A leading maker of electric vehicle charging devices has formally established its global headquarters in Bowie following the grand opening of a new 30,000-square-foot manufacturing site located within Melford Town Center.
At a Monday morning event attended by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and federal officials, Blink Charging Co. President and CEO Brendan Jones said the facility and the company's nearby 15,000-square-foot corporate office condenses all of Blink's operations to two locations going forward, down from the five sites it conducts business in throughout the country.
Blink (NASDAQ: BLNK) previously maintained corporate offices in Miami, though the move to Maryland could mark a return home for some of the company's workforce as Blink acquired SemaConnect Inc., a Bowie electric vehicle charging company, in June 2022 for $200 million.
In an interview, Jones told me that he and other company executives toured several states in the company's pursuit of a new manufacturing facility.
Ultimately, he said the company's existing local footprint and the roughly $1.6 million in grants, loans and other Maryland tax incentives led the company to make the $49 million investment to scale out operations in Greater Washington. It's now expecting to produce over 50,000 Level 2 EV chargers per year out of Bowie, up from the 12,000 or so it has produced locally in years past.
"AI is becoming big in D.C. You've got the corridor going out to the Dulles Airport, which is all high tech, you've got the biotech and new tech corridor going up to [Interstate] 270, and now you've got other technology spreading throughout Maryland," Jones told me. "D.C., Maryland and Virginia is really becoming a tech community, and we're glad to be part of that growing movement."
Jones told me he expects these two sites in Bowie to employ "a minimum of 100" people within the next year, up from the 50 or so workers today. That's in addition to any employees who relocate from Florida, he said.
He also shared plans for the company's corporate office, which will someday also serve as home to Blink's Charging Center for Excellence. That facility will require the hiring of more engineers to oversee testing and other functions it plans. Blink will also look to house a facility for quality and customer satisfaction out of its corporate office, which is located in two buildings away from the manufacturing location.
Jones told me the company is No. 2 in the U.S. behind Campbell, California-based ChargePoint Holdings Inc. when it comes to manufacturing EV plugs across public and private charging stations. He said the company will announce Thursday it has surpassed $140 million in revenue during fiscal 2023. It ended the prior fiscal year with $61 million in total revenues.
The relocation and new real estate will allow the manufacturer to improve its margins as well, Jones said. During its most recent fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30, Blink posted a $112 million net loss compared to the $25 million net loss in the same quarter a year prior.
"This is about how do we make sure that we can build a measurement of economic growth that creates pathways to work, wages and wealth for all members of our communities, and not just some," Moore said during a press event. "It's about how do we make sure that we can both have a greener economy and also address the racial wealth gap. It's about how do we make sure that we're not spending money on the consequences of climate change, but actually coming up with investments so that people don't have to continue putting money into or being left behind because of a changing climate. This is all about the economy."
The Biden administration is vying to have 50% of all new vehicle sales be for EVs by 2030. During the event, federal officials said that a lack of sufficient national charging infrastructure is preventing many Americans from flipping the switch to purchasing an EV, though investments like those made by Blink are helping to change that narrative.
