The NFDA EV Marketplace Seminar provided retailers with an ideal opportunity to hear keynote speakers discuss and analyse the challenges and opportunities facing the EV sector. The event, sponsored by MHA Macintyre Hudson, took place on Wednesday 3 December in Warwick.
Despite growing sales of electric vehicles, challenges continue to affect the development of the sector. To assist retailers in preparing for the electrification of the UK car market, NFDA held the first EV Marketplace Seminar.
Speakers
Steve Freeman Jon Pollock, respectively National Head of Motor and Electric Vehicle Consultancy Lead, MHA. The MHA speakers illustrated the current EV landscape including Government’s ambitions, market forecasts and the steps dealers need to take to achieve of EV readiness. They identified four key areas to consider: planning, infrastructure, people and process change and implementation.
Graeme Cooper, Electric Vehicles Project Director at the National Grid. Graeme explained the role of the National Grid and analysed the key concerns that are driving the transition to EVs: decarbonisation at a global level, industrial growth nationally and clean air locally. He also covered future Government policies and showed that an efficient charging infrastructure represents the ‘key enabler’ for EV mass uptake.
Carl Bayliss, Vice President, Mobility & Home Energy at Centrica. Carl showed why businesses need to have a mid to long term view to thrive during the transition to EVs. The speaker discussed their vision for the development of the EV market over the next five years.
Oliver Larkin, Volkswagen Group UK Head of Group Corporate and Public Relations. Oliver described VW’s role in today’s automotive sector and analysed the company financial robustness in ‘difficult global markets’. He outlined how the company plans to achieve CO2 neutrality of the existing fleet by 2050 and explained that at VW ‘the change is happening now’ thanks to huge investments ‘in the future’.
He concluded adding that retailers will ‘will remain the primary point of contact’ as we progress through EVs and Connected Vehicles.
Stig Saeveland, CEO Hedin Automotive, Norway. Stig presented Hedin’s vision for growth including the current and future role of dealers and the company’s key business values in a country where all new cars sold by 2025 should be zero-emission. He described the company’s DNA:
- Purpose: to create unique experiences for the customer
- Ambition: to lead the way and take the industry to the Next Level
- Personality: characterised by passion and innovation, with humility, respect
and honesty as core values.
- Customer promise: Hedin promises to ‘take care of everything – always’.
Jason Cranswick, Commercial Director of Jardine and Chair of the NFDA EV Group, chaired the panel that closed the event where all speakers answered questions from the audience.
You can download a copy of the presentations from the day HERE.
