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