Key take-aways from this afternoon’s EV Summit

Following a successful morning at the 2021 EV Summit at University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, the afternoon was equally compelling. The event brings together business leaders and key players working on electric vehicles, energy, information technology and charging infrastructure, to explore how to advance towards full battery-electric emobility.

The Summit is based around 10 panels across its two days and these cover the significant business issues on the rapid transition to battery electric mobiity. This year the EV Summit is placing the master narrative of decarbonisation at the centre of the event.

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This year the EV Summit is back as a hybrid, in-person meets digital event thanks to the UK vaccine rollout. For 2021 the EV Summit is placing the master narrative of decarbonisation at the centre of this year’s event.

The first of the afternoon’s panels:

Charging infrastructure, UK (in partnership with Shell Recharge)

  • Pinar Mavituna (Panel Keynote) General Manager, Shell
  • Erik Fairbairn CEO, Pod Point
  • Neil Isaacson CEO, Liberty Charge  
  • Adrian Keen CEO, InstaVolt

This panel discussed how rolling out UK charging infrastructure, at pace, is a key tool in the UK’s transport decarbonisation plan. Pinar Mavituna, Shell general manager, explained how the company is working hard to help with infrastructure in the UK. Shell will be delivering 50,000 on-street electric vehicle (EV) charge posts across the UK by the end of 2025. This will take place through ubitricity, who are part of the Shell group.

Eric Fairbairn, Pod Point CEO, explained the importance of making travel accessible and simple without damaging the planet. Plus, it needs to be cheap and  found everywhere you might leave a car whether it’s at home, the park, the shops or work.

Neil Isaacson, Liberty Charge CEO, explained how 11 million people in the UK don’t have driveways, so the need for on-street charging is important. Having dedicated zones with clusters of chargers would also make life easier for electric car drivers.

He believes that by 2030 the UK will need 300,000 EV chargers and to help with this the government needs to have roadmap for local authorities to roll this out. Simplicity, like the Tesla charging model of charge and go, would really help.

Adrian Keen, InstaVolt CEO, reiterated the need for the simplicity of changing with charging companies offering around the clock support to customers. Plus, it’s important to make sure chargers are as easy to use as going to the petrol pump to help motorists make the switch to driving electric.

The second of the afternoon’s panels:

Rethinking Emobility (in partnership with IMPROVED Corporate Finance)

  • Sherief Rahim (Panel Keynote) Director, IMPROVED Corporate Finance
  • Matthias Dill Managing Partner, Energy Impact Partners
  • Michael Hughes Group Chief Strategy Officer, EG Group
  • Daniel Lyons Head of Investments and M&A | emobility, Shell

This panel discussed delivering successful corporate strategies at the tipping point of accelerated EV adoption. Sherief Rahim, IMPROVED Corporate Finance director, talked about technology changing the global economy and that decarbonisation is key to the future.

Mateus Dill, Energy Impact Partners managing partner, said that the company looks to invest in innovative companies and that collaboration is key. This gives the business the biggest chance of success and that it’s important to learn from leaders in the field and that start-ups can help corporates and vice-versa.

Michael Hughes, EG Group chief strategy officer, talked about the Group’s connection with Asda and how they have 7,000 locations where they intend to add charging infrastructure. He believes that charging hubs are a great way to support EV drivers while companies linked with them can also be economic.

Daniel Lyons Head of Investments and M&A/emobility at Shell, talked about collaborations helping with the economy. Hence, Shell working with ubitricity and announcing today the ambition to have 50,000 on-street electric vehicle (EV) charge posts installed across the UK by the end of 2025. This will take place through ubitricity, who are part of the Shell group.

The third and final of the afternoon’s panels:

Sustainable Cities (in partnership with GoWithFlow)

  • Jane Hoffer (Panel Keynote) CEO, GoWithFlow
  • Anthony Hinde MD, Mer
  • Poppy Mills UK Managing Director, ubitricity
  • Chris Pateman-Jones CEO, Connected Kerb

The final panel of the day discussed how is emobility can help to deliver sustainable cities. Through their discussions it appears there’s no one simple answer but a combination of ideas that will all help with charging and EV adoption.

Jane Hoffer, GoWithFlow CEO, talked about how it’s not just important to look at today but the coming decades. Simplicity of the system is key and that it takes the whole economic system to achieve this, especially with the huge carbon goals being set.

Anthony Hinde, Mer managing director, talked about rapid charging hubs in urban areas being a big part of the charging solution. This would allow residents, commercial users and people travelling to all access small out of town locations to charge, similar to many of the petrol stations these days.  

Poppy Mills, ubitricity UK managing director, talked about the importance to help with adoption by supplying on-street charging, especially as over a third of UK homes don’t have a driveway. ubitricity’s model is also good because it uses the current electrical supply, is zero cost to local authorities and only takes an hour to install and activate.

Chris Pateman-Jones, Connected Kerb CEO, agreed that one solution wasn’t enough and it would a take range too solutions to help the differing needs of EV drivers. He said that charging needs to be wherever your car is parked, it needs to be reliable with enough chargers to serve user demand. Plus, all of this needs to be carried out sustainably.

He finished by saying that charging needs to engage communities and that the cost of charging needs to be similar to at home. He believes this can be achieved by companies working together whether it’s in the public or private sectors.

The EV Summit has Visa as the lead partner. They are joined by other partners including Arup, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, DNV, EY, Go With Flow, Greenflux, Improved Corporate Finance, Shell Recharge, Wood and Zaptech.

Ian Osborne
Ian Osborne
Editor-in-Chief at ElectricDrives

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