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Uh Oh - Ecotality Exploring Restructuring or Sale, Cites List of Challenges
- Thread starter ggies07
- Start date
I think that is/was "bad form". You might get away with getting your charge, but you could be contributing to pre-mature wear by slightly overheating it for an extended period of time.
Just because it didn't melt or trip the breaker during your charing session(s) doesn't mean you didn't damage it.
I have seen other stations wear out pre-maturely because people experimented with pushing them beyond the rated/expected limits.
TonyWilliams
Active Member
As one of the guys fighting Ecotality / Blink for some time, I take exception to the concept that Ecotality just made some unfortunate, innocent mistakes.
Here's some background:
s Extensive Political Muscle | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation
"On a July 2007 shareholder conference call, Ecotality CEO Jonathan Read put it bluntly: “I’m a political beast,” he told a shareholder, “and playing the political card is something that when the time is right we’re going to play very hard.” Asked when that time might be, Read answered, “you call in your chips when you have a specific project you want to go after.”"
"It wasn’t long before such a project emerged. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Ecotality shifted its lobbying strategy. Until then, it had devoted most of its lobbying muscle to “continu[ing the] competitive bid process for DOE testing,” in the words of its disclosure forms. During the Bush administration, Ecotality received contracts to test electric vehicle technology, and lobbying efforts were geared toward continuing that relationship."
"In August of 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama announced his goal to get 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. Around that time, Ecotality’s lobbying efforts, previously confined to Congress and DOE, were expanded to the White House, and to include work on “DOE projects,” a slight but significant shift in the topic under discussion."
According to ECOtality’s public filings, the SEC opened an investigation into allegations of insider trading:
"On October 28, 2010, we and our ECOtality North America subsidiary, as well as certain individuals, received subpoenas from the SEC, pursuant to a formal Private Order of Investigation, in connection with a fact-finding inquiry as to trading in shares of our common stock from the period between August 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009."
This Blink (Rema) J1772 plug was fused onto my car at 30 amps:
Here's some background:
s Extensive Political Muscle | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation
"On a July 2007 shareholder conference call, Ecotality CEO Jonathan Read put it bluntly: “I’m a political beast,” he told a shareholder, “and playing the political card is something that when the time is right we’re going to play very hard.” Asked when that time might be, Read answered, “you call in your chips when you have a specific project you want to go after.”"
"It wasn’t long before such a project emerged. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Ecotality shifted its lobbying strategy. Until then, it had devoted most of its lobbying muscle to “continu[ing the] competitive bid process for DOE testing,” in the words of its disclosure forms. During the Bush administration, Ecotality received contracts to test electric vehicle technology, and lobbying efforts were geared toward continuing that relationship."
"In August of 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama announced his goal to get 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. Around that time, Ecotality’s lobbying efforts, previously confined to Congress and DOE, were expanded to the White House, and to include work on “DOE projects,” a slight but significant shift in the topic under discussion."
According to ECOtality’s public filings, the SEC opened an investigation into allegations of insider trading:
"On October 28, 2010, we and our ECOtality North America subsidiary, as well as certain individuals, received subpoenas from the SEC, pursuant to a formal Private Order of Investigation, in connection with a fact-finding inquiry as to trading in shares of our common stock from the period between August 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009."
This Blink (Rema) J1772 plug was fused onto my car at 30 amps:
ZBB
Emperor
For FYI... Looks like Blink has pushed out the power reductions to some of their units to try to prevent the melting issue... I charged at one today that had a max of 17 Amps avail...
I'll be avoiding Blink chargers unless absolutely necessary going forward...
I'll be avoiding Blink chargers unless absolutely necessary going forward...
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP Files Class Action Suit against ECOtality, Inc.
http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases-ecotality.htmlclass action suit. sign up if you're a shareholder, lol.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/08/15/robbins-geller-rudman-dowd-llp-files-class-action-/
RE: Austin Marxe and David Greenhouse
It looks like their still at it! They dumped another 580k shares two days ago.... , interesting to see the timing of this all ... LOL have fun in jail guys!!!
The real interesting part - Nissan is offering to loan Ecotality $1.3M as well to get them through bankruptcy...
Any other news on this issue with Blink bankruptcy?
Nissan going to buy them or fund the existing network? It would be a shame for all of those Blink recharging locations to rust away.
What are the other options for charging networks that we should consider? Which of them seem to have the quality or financial strength to stay in business?
Nissan going to buy them or fund the existing network? It would be a shame for all of those Blink recharging locations to rust away.
What are the other options for charging networks that we should consider? Which of them seem to have the quality or financial strength to stay in business?
I don't know about that... given their lack of reliability, starting fires, being derated, maybe rusting away is the best thing!
I get their SEC filings. They have filed for bankruptcy and I got a filing that basically said they would be delisted from NASDAQ as of Sept 27th unless someone came to their rescue. I also got one saying their assets were being auctioned.
There was talk of Nissan giving them a loan (in the two weeks prior to these filings listed above). I don't know what became of that, but given what followed, I assumed it didn't matter.
There was talk of Nissan giving them a loan (in the two weeks prior to these filings listed above). I don't know what became of that, but given what followed, I assumed it didn't matter.
Normally I would agree but in many areas they have the majority of public chargers. Here in this part of the state, over 90% of the public chargers are Blink! So if they suddenly all shutdown, it would be a serious disruption and could set the EV movement back! What would make me happy is if somebody takes over, leaves them going and then starts the process of swapping out the stations with ChargePoints or any other station really.
TonyWilliams
Active Member
In a short chat with a Nissan exec, they have no intention to buy Ecotality. Of course, the makes one seriously question why they would give them over a million dollars for just a few weeks of operation of the moribund company.
The auction should be Oct 9, so we will know soon. The folks from Ecotality are enjoying their cut of the $130 million tax payer dollars that they pocketed; no jail time, no significant repercussions... just champagne wishes and caviar dreams.
The auction should be Oct 9, so we will know soon. The folks from Ecotality are enjoying their cut of the $130 million tax payer dollars that they pocketed; no jail time, no significant repercussions... just champagne wishes and caviar dreams.
I have to say, I agree with ChrisPDX. Blink has huge portion of public chargers in many states, and many people have these in their homes (lots of Nissan Leaf owners). I really don't want these EV folks left out in the cold. I won't speculate on what will happen. I'm just hoping that regardless of what happens to Ecotality, the folks that rely on the Blink stations (public or home) have some options after the dust settles.
Let me put this in perspective. In the Phoenix area there are 459 Blink chargers. In second place, Chargepoint has 4. It's safe to say that more than 97% of the public stations in this area would be gone if Blinks were turned off. Basically, there'd be no EV infrastructure. Now that I have a MS, I don't use them much, if at all. But it's nice knowing they are there. For all the Leaf and Volt owners (I also have a Volt which is now just our second car) this could be devastating, esp with our urban sprawl.
"Yes, the point of a hybrid is to get all the benefits of both but no penalties of either?"
So they get the HOV lane, have two supplies of propulsion at public locations, and qualify for all the special parking spots and such. Sounds like a great scam to me.
I wonder if we should raise this as a concern to the WA state gov't: hybrids should pay the yearly EV fee as well.
surfingslovak
Member
That's a very good point! Thankfully, there are not that many metropolitan areas where the Blink network enjoys near-monopoly status. It might have something to do with the fact that Phoenix used to be there home turf. Their charging business originated with eTec, which was a local company founded by former AZ utility execs.
San Diego is also nearly all Blink, especially L2 stations. Just not that many DC QC stations, except for recently installed stations at Nissan dealers and now one eVgo station the other day.
The Bay Area is unique in having multiple options for charging. I've only used my Chargepoint card once and that was at the QC in San Juan Capistrano. All other charging has been on the Blink network.
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