2006's 'Who Killed The Electric Car' with its 2011 sequel 'Revenge Of The Electric Car' are chronicles of the trials and tribulations of the nascent electric vehicle proposition - with the latter movie featuring Dr. Andy Palmer CMG working alongside Nissan Motor Corporation's enigmatic CEO Carlos Ghosn.
Fast forward to June 2023 and I spend 60 minutes onstage with Andy in front of a live audience at Vehicle Electrification Expo/Battery Cells & Systems Expo talking about how and when the Nissan Leaf came about, how Mr Ghosn inspired and influenced him...and where he didn't, about tribalism, engineering, energy, batteries - and the UK's 1st BIG battery plant which went up in Sunderland over a decade ago in 2012 (and Andy shares the story of how that almost didn't happen...sounds like an uncannily familiar scenario to where we are today with Tata Group/JLR to my mind!)
Battery swap gets an airing too btw! (and the back story to the Better Place gets an interesting reference) - as does the charging standards journey from CHAdeMO to CCS to NACS, including a noteworthy fact that Andy had the World's 1st EV with a V2H connection - in 2011! 😳
...and great to hear Andy give Serbia a BIG shout out when it comes lithium supplies as that augers well for my friends at Euro Lithium+Borates - as well as the folks closer to home at British Lithium Limited & Cornish Lithium Plc!
And, Dr. Palmer makes a trio of intriguing comments on the shelf life of ICE vehicles I've listened to this month - joining Mate Rimac & Jigar Shah in saying it as they see it! (happy to point to you to those remarks as they are all on the record)
In the meantime, I appreciate 60 minutes of your time is a BIG ask these days, but if you do make the investment - I'm confident you wont be disappointed...