With the announcement of Ecotality’s filing for bankruptcy earlier this week, it was revealed that Nissan gave the company, which operates the DOE-sponsored Blink Network of EV charging, a lifeline of $1.25 million to continue operations. The Blink Network, through the bankruptcy process, will likely offer its entire operations or its key assets for sale in an auction. It’s too early to tell if Nissan is in the running to take control of Blink, but there are excellent reasons why it makes sense.
The logic is simple: without fully functioning private and public chargers, electric car sales will suffer. Beyond that, the Blink bankruptcy—and the inability of any major EV charging network provider to demonstrate a successful business model for selling very inexpensive electricity to drivers—signals a shift in the corporate structure for public charging.
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