The B2B platform for full-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles: Events News

On 19 November, the Zero Emissions Vehicle Foundation will hold a dedicated evening briefing in London about the Investment Opportunities in the electric car industry. cars21.com, as an official media partner, has talked to ZEVF Chairman Barry Shrier about financial opportunities arising, the automotive industry’s 2nd era, and the importance of global communication campaigns.

cars21.com: Next Thursday, the Zero Emissions Vehicle Foundation (ZEVF) is hosting a dedicated event on financing the necessary transition to sustainable electric car technologies. What is your motivation to organise such an event and what are your expectations?

BARRY SHRIER: Thank you and I’m delighted to announce the launch of this event and our official media partner cars21.com. The goal of the Zero Emission Vehicle Foundation is simple: “to speed up the roll out of electric cars”, to reduce car pollution, reduce our need on foreign oil, and improve the health of our citizens. We organise numerous events to promote this goal. The event we’re having on Thursday 19th November it to help the investor and banking industry learn about this exciting, and rapidly growing, disruptive industry – and all the powerful investment opportunities that exist within it.

cars21.com: How has the interest in electric cars changed within the investment community over the last few years? What is the situation today?

BARRY SHRIER: We see an exciting growth of awareness within the investment community, but there is still a long way to go. You see, for 100 years the banking sector has financed the car sector, for example managing Billion Euro bond issues to finance new car factories etc etc. We are witnessing the end of the first era of the car industry, the piston-engine era, and we’re at the dawn of the 2nd era of the car industry – the electric car era. Bankers and other professional investors in the western world must realize this, and actively support it, or they will lose all that business to China.

History demonstrates there’s a need for investors, at all levels, to learn about the electric car sector.

• 10 years ago: practically no professional investors were looking at electric cars
• 5 years ago: the leading innovative investors began (Kleiner Perkins, et al)
• Recently global investment leaders have come on board: i.e. Warren Buffet investing £230M in the Chinese electric carmaker BYD.

cars21.com: You predict that in five years time all banks, hedge funds, and private equity firms will be involved in financing a growing EV market. What is needed to make your vision a reality?

BARRY SHRIER: Well, luckily we have the support of our official media partner cars21.com to help us here. What is needed to make our vision a reality is – firstly – a powerful and effective international communication programme. Everyone knows that gas (petrol) and diesel engine cars are severely polluting; that they emit poisonous fumes in their tail pipes. No one ever says “I hope the next car I buy is more polluting”. However, most people do not know yet that in a few years time, there will be exciting, high-performance electric cars on the road, like the Liberty electric Range Rover – cars that are as fast as petrol cars, with great acceleration, and yet still safe, comfortable, and prestigious.

cars21.com: As founder and chairman of ZEVF, what is your organisation’s main purpose, and which stakeholders are involved in your regular meetings?

BARRY SHRIER: As I explained above, the goal of the Zero Emission Vehicle Foundation is to “speed up the roll-out of electric cars”. It’s a simple goal, but one that is fundamentally important for society. In the UK for example, over 1,000 people / year die in London due to car pollution related illnesses. With electric cars, this would be zero. We invite a wide variety of people to our informative conferences and events, including professionals in the auto sector, banking, law, the media, and civil servants. A fundamental requirement, to make the transition from piston engine cars to electric cars, is for innovation – and it’s universally recognized that the best innovation comes from small independent businesses. As an example Delta Motorsport, the well known Formula1 motorsport racing engineering business, is launching a high-performance zero-emission electric car called the E-4. This Coupe is based on the best practice from the motorsport sector – which is another example of the stakeholders that come to our regular meetings.

cars21.com: A final question: How important are business networks in driving the transition to zero-emission vehicles, and who (which stakeholder group) needs to become more actively involved to make informed choices and get EVs faster on the road?

BARRY SHRIER: We believe that a wide variety of new business partnerships are needed to speed up the necessary transition to a sustainable transport economy. We’re running out of oil, and burning oil in cars is destroying the planet. Therefore, everyone must be involved in making the transition to electric cars which are clean and non polluting. You will see a range of exciting new partnerships developing now, for example with input from the IT sector like IBM – who have a “Smart Energy” division looking at how to produce, distribute, and utilize energy efficiently (including electric cars). And electricity producers like EDF are now becoming active players in the personal mobility sector (the car sector) due to the growth of electric cars.

Contact Information

If you would like to contact ZEVF for any enquiries, you may send a request to Barry Shrier directly.