Automotive News Europe - November 2019 - 10

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

Q&A

QA Networking specialist
Ionity boss eyes cities, new tech partnerships for EV infrastructure builder

E

to-business] side. They bring the customer - what package they offer is up
to the MSP. ChargeNow [owned by BP
Chargemaster], MercedesMe, Porsche
Charging Service, New Motion [owned
by Shell] are all MSPs.

uropewide electric vehicle charger
operator Ionity added a new partner
in September as Hyundai-Kia joined the
joint venture set up by Ford Motor, BMW
Group, Daimler and Volkswagen Group in
2017. At that time, the goal was to install
a network of 400 fast EV chargers across
Europe by the end of 2020. The company
is led by Michael Hajesch, a former manager of BMW's electric i subbrand, who
spoke with Automotive News Europe Correspondent Nick Gibbs about what comes
next for the fast-growing company.
Your goal was to have 400 charging
stations by the end of 2020. Where
are you now and what's next?
We have 140 live, and 50 under construction. The next step is a strategic
question that we are working to answer.
We could build another 200 along main
highways, or go into cities, or form some
technical partnerships. There are many
business opportunities.
When will you decide?
The plan is to at least get clarification by
year-end or the first or second quarter
of 2020.
Would you consider taking over other
EV charging operators?
It's too early to answer that.
What's your profitability timetable?
When we are talking about infrastructure,
it's typically longer than getting returns
from selling vehicles. It's a huge investment, and we are at the very early stage
of EV market penetration. It might take
years to become profitable, but we are
very confident we will achieve this by taking a strategic, longer-term approach.
You recently added Hyundai Motor as
a shareholder. What does the influx
of cash that comes with adding Hyundai and Kia enable Ionity to do?
Money is one thing, but what is more important is that this shows the strategic
commitment of the industry. It's good to
have the international engineering experience from an Asian perspective.

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Currently, you have fixed-rate charging at 8 euros or 8 pounds. Are there
plans to change that?
Yes. Eight euros per charge was an introductory pricing strategy we offered as
we built up our network. As we progress,
and in response to regulations in several
countries, we are preparing kilowattbased pricing in the future.

Meet the boss
❚ NAME: Michael Hajesch
❚ TITLE: Ionity CEO
❚ AGE: 48
❚ MAIN CHALLENGE:

Working out how and where to
expand the network and the
business after Europe's main
highways are covered.

What else do the automakers bring
along with their investment?
Customers, vehicles and a lot of expertise in terms of technology. When you
are sitting in your vehicle, the only thing
you want is a seamless, reliable, comfortable charging process. To do that
you have to test things up front, with
the vehicles, the infrastructure, with the
back-end platform, with the roaming
platform. End-to-end testing is key.
And what do the automakers offer
their customers?
Typically, they offer a charging service
to the end customer either by themselves or through a separate company.
The MSP [mobility service provider]
is our customer on the B2B [business-

Would you consider dynamic pricing
- raising the cost of charging during
times of peak demand?
Dynamic pricing has pros and cons.
Because we are in the energy sector,
we are not only dealing with demand
response. Other factors are energy
availability, grid stability and so on.
Theoretically, we should think about
dynamic pricing, but the reality is that
today kilowatt-based pricing is easy to
understand. Maybe in five to six years
we might see these kind of changes.
If you decided one day to go into
home charging and your customers
wanted the same type of fast charger
you provide, is that possible?
It will not happen purely because of the
cost. If you install a wallbox that's about
1,000 euros. If you move to DC charging beyond 22kW, we are easily talking
about 20,000 euros.
Are you looking at the possibility of
creating more amenities such as cafes around the charging points?
Our main approach is to enter into contracts with site locations where the amenities are available already. At the speed we
are rolling out the network, we don't have
time to take care of things ranging from
toilets to food to newspapers or coffee.
We clearly see the potential from these
concessions, but the question is: How will
it impact our business model? ANE

NOVEMBER 2019
http://www.autonewseurope.com
Automotive News Europe - November 2019

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