Nordic EV Summit
Issy went to the Nordic EV Summit in Oslo. Here are her takeaways.
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It’s April, I was expecting cold and rain. Yet there I was in 5cm of snow, dressed in wildly unpractical shoes trudging to Nova Spektrum in Lillestrøm, just outside Oslo.
The event featured a wide range of charging companies in particular, as well as a selection of EVs to look at and test.
🇪🇺 🇺🇸 Policy interventions
One really key theme from this conference was the threat that the IRA poses to Europe if the EU does not respond with a similar policy. A panel with the Vianode CEO Burkhard Straube, Freyr’s CEO Birger Steen, Hydrovolt’s CEO Ole Christen Enger and the Talga CTO Anna Moisala Motta laid out how the EU was ahead of the US in technological advances before the IRA disrupted the game, and now US has overtaken. Birger Steen spoke very candidly about how the IRA meant that they needed to deprioritise their original location of choice in Norway and move their main operations to Georgia, US. This was imposed on them by the capital market, they simply couldn’t afford to not move to the US.
Manufacturing in the Arctic circle makes a lot of sense for supply chain, the closeness to global shipping lane, and access to talent. However, in the short run it’s very difficult to compete with US subsidies and be profitable. There were multiple calls on the EU and Norway to match these stimuli, with possible protective measures to get the industry going in Europe.
In contrast, Ole Christen Enger noted that recycling is a much more localised game since the transport of end of life batteries is much more expensive, hence it’s harder to compete globally.
⛴️ Mobility in cities on the water
Something I’ve been following online for a while is a Swedish hydrofoil company called Candela, and I was delighted when Candela’s Brigitte Junker got up to speak. Waterborne transport is held back by high operational costs, huge emissions and old fleets - with some of the ferries still running in Stockholm being as old as from 1871. Electric hydrofoil technology lifts the boat out of the water, using less energy to propel and speeding up the journey. These ferries also just need a dock and a car fast charging cable which is much less invasive than installing a larger MW charging point. I am excited to see how it goes when they launch on some public ferry routes in Stockholm this autumn.
🚲 Oslo
One nice talk from Marit Kristine Vea, Vice Mayor of Environment and Transport, City Government of Oslo detailed the city’s plan to be zero emission by 2030. Transport accounts for half of emissions in Oslo with almost 40% of all cars in Oslo being electric, whilst 70% of journeys in Oslo are on foot or public transport.
Recent rumours of rolling back EV incentives were also discussed, with Marit keen to retain these incentives to maintain the EV status over ICE but also design policies that make sure that citizens would still choose to walk and cycle over driving. She also candidly spoke about this winter’s ‘EV struggles’ with the electric ferries and buses struggling slightly in the cold.
✂️ Software
I enjoyed hearing about the different business models that can help you survive in the charging business from Monta - a software company which integrates both home charging (smart charging) and roaming. They aim to be the ‘android’ of the charging world and be company agnostic. It’s a tough margins business.
🌎 Thinking outside the EU/US bubble
The ICE sales boom is well and truly over and there’s no turning the tide back. Further to this, EVs are not a wealthy economy story anymore, notable examples are Brazil, Thailand and India all with very fast growth rates.
India’s regions have used an aggregated demand system (essentially bulk ordering together) in order to secure a better price for their eBus fleet, as well as moving the model for public transport from ownership to leasing to save the operators on upfront costs.
💰 Thoughts from the bankers
We are not going to decarbonise the value chains by keeping them global - this will require some deglobalisation which will be tricky.
We need to utilise the resources used to build cars better - things like Vehicle to Grid to make sure our batteries are doing more. I liked the analogy that you wouldn’t build a 20 lane road to your house for the once a year you have 20 guests come over. An investment banker spoke at length about the need for a war economy to fund this transition.
👓 Personal reflections
I enjoyed hearing Birger Steen (CEO of Freyr) talk about his company’s journey and relationship to sustainability. He described how the original approach was purely on manufacturing but now also thinks about the supply chain as well as the product and who gets control over the batteries produced.
The CEO of charging company Easee Jonas Helmikstøl spoke to a conference full of people about the mistakes he made in his business and needing to take sick leave for his mental health. This kind of story shouldn’t stick out but I also think this normalisation of it being ok to take a step back is really important.
These kind of conferences create an outrageous amount of waste - it’s a real shame there weren’t washable mugs and plates.
This was a memorable conference. From the opening which was very reminiscent of Das Sound Machine (very Gen Z reference there), to getting to test drive a Polestar and an electric snowmobile, I came away with a lot to think about.
🌞 Thanks for reading!
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