wonder what will happen to all of their equipment?

http://insideevs.com/ecotality-heading-for-bankruptcy-as-doe-shuts-off-the-tap/

[Shinysideup]

I'm certainly no financial whiz, but when I read:

"As of their most recently filing on March 31, ECOtality had capital obligations of $71,000..."

I thought, 'Well, $71K isn't TOO bad, for a national company.'

Then I read:

"...and long-term debt of $188,000 as of March 31."

Again, not horrible for a publicly traded corporation. My mortgage is bigger than that.

But then this one hit me:

"During the first quarter of 2013, the company reported a loss "of $588,000 on revenue $15.9 million worth of revenue."

Now THAT's got to be a badly run business, even if they ARE in early phase development.

Seems like the deciding factor was the DOE suspending payments and announcing they wouldn't cover any future expenditures during the suspension. Cash flow crunch time.

You'd think somebody (Chargepoint?) would snap up their equipment and sites on the cheap. Hopefully.

[Richard230]

My newspaper published an article about poor old Blink (Ecotality).  It seems that they had more problems than just cash flow and not being bailed out by Uncle Sugar.  Ecotality makes charging and power-storage systems for electric vehicles under the Blink and Minit Charger brands.  It also does testing for government agencies, auto-makers and utilities.

Ecotality had an inability to sell enough commercial EV equipment to sustain operations and they will also miss the scheduled release of a new Minit Charger for industrial customers because of "unacceptable performance" during testing.  The company also learned last Thursday that additional financing from their existing loan provider wouldn't be approved.  When this happened, they notified the government and that was when the DOE decided to bail out and not bail them out.

The company also ran afoul of the U.S. Department of Labor over payments to workers and contractors, which resulted in Ecotality having to pay $855,000 to cover back wages and damages.  Adding insult to injury, the company said that some of its charging systems have caused over-heating and even melting of the connector plug when charging a vehicle.  Some auto manufacturers are considering advising their customers to avoid recharging with Blink or Minit chargers unless Ecotality replaces all of the connector plugs on about 12,000 charging stations. 

The company has retained FTI Consulting to find new sources of financing, cost-cutting steps, staffing needs and to help with the possible sale of the company or its assets.