Warming up for the Nordic EV Summit 2019

This story first appeared in the february issue of Evtalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

Responsible for switching Meridian Energy’s vehicle fleet to electric, the company’s procurement manager Nick Robilliard is a guest speaker at the Nordic EV Summit in Oslo on March 21 and 22.

He’ll be discussing the project in an “electrifying large fleets” session during the first day of the Planet Electric summit which includes participants from around the world.

Californian EVangelist Chelsea Sexton, a frequent visitor to New Zealand for the Leading the Charge annual EV road trips, is a moderator for a second day session “car manufacturers” which includes speakers from Porsche, Renault and Byton.

An earlier session on the same subject includes speakers from Jaguar Land Rover and China’s Nio.

A keynote speaker is Norwegian EV Association secretary general Christina Bu.She visited New Zealand late last year for talks with politicians, industry leaders, fleet managers and others about what could be learnt from Norway’s world-leading conversion to EVs.

While in Auckland, Bu also helped launch Waiheke Island’s bid to become the world’s first electric vehicle-only residential island by 2030, the drive coming from advocacy group Electric Island Waiheke.

Indeed, a group representative and EVtalk publisher Vern Whitehead plans to attend the Nordic EV Summit and establish contacts with representatives of one of Norway’s islands which is also moving towards full electrification.

The summit will consider whether Norway’s EV policies can be a recipe for the rest of the world, perhaps exported as the “Norwegian EV Policy Kit”.

“Norway is kind of a leading star when it comes to electromobility policies”, Bu says.

The International Energy Agency predicts the EV numbers world-wide could be as high as 220 million by 2030.

The summit will suggest that all of them must be charged with renewable energy, and its four central themes include ramping up production so wider range of EV models will be available faster, charging from pole to pole to prevent lack of charging being a restriction for everything EV from cars, trucks and buses to ferries and aircraft, plus the theme barriers, carriers and consumer choice.

Other summit sessions are also planned on electric construction equipment, batteries, electric aviation, autonomous mobility, mobility as a service (MaaS) and more.

Visit https://nordicevs.no for more information.