Dana Hull covers clean technology and energy policy for the San Jose Mercury News. She often writes about electric vehicles, the smart grid, the solar industry and California energy policy, from RPS goals to Gov. Jerry Brown's big dreams for distributed generation.
CEO Shuffle at ECOtality: Brar in, Read out
ECOtality, a San Francisco-based maker of charging stations for electric vehicles, has a new CEO. Ravi Brar is in; Jonathan Read is out.
Brar joined ECOtality in 2010 as CFO and was named CEO Wednesday. He previously worked at Exigen Services, Inc., Pac-West Telecom and Xerox.
Read, ECOtality’s president and CEO since the company’s founding in 2005, is leaving the company to “explore new development opportunities.”
Ecotality says that as of mid-August, it has installed 8,100 charging stations, mostly along the East and West coasts and in Phoenix, Texas and Tennessee. Some are private charging stations; others are part of its “Blink” network.
But the company is widely perceived as struggling. It recently reported $13 million in revenue but is low on cash. It faces competition from other start-ups like Coulomb Technologies, Better Place and ClipperCreek. And the stock has been trading under $1 for several weeks.
“We’re going to continue to focus on expanding the network,” said Brar, who has a background in telecom, in an interview. “That drives our current revenue and our long term stability. ” That drives our current revenue and our long term stability. We’re well positioned to continue to grow, and that will have a positive impact on our stock price.”
California also inked a controversial agreement with NRG Energy that allows NRG to build a network of electric vehicle charging stations, and many electric vehicle advocates worry that NRG will become the default provider of charging stations throughout the state. ECOtality filed a lawsuit contending that California’s legal settlement with NRG was illegal and hurts consumers.
ECOtality (ECTY) closed at $0.46 Wednesday and was down slightly in after-hours trading.
Dana Hull covers clean technology and energy policy for the San Jose Mercury News. She often writes about electric vehicles, the smart grid, the solar industry and California energy policy, from RPS goals to Gov. Jerry Brown's big dreams for distributed generation.
