Investment of $10 Million for Clean Electric Transportation Company

ECOtality, Inc. (Nasdaq: ECTY), a San Francisco based company and leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies company, has just announced that it raised $10 million in equity funds from ABB, Inc., leader in automation and power tech, enabling utility and industry clients to develop and improve the performance and in the same time to minimize the environmental impact. Both companies entered into a manufacturing agreement of North America, establishing a mutual and tactical association between them.

Jonathan Read, Chief Executive Officer at ECOtality declared that “We are pleased to announce that we will be working with ABB, Inc. to further expand the possibilities of electric transportation and make mass consumer adoption a reality. Combining ECOtality’s twenty plus years of experience in electric transportation with ABB’s expansive reach in power electronics and their strong relationship with international utilities will ensure we produce innovative and industry challenging EV (electric vehicle) charging solutions. This agreement will allow us to benefit from the extraordinary ABB global value chains, streamlines our sourcing and production capabilities and allows for Blink charging systems to be powered by ABB’s industry leading power electronics.”

The head of ABB Marketing and Customers Solutions also said that “The partnership brings together ABB’s experience in smart grids, renewable energy and reliable, efficient power networks, with ECOtality’s leadership in North America’s growing market for electric vehicle infrastructure. It is an ideal combination of skills that will provide the solutions customers are seeking to enable sustainable mobility while maintaining grid reliability.”

As the ECOtality previously stated, the funds will be used to provide working capital for the company, and ABB will have as a result of the investment, 2 representatives in the ECOtality’s board of directors. ECOtality’s has also received a $100 million fund in the past in order to fund its project totaling an amount of $230 million investment. This round of investment was made by the United States Department of Energy and the money came both from private companies and from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Among the cities to get charging stations this year are Tucson and Phoenix.

The $10 million investment will encourage ECOtality’s expansion and will finance the requirements of the Electric Vehicle Project, which develops infrastructures for electric vehicle in 16 main cities in the USA. This project entails the installation of a minimum of 15000 chargers that support the consumption of 8300 electric vehicles. The project is funded by a grant of $115 million from the USA Department of Energy.