The Mobility Review - What's New? In Conversation with Mike Strahlman, Energy Transition Specialist

Interviewed and written by Alfie Blanchard, Researcher at Brightsmith

Hey Mike, thanks for speaking to me today. I know we've been talking for a while. But for those who may not know you, give us an introduction to yourself.

Hi Alfie, thanks for having me.

I like to think of myself as a dyed-in-the-wool energy transition person and have spent the last 15 years or so in the energy industry.... 9 years at Shell across various jobs and functions, including c. 2 years in the M&A space as Shell's first Integration Director for new energies acquisitions, then 3 years at Deloitte as a Director for the Post-Merger Integration practice. In this role I led mega integrations and separations for energy ecosystem companies, as well as taking a PE-portfolio value creation methodology and working with 7-10 energy transition start-up/scale-ups to accelerate their growth.

My whole career has been geared towards how I can participate, drive, and accelerate the overall energy transition - this is my passion. Most recently, I have spent the last 18 months running JustPark’s electric vehicle business and launching their two flagship EV products.

That's quite an extensive background Mike! With the energy transition being huge and spanning a lot of different sectors, what attracted you to the Mobility industry in particular?

When I think about the energy transition, I like to think it touches and addresses the consumer on a daily basis in two ways.

The first is answering the question: “Where does the energy come from?”

and the second is: “So what about my car?”

...in answering these two questions, I see mobility as the confluence of these two parts, and that’s what makes me so passionate about this part of energy ecosystem. The ability to drive consumer and B2B behaviour towards the energy transition, is a big contributor.

And since you have been involved in the industry, how has it changed from your experience within it?

My first foray into the mobility landscape was in 2017-ish when I was Shell’s Integration Director for the New Motion acquisition.?If I compare now to then, from the mobility lens, probably the biggest difference is the number of active players / innovators in the space to help agitate the transition which is positive!

The downside is that this can confuse people. One of the challenges today is the sheer scale of information and solutions out there, and as a result it is difficult for the consumer to make the best choices. On top of this – thinking of infrastructure - in around 2015-2017 if I remember correctly, there used to be around 4 EVs for every charge point and now it was something like 19 in 2022. This change is astronomical and exacerbates the current challenges in the sector; creating the case for the ‘coming together’ of various innovative charging solutions, to really work for the average mobility consumer.

I suppose to summarise, the number of competitors and solutions have increased, which is great, along with consumers, but as a result, infrastructure and ‘ease’ of solutions hasn’t yet met this growth at the same pace.?Therefore there is an additional friction in the industry as we begin to approach critical mass and critical adoption.

Interesting, how crucial would you say it is for all these solutions to find a way to co-exist and come together?

The simple answer is that it has high criticality. I believe that the mobility transition should be as easy as possible to engage with – if you visualise what has happened over the course of the development of the ICE vehicle, every petrol station is fungible for every vehicle.

"For EVs, we want a charging system that is just as fungible, so it is very easy for anyone to turn up and charge at whatever time or situation."

The counter we see out there is that there are many different kinds of charging products, charger types, different grades, speeds, locations, and apps; all of which is a product of the kind of primordial soup of the industry and ecosystem developing. However, at some point, these will all have to come together. And when you consider that one of the reasons people haven’t made that transition yet is because they don’t know how to engage with the ecosystem – as there are so many solutions out there right now – this compounds the challenge.

For example, my first EV was on subscription, and when it arrived it came with 5 different RFID cards for various charging subscription products to utilise UK charging networks. That’s 5 different cards in my wallet; 5 different cards to choose from when you turn up at a charging station; and as an inexperienced EV driver, this was rather daunting. Sure, some people out there will like this choice, especially people just transitioning; however, it is a high entry hurdle and bringing down that entry hurdle is really important.

And would you say lowering this hurdle is the greatest issue facing the industry currently?

In a way yes; at the end of the day there are two kinds of people when it comes to the mobility ecosystem currently - those who have transitioned, and those who haven’t yet.

For the people inside the ecosystem, many of them already have their own destination or home charger they can depend on. As a result of this, they don’t necessarily need to depend on the public charging ecosystem as much as those who don’t have access to home chargers for example.

Comparing that to those outside the ecosystem and are looking to come in, I think the biggest hurdle is being able to access the information around what they need to do to transition. So debunking the myths about charger availability and reliability is really important.

For example, when you talk to people on the street about whether they are or aren’t choosing an EV, they will say, ‘there aren’t enough chargers available’ or, ‘what if I need to drive a long-distance journey’ – and the reality is an EV driver knows how to deal with these things. So bringing down the hurdle, and debunking the myths to create the ‘activation energy’ required to get people into the ecosystem - is really important to affect mass adoption.

Are there any new techs or companies entering the ecosystem that are interesting in your eyes?

There are plenty!?But for context, first I’d like to articulate that I see that EV ecosystem cut down into 4 parts. There’s the Auto OEM hardware i.e. the car, there’s the charging hardware i.e. the charger, there’s the technology layer for engaging with the hardware, and then finally there are solutions which sit on top of them.

So back to the question: because everyone is trying to do something smart, there are a lot of really interesting companies grabbing the headlines – but what seem the most interesting to me, are those that fall into the ‘solutions’ part of the ecosystem.

I make the point again that people who have EVs are looking for different solutions to those who don’t have EVs. So those who own EVs, for example fleet owners, are looking for solutions to certain problems.?For those types of challenges, I look at companies like Mina or Paua for example. These are the solution providers that actually solve for big pain points from a B2B perspective. With the B2C lens, the likes of Octopus are doing a lot to affect mass adoption; the likes of Monta and their solutions for both B2B and B2C; and these companies are doing really special things to help bring down the barriers within the ecosystem, as well as promoting / educating people to get into the ecosystem.

Similarly, there are some unsung heroes who aid in bringing people into ecosystem, and these are the people who are helping with EV charging accessibility.?For example ChargeSafe who are looking at accessibility of public charging. Then there are the infrastructure folks like EO, for B2B and consumer, and Connected Kerb, in the public forum, who are doing a lot to get the right infrastructure into the right places.

How would you say the industry is driving diversity and why do you think it is important to encourage people from all backgrounds to pursue a career in this industry?

I think it’s good to zoom out with questions like this, because mobility is only a tenant of the ecosystem - and when you consider that the energy transition is arguably the biggest collective challenge on the planet, it becomes a necessity for as many people to engage with it. It is scientifically proven that diversity promotes progress therefore...

…what better way to tackle the biggest challenge of our lifetime than by making sure the most diverse audience is engaged to solve it, both personally and professionally.

And on a similar note - why do you feel that a career in mobility, is a career with purpose?

For me, having worked in the energy industry for 15 years, I am extremely passionate about it. I’ve always found it to be a challenge that I want to impact in a meaningful way, and help bring to the fore in an altruistic way.

On top of that, we have an opportunity today to create a legacy for the generations behind us.?It’s a big challenge, but equally, a responsibility to make sure we move the needle in the right direction.?I guess I’m lucky that I find this exciting and have dedicated my work and career to this so far.

And what advice would you give yourself before embarking on your career?

As much as this makes me sound like an old man – what I admire about the younger generations I encounter professionally is that they have much more visibility into what they do with their careers and are able to earlier on make stronger choices that align to their ‘purpose’.

When I first started in my career, everyone would leave university to either go into law, finance, or into consulting. I wish I was able to go back and tell myself to stick to my convictions and spend every day and waking hour fighting for the planet. I also think I’d tell myself to not be in such a hurry, there’s merit in slowing down a bit sometimes and taking your time so you can make the most impact.

This has been great Mike, have you anything to add before we finish up?

I suppose a quick anecdote which sums up one of the key mobility challenges in my view.?

If you fast-forward to 2050 and hand a petrol or diesel car to your grandchild – they would likely ask the question, “Why can’t we fuel this at home?”

To me: that’s pretty revealing, and also a symbol of the direction of travel we should be targeting for the mobility sector.?Ultimately, we are all driving towards convenience and charging when you can – be that at home or ‘proxy home’ where possible.?If we all keep that in mind, I think we are on the right track.

Very true Mike! I want to thank you for your time today, it's been really great to learn more about yourself and your experience within the Mobility world!

If you want to learn more, follow Alfie Blanchard and ? Mike Strahlman ? on LinkedIn.