Simon Moores – Benchmark Minerals

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What’s it all about?

It’s taken a while to get this in our diaries, but I’ve been following and speaking to Simon for some time, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to record this exploration of the battery supply chain, ethics, issues and costs that are so instrumental to the evolution and massive ramp up of electric vehicles and stationary storage. Some great insights here.

About our guest

Simon Moores is the managing director of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, an independent price assessment company for that is most famous for setting the lithium industry reference price, together with graphite, cobalt, and nickel prices and analyses specifically focused on the lithium ion battery supply chain.   

Simon is one of the world’s leading voices in this space and has specialised in the upstream portion of the supply chain, from mine to battery cell, since 2006. His key focal points include graphite, lithium, cobalt, cathodes, and battery cells.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence has advised some of the world’s biggest actors in the lithium ion battery industry from cell manufacturers, to electric vehicle producers to mining companies.

Through a series of subscription offerings and private consultation, Benchmark’s analysts and independent market data has enabled raw material and battery contract execution, multi-billion-dollars of supply chain investment, and the build out of the 21st Century lithium ion battery supply chain.

Simon has been invited as an expert witness to testify to the US Senate, regularly gives guest lectures at the University of Oxford, and will present at The Royal Institution in London together with the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor.

GUEST LINKS HERE

Benchmark twitter: https://twitter.com/benchmarkmin

Benchmark Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/benchmark-mineral-intelligence/

Simon’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sdmoores

Simon’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-moores-b0661418/

Lithium price holding page: https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/lithium-prices/

Benchmark home page: https://www.benchmarkminerals.com

EPISODE LINKS HERE

Belt and Road: A Chinese World Order https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belt-Road-Chinese-World-Order/dp/1787380025

The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Silk-Roads-Present-Future/dp/1526607425

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Doron Frenkel, CEO Driivz

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What’s it all about?

The success of the eMobility revolution hinges on many things, more vehicles of course, the charging infrastructure, and of course the brains that connect everything and make it all work. This week I’m speaking with Doran Frenkel, CEO of a company that is the brains behind the eMobility revolution.

About our guest

Doron Frenkel is the Founder and CEO of Driivz. An experienced entrepreneur, Doron has over 20 years’ international experience in various roles across the IT, telecoms and EV sectors.

Prior to founding Driivz, Doron was Co-Founder and CEO of We! Secure, a cybersecurity solution provider for enterprise customers. He has also held management roles at major organisations such as Sphera, Amdocs and MTS Systems Corporation.

Doron has served as an advisory board member for Micronet, a leading fleet management solutions provider, while he also holds an Electrical Engineering degree from Tel Aviv University.

Driivz is an operating system for global EV charging. The company’s cloud-based platform supports over 120 types of EV chargers and includes billing capability, roaming interoperability and self-healing functionality. The Driivz platform is also vehicle-to grid enabled, allowing EV drivers to act as virtual power plants by becoming suppliers, receiving compensation and reducing energy consumption.

Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Driivz’s team of EV experts are working for customers in 17 countries. The company already counts global industry players such as EVgo, ElaadNL, ESB and Centrica as customers, while it manages some of the largest public EV charging networks in North America and Europe. In total, tens of thousands of EV chargers are linked to Driivz’s platform, which is also used by more than 300,000 EV drivers.

Links:

Website: driivz.com/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/driivz/
Twitter: twitter.com/Driivz_EV
Doron LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/doronfrenkel/
Company milestone (Centrica investment): driivz.com/centrica-ombu-invest-in-driivz/
Company milestone (INVEN Capital investment): driivz.com/inven-capital-invests-driivz/

EPISODE LINKS

Free Electrons freetheelectron.com/

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I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

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Erik Nygard, CEO LimeJump

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What’s it all about?

Limejump are one of the great UK cleantech start-up stories. Recently acquired by Shell Ventures, the company continues to grow and play an active part in the clean energy transition. I talk to CEO and Co-Founder Erik Nygard about the company journey, including how they helped in the recent UK blackout, the future of energy and the part AI will play, how is life as a cleantech start up owned by an Oil major, and his optimism for the future.

About our guest

Erik Nygard – CEO & Co-Founder – Limejump. Erik has worked for Centrica and British Gas; while at Centrica it became clear to him that people did not have much opportunity to try and be more proactive when managing their electricity. Therefore, he decided to set up Limejump, knowing that there was a definite opportunity to provide a better product and proposition for customers. Most recently Limejump has won the Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer award for 2018, S&P Platts Rising Star 2018 and WIRED London Smarter Energy Stage and manages the largest portfolio of battery assets in the United Kingdom. Erik has led the development of the Limejump Virtual Power Plant (VPP) concept to create the Future of Energy. Alumni of University of San Francisco, BSC in Finance an MSC and Cass School in London – Energy Trade finance.

Limejump is a wholly owned, independent subsidiary of Shell New Energies.

GUEST LINKS

Erik Nygard on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-nygard-1685611/

EPISODE LINKS HERE

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe
I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

Twitter https://twitter.com/weekincleantech
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thisweekincleantech/
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Dr.Billy Wu, Imperial College

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What’s it all about?

I first heard Billy Wu speak at a renewable energy event in London about four years, and my inner battery nerd was born and thrust into the world. Dr Billy has the knack of being a fully fledged Dr of batteries, whilst being able to articulate to non scientific nerds like me, and possibly you, if you are reading this.  We talk batteries, supercapacitors, and of course Hydrogen Fuel Cells, where we are, what’s next, and who will win!

About our guest

Dr. Billy Wu is a senior lecturer in the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London where he co-leads the Electrochemical Science and Engineering group. His research activities include: energy storage/conversion technologies (lithium-ion batteries, redox flow cells, supercapacitors and fuel cells) and manufacturing (3D printing, nanofibre electrospinning).

He has published 35 peer reviewed journal papers, 2 book chapters and 4 patents since completing his PhD in 2014 and sits on the editorial board of Scientific Reports. He has been an investigator in research projects worth in excess of £46M, directly managing a budget of >£2M and is a co-investigator for the UK Faraday Institution battery research centre. He directly leads a team of 7 post-docs and 6 PhD students within the wider Electrochemical Science and Engineering group which has >50 researchers. Prior to his PhD in automotive proton exchange membrane fuel cell-lithium-ion battery hybrid systems, he completed his masters in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London in 2010.

Guest Links

Episode Links

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Florent Andrillon, VP Energy Leader at Capgemini Invent

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Synopsis

We all know the energy and mobility transitions are happening at a pace. This is the world myself and the team at Hyperion Executive Search live and breathe every day, much like our guest today. Florent has a deep interest and insights into the transitions which he shares with us today.

About our guest

Florent Andrillon, Energy Transition Global Lead of Capgemini Invent:

  • Florent Andrillon is the energy transition global lead for Capgemini Invent, where he advises companies from different sectors on their energy and low carbon transformation projects
  • Capgemini Invent is Capgemini group’s digital innovation, consulting and transformation global business line. Capgemini Invent combines market leading expertise in strategy, technology, data science and creative design, to help CxOs envision and build what’s next for their businesses.
  • Florent has been witnessing the rise of e-mobility for many years now, starting with an mobility market forecasting project where he projected the rise of electric vehicles and the impact on fuel consumption.
  • Florent graduated from EM Lyon in 2001. He started his career at Schlumberger, the giant oil services company, before joining Capgemini Invent in 2005. Since then, he has worked in France and abroad with players in the Energy and Utilities sector: large companies, players wishing to enter this market or parapublic organizations. He has supported these organizations since 18 years now in their strategic projects of energy transition, acceleration, and global transformation. More recently, Florent worked a lot with clients willing to leverage digital technology to accelerate their energy transition projects, especially in the area of smart building, e-mobility and smart energy.
  • At Capgemini Invent, our ambition is to help our clients designing and executing their transformation to achieve their low carbon ambition, enabling the 2°C scenario. Within our portfolio of clients, we partner to be the one
    • Increasing the share of low-carbon fuels for all types of transportation (electric, natural gas, hydrogen…)
    • Helping industrials, buildings and cities to reduce their energy consumption and more widely their CO2 footprint
    • Leveraging AI & digitalization to reduce CO2 emissions and create new business models

Guest Links

News stories discussed this week

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Rob Jolly, CEO Evezy

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What’s it all about?

I met Rob and his co-founder Dannan at the Oxford EV summit recently, though they had been on my radar a while. Hardly surprising given there success. In the two years since, the business has grown from the initial 5 cars they launched with in Birmingham, to now being the largest electric vehicle fleet in the UK. A great story of innovation, bootstrapping and fast growth and the changing mobility landscape.

About our guest

Having graduated from Warwick University with a masters in Mechanical Engineering, Rob worked for 5 years at Jaguar Land Rover, culminating in managing the Product Strategy & Innovation team within the Corporate Strategy division. Initially taking the concept of an electric vehicle subscription service to JLR’s in-house business incubator, it was quickly recognised that the idea would have significant limitations as a JLR captive company.

Rob was given approval to develop the idea outside of JLR and left to form the business in 2017. Since then the business has been growing at an electrifying 40% month on month, to now hold the title as the UK’s largest electric vehicle fleet. Evezy offers all inclusive electric vehicle subscriptions on a monthly rolling contract, providing all the benefits of car ownership with none of the hassle.

Rob Jolly on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/rob-jolly-488781ab/
Evezy on Twitter: twitter.com/DriveEVezy
Evezy on Facebook www.facebook.com/DriveEvezy/
Evezy on Linked In www.linkedin.com/company/evezy/
Evezy website www.evezy.co.uk/

Steve Jobs Biography www.amazon.co.uk/Steve-Jobs-Exclu…n/dp/034914043X/
Elon Musk biography www.amazon.co.uk/Elon-Musk-Billio…g/dp/0753555646/
Peter Thiel Zero to One www.amazon.co.uk/Zero-One-Notes-S…e/dp/0753555204/

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

Twitter twitter.com/weekincleantech
Facebook www.facebook.com/thisweekincleantech/
Instagram www.instagram.com/davidhunt2013/

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Sven Schulz, CEO Akasol

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What’s it all about?

Sven has a great story to tell, from a 5 person academic start up, to IPO and international expansion in just 10 years. Sven shares the highs and lows of the journey, what it takes to build a battery Gigafactory in Europe, and some possibly controversial thoughts on electric flight.  A slightly longer than usual episode, but there was so much to cover. Tuck in.

About our guest

Sven has a great story to tell, from a 5 person academic start up, to IPO and international expansion in just 10 years. Sven shares the highs and lows of the journey, what it takes to build a battery Gigafactory in Europe, and some possibly controversial thoughts on electric flight. A slightly longer than usual episode, but there was so much to cover. Tuck in.

Sven Schulz has been the CEO of AKASOL AG since May 2018. He co-founded and was the sole investor of AKASOL GmbH in 2008 and served as Managing Director since that time, playing a key role in the development of the company.

An industrial engineer by trade, Sven has been active in the automotive industry since 2001 and is an excellent generalist in terms of technology. He completed his management training at the University of St. Gallen, where he holds an MBA.

AKASOL is a leading German manufacturer of high-performance lithium-ion battery systems for buses, commercial vehicles, rail vehicles, industrial vehicles, ships and boats. With almost 30 years of experience AKASOL is a pioneer in the development and manufacture of lithium-ion battery systems for commercial applications. AKASOL AG’s shares are traded on the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since June 29, 2018.

Based in Germany, AKASOL operates a production facility in Langen (Hesse) with an annual production capacity of up to 300 MWh, which will be expanded to 800 MWh by 2020. According to AKASOL, this is Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery system production plant for commercial vehicles, which can currently produce battery systems per year for up to 1,500 fully electric buses or for up to 3,000 medium-sized commercial vehicles, depending on battery size. AKASOL systems are manufactured according to the requirements of the industry standards of leading OEM customers. Current customers include Daimler, a Scandinavian bus and truck manufacturer, Alstom, Bombardier, Rolls-Royce Power Systems (MTU Friedrichshafen) and several more. AKASOL has a technology-independent product portfolio. This allows the company to use the best battery cells and battery chemistry according to the clients’ individual needs.

Sven Schulz on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/sven-schulz-72a121137/

Sven Schulz on Twitter  https://twitter.com/svenschulz

Akasol GmbH on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/company/akasol-ag/

Akasol GmbH website https://www.akasol.com/en/

Akasol GmbH on Twitter  https://twitter.com/AKASOL_PR

News stories discussed this week

Akasol opening manufacturing facility in Detroit. https://www.akasol.com/en/news-akasol-location-usa

AKASOL CELEBRATES GROUND-BREAKING CEREMONY FOR NEW HEADQUARTERS IN DARMSTADT https://www.akasol.com/en/news-akasol-headquarters-ceremony

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Petr Míkovec – MD and Co-Founder – Inven Capital

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What’s it all about?

This week I’m in Berlin, speaking at the 10th anniversary Ecosummit, and took the opportunity to record this podcast on the banks of the Spree, with leading cleantech investor Petr Mikovec, or Inven Capital. I think his insights into what an investor is looking for before investing is invaluable to any start-up, but also gives great insight into the challenges we all face to bring Cleantech to the mainstream.

About our guest

Petr Míkovec is Managing Director and co-founder of INVEN CAPITAL where he is responsible for overall fund strategy including fundraising, deal sourcing, investment process and portfolio value enhancement. Petr was directly responsible for the successful raising of EUR 50 million from the European Investment Bank, investments into sonnen https://www.sonnenbatterie.de/en/start, tado° https://www.tado.com/de/ and Cloud&Heat technologies https://www.cloudandheat.com/de where he serves as an Advisory Board Member. In addition to this, Petr represents INVEN at the Corporate Club of Environmental Technologies Fund based in London.

Petr has over 10 years of experience in the Energy sector, and over 5 years in Investment Banking. Prior to joining INVEN, Petr worked at various positions in CEZ a.s. where he, as Corporate Development Director, implemented the corporate venture fund as one of the key building blocks of CEZ group strategy and raised EUR 190 mil from CEZ group. He introduced the scenario approach to valuations and supervised/led valuations of large investments and divestments between EUR 100 million and EUR 1 billion.

Prior to his energy career, Petr worked as the Head of Online Business at Patria Finance (leading investment bank in CZ, member of KBC Group), where Petr turned firms Patria Online and Patria Direct to profitability within two years.

Petr holds a Master’s Degree in Finance and Managerial Information Systems at the University of Economics in Prague. He graduated with the highest GPA in his class and completed an eight month Professional Diploma Program in Business administration,  including taking part in an International Internship program as equity analyst at Technovision management fund (hedge fund based in Los Altos Silicon Valley) at UC Berkeley XT (California).

News stories discussed this week

Petr Míkovec on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/petr-m%C3%ADkovec-ba654a14/

Inven Capital on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/company/invencapital-cz/

Inven Capital website http://www.invencapital.cz/

Inven Capital at EcoSummit 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfr_YbtQIPM

Guy Kawasaki https://guykawasaki.com/

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter. If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

Twitter twitter.com/weekincleantech

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Sabine Scheunert – VP Digital & IT Marketing/Sales (Mercedes-Benz)

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What’s it all about?

I was fortunate to be invited to Daimler HQ to record a short video with Sabine, whilst also in Stuttgart to attend the Electric and Hybrid vehicle trade show and conference. Sadly whilst we got to film, schedules for the podcast got delayed, so we recorded this via mobile a few days later. Digitalisation is massively affecting all areas of business and society, and none more so that the automotive sector.

About our guest

Sabine Scheunert studied Business Mathematics in Bielefeld, Germany, and European Business Management at the German Business School (FDHW). In 1998, subsequent to graduation, she launched her career in the automobile industry at BMW, where she occupied a number of positions in Germany and France, ultimately in an executive function in product management, before relocation to Eastern Europe for BMW in 2006.

In 2010 Sabine Scheunert joined PSA Peugeot Citroën in Paris and worked for the French automobile manufacturer as the worldwide head of Customer Relationship Management for all the brands under the PSA banner. As the first ever female CEO within the PSA Peugeot Citroën Group, Ms. Scheunert managed business activities for the Group’s Citroën brand in Shanghai from the beginning of 2015 until her move to Mercedes-Benz.

Since joining Daimler Group Sabine has been heading up the new digital unit at Mercedes-Benz as Vice President Digital & IT Marketing/Sales Mercedes-Benz since July 2016. This newly created function brings with it responsibility for the whole range of associated IT-based marketing, sales and after-sales activities – and for the entire scope of digital customer experiences for the Mercedes-Benz brand.

In addition to the continued expansion of the company’s pioneering IT landscape, Sabine Scheunert’s remit also includes the development of new and profitable customer-centric digital services. The digital unit operates on a global scale and cooperates with a wide range of incubators and start-ups – right around the world. Sabine Scheunert is also the CIO of Mercedes me, the Mercedes-Benz personalised customer portal.

Sabine Scheunert on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabinescheunert/

Daimler on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/company/daimler/

Daimler website https://www.daimler.com/en/

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter. If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

Twitter twitter.com/weekincleantech
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Martijn Lammers – Co-Founder Lightyear

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What’s it all about?

Some things make you feel old. Meeting Martijn Lammers, and fellow C0-Founder and CEO Lex Hoefsloot at their Eindhoven site was just one such thing. Martijn, at 28 years old is one of the ‘oldies’ in the founding team. Their soon to be launched (June 19) solar powered car is amazing to see (It’s beautiful, I got a sneak peek) and more so given it has been created by a very young team with no automotive sector experience. We discuss the start-up journey and challenges to get to this point.

About our guest

Martijn Lammers is one of the founders of Lightyear, he is currently responsible for strategy. After having won the World Solar Challenge with a team of students, and gradating his masters in industrial design from Eindhoven University of Technology, he founded Lightyear with a team of 5 aiming to accelerate the adoption of electric cars. More specifically, Lightyears mission is to provide clean mobility for everyone. Their first car, Lightyear One, is an ultra-efficient car with solar cells integrated in the hood and roof of the car.  Due to its efficiency, Lightyear One is partly self-sufficient, and can be charged by normal outlet at any other time ensuring it can independent of charging infrastructure. Lightyear One is in an exclusive segment costing €119.000 before taxes, enabling Lightyear to deliver a truly ground breaking product and developing the necessary  technology to match

Lightyear is working with a team of 130 people based in Helmond, the Netherlands combining young and experienced A-players to form a strong team capable of achieving Lightyear’s mission. Lightyear is currently in the process of building its first full prototype, to be completed in the second half of this year. The launch of this prototype will also be Lightyears launch to the public. Since the inception of Lightyear, there has also been a focus on the commercial validation of the concept as well resulting in over 80 Lightyear One’s to be reserved and paid for. This group of ambassadors forms a strong backbone of Lightyears success so far.

Martijn Lammers on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/martijn-lammers-70131b18/

Lightyear on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightyear.one/

Lightyear Cars on Twitter https://twitter.com/lightyear_cars

Lightyear website  https://lightyear.one/

Lightyear on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lightyear_cars/

Lightyear on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/lightyear.cars/

News stories discussed this week

Introduction to Lightyear on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_QAWVUoZFg

The Lean Start-up- Eric Ries https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0670921602/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Design driven innovation – Roberto Verganti https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1422124827/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter. If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

Twitter twitter.com/weekincleantech

Facebook www.facebook.com/thisweekincleantech/

Instagram www.instagram.com/davidhunt2013/

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