Stories From The 2023 New Mobility Congress — Day 3

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We were planning to add the stories from day 3 of the New Mobility Congress earlier, but my attention was totally absorbed with the parliamentary elections in Poland. To be perfectly clear, not just elections, but a real battle for the rule of law and democracy, which were (happy to use the past tense here) threatened for 8 years. The battle was won. I contributed to the success as much as I could at my level and I’m happily back in the cleantech world and returning to the interviews I conducted a few weeks ago. The one good thing about procrastinating the publication is that I had to relive all the interviews to recall the conversations and it was a great experience. I’m thrilled to share what I learnt from my knowledgeable guests.

My first guest in this round was Pavel Chroust from PowerHUB. I was planning to talk about smart charging and roaming, which I did at the start. However, Pavel surprised me with PowerHUB’s involvement in autonomous driving projects. No secret: I have always been a fan of autonomous driving and keep following the news globally. Listen to what Pavel has to say.

My second interview was planned with David Holderbachem from Hyvia. As a bonus, we were joined by Isabelle and Andrzej from Renault Group to make the chat even more insightful. We talked about their hydrogen van — or, more precisely, about an H2 turnkey solution. Before we even started, I made it clear I was skeptical, to say the least, about hydrogen in vehicles, and I was prepared with all of my arguments to defend my case — Michael Liebreich’s hydrogen ladder, etc. Well, I finished the interview somehow less skeptical, but not to say convinced. Judge it for yourselves.

Moving on in our hydrogen journey, I was joined by Martin Rothbart from AVL, a large engineering services provider working hard to facilitate the marriage of R&D and business, something very challenging in Poland. I was curious to learn Martin’s views on the chances of supplying green hydrogen (not the other rainbow colours), the challenges of transporting hydrogen, vehicle applications, and how Europe can support the transition through regulations.

Last but not least, I hosted Oana Penu from EIT InnoEnergy. Yet again, my initial expectations as to what we were to talk about were exceeded by far. Oana shared with me what we need to do to actually succeed in the energy transition, and it’s not creating the technologies themselves, which we are developing at a rapid pace. It is developing the skills we will need to achieve our decarbonizing goals. It’s a superb insight into education challenges at the state and local level. I absolutely loved the topic and how it applies to my small town. Learn with me, please.

All in all, I had three days of learning, meeting old friends and new industry people, and showing off my wonderful vintage camper. When introducing the congress to CleanTechnica readers in September, I claimed that conferences still matter — the good ones do, at least. The New Mobility Congress organized by PSPA leads the way in quality events at all levels — attendees, speakers, panels, and organization. Make sure you don’t miss it next year. I will surely let you know when it happens.