Nils Söderström’s Post

How are we tackling the subject of end-of-life vehicles when companies like this go bankrupt? I hope their parts—including their tires—are being reused and recycled, instead of incinerated or landfilled. 

supply far outstrips demand in E-mobility and there will be many companies struggling to stay relevant in 2024 and beyond. In summary - the EV honeymoon is over and consumers are no longer rushing out to buy them.....

Whilst there are likely numerous contributing factors to Cake and Polestar’s struggles, I think fundamentally they failed to design products with sufficient market appeal. I foresee the future for two-wheeled EVs as mopeds with swappable batteries, not futuristic-looking enduro-style bikes. And what were Polestar thinking making the 2 a coupe-esque bloated hatchback? That’s not what EV buyers have been crying out for. They want Golf and 3 series touring alternatives or small SUVs. Sometimes its just a case that the product solved the wrong problems.

So here we are, hopefully decoupled from a frigid mindset that is fixated on the strategy to keep things the way they used to be.. fixed. How can we move forward if not by removing the mental 'training wheels'. What has more value for the community, a used car lot of 100 ICE cars or 100 EV cars? Without moving the cars??

Too bad they did not venture into swappable batteries....

I think the time of EV is coming. The challenge that all startups and scale up face is getting to market fit before running out of runway. In some cases, there is no place for boutique, in some cases there is. Future mobility (EV & Micro Mobility) needs to learn the lessons of the past. Standardisation is key to Sustainability. Sustainability is based on models that allow for profit to be made country by country or maybe region by region. These models have the foresight to develop manufacturing close to the customer, develop services to support that customer and ensure good customer experience and again true market fit. The Future Mobility industry needs to come together and produce a shared vision of the future as the oil & gas industry has done for centuries. They need to share resources like distribution hubs, charging infrastructure, service centres and when a product reaches end of life, they harvest for reuse in their own supply chain, so they should share Recovery Solutions. Tobacco, Oil & Gas, Food Manufacturers , Traditional Automotive and other industries have all achieved this - Future Mobility must do the same.

During May 2022, we had explained to Polestar's management that the present EV platform is simply unsustainable and unscalable. Their then COO wanted to go for the moonshot and had responded to me. Long story short, existing businesses simply cannot change the paradigm as much as their lead personnel may have their hearts and souls to do so. Their minds are beholden to their shareholders who are themselves deeply immersed in the existing paradigm. Hopefully, with all these failures the investors will finally wake up and acknowledge that a paradigm structured to maintain and enhance the present economic world cannot supersede Nature's laws baked in the fundamental laws of physics. Do you think the US EV startups are immune? Which other recent industries driven by new technologies do you think are headed for similar outcomes?

Interesting topic for discussion, as always Nils Söderström, and one that I think hasn't gone unnoticed even by the more general public the last week. My 0.02$ is that it's a combination of the current economic climate, with much more risk averse investors and obviously much more frugal consumers, and both companies having been super ambitious in terms of reducing their total footprint and driving their respective industries forward. With that said, I'd venture a guess that it's other issues at play here than EV vs. ICE, and more a question of if consumers are willing to pay a premium for companies that spearhead towards "Net zero" (and more avant-garde design) in times when household budgets are tighter than they've been in a long time. For B2C companies, where most of my background lies, you always need to understand your intended target consumer, their needs, wants and willingness to pay. It would appear net zero doesn't really move the needle in B2C. In this respect, I think start-ups that target B2B, where companies need to adress their scope 3 emissions for instance, can and should be much more ambitious in dealing with their entire footprint than companies targeting B2C. At least right now, with the current economy.

What is your take on this, Nils Söderström? #nilssoderstrom

Interesting insight Nils