WEBVTT
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(upbeat music)
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Welcome, my name is Julien Bert.
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I'm a managing director and partner at BCG.
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Today, I'm joined by Michael Hajesch,
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managing director and CEO of IONITY
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one of Europe's leading charging networks
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for electric vehicles,
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to talk about the future of the charging industry and more.
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Michael, welcome.
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Thanks, Julien, for having me.
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IONITY is one of the best-known names
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when it comes to end-route high-power charging.
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How did you get to this position?
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Well, first of all, it was an early start.
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We were really a first mover in the industry
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back in 2017, when the industry or the company was founded
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by our founding shareholders,
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and with this first-mover advantage,
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we were clearly tackling a core pain point
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from the customer perspective,
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meaning the long-distance travel with EV vehicles.
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Back in that time, no charging infrastructure
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beyond 150 kilowatts was up and running.
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And the second success factor was,
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with that early mover advantage,
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really, to find the right site partners
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and build that infrastructure in 24 countries
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just in five years.
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And could you elaborate a little bit more
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on that in terms of the charging industry in general?
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How will charging stations evolve
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and adapt in the short and medium term?
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Well, I would say, as the industry grows
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and as the competition is really getting much stronger,
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especially in the last four years,
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what happened in the industry?
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First of all, all the OEMs announced
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really going full zero-emission, meaning full electric.
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We see a huge amount of BEVs coming to the market,
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which means a huge demand coming from that angle,
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and that requires, really, more sites, larger sites,
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but also more customer experience, more convenient sites
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to not only make the charging experience itself reliable,
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safe, and easy, but also the well-being of the customer
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on site is the core element of the future.
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And for decarbonization,
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electric vehicles will play a major role
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and we'll see millions of electric vehicles
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hitting the road in the next decade.
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Then energy transition toward greener energy,
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greener electricity will obviously also be important.
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What is the role that IONITY can play in all of this?
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I would say since the beginning we take the responsibility
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that immediately makes the difference,
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meaning we are sourcing renewable energy a hundred percent
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in all the countries we are active in.
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Since the first station, we are following that procedure,
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and for sure in the future, as you said,
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with more and more demand,
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meaning also more and more gigawatt hours
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of electric energy being produced in a renewable way,
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we need to take our responsibility and think about
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how we can best integrate on the energy value chain.
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Here we are talking about energy-management services,
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we are talking about participation even on energy production
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and also storing the renewable produced
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but very volatile energy, meaning if the sun is shining
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then you can't power the vehicles overnight
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and if the windmill is producing the energy overnight
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you can't power up the vehicles on the day.
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So energy storage plays a significant role in the future
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of the value chain of each and every CPO in Europe.
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You started out in 2017, launched by a consortium
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of automotive OEMs, and then
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a bit more than four years later, BlackRock joined
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as a financial investor investing a lot of capital
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to further your growth.
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Why did it take a bit longer for financial investors
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to venture into this high-growth industry?
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I think, first of all, we need to talk a little bit
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about the financial investor.
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We also have strategic investors, and you can think about
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the OEMs that founded that company, very insightful, 2017
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by envisioning what might come in the future.
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They were really the first mover and they took
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much more risk than typically a financial investor
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is taking, so a financial investor typically needs certainty
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and is typically much more risk-averse
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than a strategic investor.
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Why I am saying this, as mentioned before,
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the OEM industry announced by 2021
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the full zero-emission strategy and going full electric.
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We see the demand side, we see the high utilization
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in the network and by this we have the proof point
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that it is a good-looking, promising
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charging infrastructure business,
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and now it's also the time for the financial investors
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to go into that industry in that sector.
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It's a super young industry still, yeah.
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It's just the very early first stages of that industry.
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It's not an industry that can look back
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to a hundred years of the combustion engine.
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It's the starting point, and I would say they are early
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and they are early in and supporting this transition
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on the energy and mobility side.
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Now, let's look into the future of IONITY and maybe
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you can share some of your plans regarding new geographies
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or new business models that you plan to address with IONITY.
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Well, first of all, the customer can expect
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a much higher availability of HPC charge points in Europe
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and in the territory we are active in,
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meaning, as we have announced, more than a thousand sites
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being live by 2025, with more than 7,000 HPC charge points.
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That's a huge step forward in terms of availability.
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The second point, which we mentioned,
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is really the growth also into more urban areas
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with HPC sites in an urban context
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where customers are anyway,
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meaning retail, shopping, leisure.
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We call it convenience charging.
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So also electrifying these premises are a huge benefit
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not only for the customer but also for the site partner
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and for sure for IONITY as well.
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The third part is really the, so to say,
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the additional offers and services we will provide onsite,
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which plays mainly into the customer experience
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beyond charging, meaning the site layout.
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How well is the site equipped?
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Do we have a roof there?
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How easy is the site to be found? Additional offers
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in terms of, really, flexibility for the end customer,
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as we will address more and more customer segments
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and really tailor-make our offers,
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there are things that play into the customer experience
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and for sure will make the charging more suitable
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and easy to use.
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Well, that sounds super exciting, Michael.
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Thank you for sharing the time.
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Thank you very much, Julien.