What happened
Electric-car charging company Blink Charging (BLNK +4.35%) grabbed headlines again today -- in a good way -- announcing that it has won another grant of state funding to expand its car-charging network. Blink investors are cheering...
...And Blink stock is up 10.3% in 10:20 a.m. EST trading.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
So what did Blink do this time? Well, similar to last month's win of state funding from Vermont, this time around Blink is getting some money from the Ohio state government.
Specifically, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's Diesel Mitigation Trust Fund will fund the installation of 144 Blink 1Q 200 fast charging stations at 32 sites across the state, including at "healthcare centers, hotels, and municipal parking lots." Blink will be responsible for signing the long-term agreements under which it can operate the chargers, which it will own, with the "location site hosts."
Now what
And that does sound like kind of a big deal -- nearly three times bigger than the Vermont project, in fact. The question investors must keep front and center, however, is how big of a deal this will be in terms of dollars and cents.
Consider: Blink says that it has already deployed "over 23,000 charging stations" across the U.S. But all of those stations combined generated less than $4.5 million in revenue for Blink over the past 12 reported months -- and resulted in a $12.8 million bottom-line loss for the company.
So...are 144 more stations going to be enough to change that? Does this addition really make Blink Charging stock $175 million more valuable today than it was yesterday? I'd love to be able to tell you yes, but I fear the answer is more likely no.
