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16 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MAY 5, 2025 Guy Mannino, founder and CEO of Monroe-based Verdek, which sells electric vehicle charging technology. The company is focusing on increasing its sales to state and local governments, after having its federal contracts terminated. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Green Light, Red Light CT company loses federal contracts for solar EV chargers amid Trump admin. rollback. and can charge electric vehicles in areas where there is no electricity. "It's a unique case, because those stations are used at the border, and there are no electrical services nearby," Mannino said. "The other thing was that they wanted some- thing that was potentially movable to other locations. So, we designed that system." Verdek has sold three of its solar-powered EV charging stations to the border patrol, which has a fleet of electric vehicles, including the Ford F-150 Lighting. The charging stations are used at two sites in Arizona and one in New Mexico. The federal government's recent move away from EV technology doesn't make sense, Mannino said, because there is more than enough demand for the products. It also runs counter to efforts made by the Biden administration, which allocated $7.5 billion in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to build out a national network of publicly available electric-vehicle chargers. The goal was to help finance 500,000 publicly available EV char- gers by 2030. Connecticut was expected to receive at least $53 million in federal funding to grow its charging-station network. "Everyone you talk to who has an electric vehicle says that they support By Andrew Larson alarson@hartfordbusiness.com G uy Mannino founded elec- tric vehicle infrastructure company Verdek in 2008, during the Great Recession, when oil cost $100 a barrel. Scrambling to find solutions at a time when the price of oil seemed to have no ceiling, the automotive industry began to pivot toward electric vehicles. Mannino saw an opportunity to serve the growing market. "That's when I got into this busi- ness," he said. Verdek, which sells, installs and services electric vehicle chargers across the United States, is based in a small office in Monroe. The company has 15 employees — mostly salespeople and project managers spread across the country — and generates $15 million to $20 million a year in revenue, Mannino said. Verdek's customers include private developers, states and, until recently, the federal government. The Trump administration has removed all electric vehicles from GSA Advantage, an online catalog of pre-approved vendors and products for federal agencies, Mannino said. "Any federal agency today that wants to buy an electric vehicle cannot do it," he explained. "It's a major shift. I don't know how long it's going to last, but this is what's happening now." Further, he said Verdek has received letters terminating several infrastructure projects it had been awarded by federal agencies. The federal government cited a "conve- nience clause" as the reason for ending the agreements. "Right now, there's a total shut-off of funds for electric vehicles, and infrastructure as well," Mannino said. That will have a significant impact on Verdek, as about 20% to 25% of its business comes from the federal government, he said. The company is working to offset some of those losses by focusing on its business with state govern- ments. In Connecticut, for example, Verdek has a contract to supply chargers to the Department of Administrative Services. The company also recently won a competitive contract from the state of California to upgrade local govern- ment agencies' EV infrastructure. Border protection One of Verdek's most unique products is a moveable EV-charging station that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection uses at the U.S.-Mexico border. The self-powered charging appa- ratus — which has a sticker price of about $750,000 — generates elec- tricity from an attached solar panel BY THE NUMBERS EV charging stations in CT 1,286 Station locations 3,755 Charging ports 10 Level 1 chargers (5 miles of range per 1 hour of charging) 3,135 Level 2 chargers (25 miles of range per 1 hour of charging) 609 DC fast chargers (100 to 200+ miles of range per 30 minutes of charging) Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy AT A GLANCE Verdek LLC Industry: Electric vehicle infrastructure Top Executive: Guy Mannino, CEO & Founder HQ: 55 Main St., Monroe Employees: 15 Website: verdek.com