EV Revolution Bubbling In Central & Eastern Europe (Cleantech Revolution Tour #CEEEV)

6 years ago Zachary Shahan
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We’re more than 50% through the first day of our first EV charging conference —West Meets East: Charging Central & Eastern Europe’s Electromobility Revolution — which is part of our Cleantech Revolution Tour. Hundreds of useful comments have already been thrown around, but I’m going to try to consolidate some of the top points.

Electric Cars Are Coming

Peter Badik, co-founder and managing director of GreenWay, kicked off the conference with me in the morning, and we highlighted a couple of the same points. He noted that he’s been waiting for this conference for years. “The debate is not about if electric cars are coming. They are coming. The debate is not if it’s a superior technology. It is.” Now, it’s about “how to help move it forward.” I made similar comments, naturally.

Design & Siting Critical

EV charging stations need to be conspicuous and attractive — much more than they are today. “It’s about the whole user experience.”

Repeatedly, we came back to the point that the uses around charging stations should ideally offer a pleasant atmosphere and relaxing or productive options.

Education, Education, Education

Probably the #1 highlight of the day was the need for more and better EV education. Messaging around the benefits of electric cars — and their simple existence — needs to be more abundant, better, and built into more aspects of EV, EV charging, EV policy, and other work.

Ultrafast/Superfast Charging

Ultrafast/superfast charging (100–350 kW charging) was mentioned several times but there was certainly no consensus about the future of this charging option.

However, Christian Zeh, now of the brand new Ionity superfast charging network after he slid from Porsche Consulting (which was leading that project) into the consortium spinoff. He mentioned that he used to work at Tesla, so is very familiar with this topic and sees ultrafast/superfast charging as essential. The importance and benefit of superfast charging is a big deal, in his opinion, but something that is just picking up beyond Tesla — meaning that we’re on the verge of another step in EV practicality and greater adoption.

For convenient use, you need two things, according to Zeh: electric cars with long range and superfast charging. Ionity — a partnership between Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, & Ford — is looking to soon deliver on that for non-Tesla EV drivers.

Home Charging is Still King

https://twitter.com/AlphaDealClean/status/927542900363350018

It’s About Zero Emissions

We shouldn’t forget the key societal reasons for electrification of transport — zero emissions to save lives and protect a livable climate.

Yup.

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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7129 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan