The Electric Car & Industry | Michiel Langezaal | TEDxMaastricht

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Michiel Langezaal is responsible for the daily operations at Fastned. He learned how to make a success out of fast charging equipment for electric vehicles.

Michiel Langezaal, the New Business Developer at Epyon, a producer of fast charging equipment for electric vehicles, explains why and how the electric cars have already started to take over the automobile market.

Website: http://tedxmaastricht.nl
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tedxmaastricht
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/TEDxMaastricht
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TEDxMaastricht

About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Hi. Em, yeah.

I'm gonna tell you something about
what's happening in the car industry.

And I thought let's...

Let's have the first picture
put on the screen.

This car.

I'd like to see some hands.

Who already has seen
this car on the road?

Who knows this car?

Okay. That's quite a lot.

Well...

A friend of mine has one.

And...

When I talk with him about it, he's..

He's always super enthusiastic.

He says "Yeah, this car,
it just accelerates like hell!"

"It's crazy!"

"And it has this huge screen!"

"And I can download apps on it."

"And I can surf the web."

"It's amazing!"

"It's not just an electric car."

"It doesn't drive electric.
It's more than that."

And...

Well, there are also
the non-enthusiasts.

And I say "Well yeah,
but it's heavily subsidized."

"And that will never grow."

"And it still charges in hours."

Well that's gonna change.

And that's what I'm talking about today.

Em...

What's my background?

I'm CEO and founder of Fastned.

Fastned builds charging stations.

Like this.

Just like a regular gas station.

They're situated along the highway.

And you can just exit the highway,

go into the charging station,

put the plug in the car,

press start

and 20 minutes later
the car is full.

What that will do is that will give

electric vehicles drivers the freedom
to drive wherever they like,

just like a gasoline car.

Why do you buy a car?

You buy a car because
it gives you freedom.

That's why you want it.

And that's what we're going to do.

Basically the same as
Shell or BP that puts on

gasoline stations.

So why do I think that this industry

is headed towards this Kodak moment?

Kodak is the classical example of

the photography industry being
disrupted by the digital camera.

And what we see here,

what we see happening
with the electric car

is to some extent the same.

We see cars becoming electric.

It's becoming an electric appliance.

And it follows a totally different course

and experience curve than we are
used to from mechanical products

like the current fossil fuel car
that we know.

And this electric appliance

it just goes through a cost curve

that you know from the LCD TV
that you have at home,

from the improvement that
we've seen in digital cameras.

Year on year these products get better
and better and better.

And that is disruptive.

That's highly disruptive.

If you look at solar panels,

more and more houses in the Netherlands,

they are putting solar panels
on their roofs.

Why are they doing that?

Well, because of this:

this curve going down, down, down.

Year on year improvements in solar cells

are around 20%.

20% per year to get cheaper, better, etc.

And what that means,

if you do that every year,

at some point, you'll cross
that line of grid parity.

At some point, your energy
from the solar panels

will become cheaper than

the energy that you can buy
from the grid.

And the same is happening with batteries.

The batteries, that's the main cost
component of our electric car,

they're getting cheaper
and cheaper every day.

We've seen the same from digital cameras.

Digital cameras got better.

They got more capacity of photos.

They got more megapixels.

In 10 years, the industry went
from 0 to 100% adoption.

When the photographers didn't like

the camera in the beginning,

they now love it.

And we see the same happening
with electric cars.

They will charge faster.

They will have more range.

And it's not as fast as the
digital camera in development,

but it will be around 20% per year.

And I think, if we translate that
to the car industry,

this is what we see happening:

this was an extract of the Auto Bild,

a German car magazine.

It basically states the opinion,

or let's say how the Germans thought
about the introduction of the Tesla.

Last month,

Tesla sold 289 vehicles in the Netherlands

of the type Model S.

In that same month,
BMW and Audi combined sold...

244 Audi A6 and BMW 5 series.

That's what I call disruption.

In 1 or 2 years, you got
a serious market share.

It's already happening
in this luxury segment.

Then besides price,

what else,

why would it be disruptive?

An electric car,
you can charge it at home.

And at home, electricity is very cheap.

You can basically put your car
in a wall socket.

It's a huge incentive for people
to buy a car. Why?

If you drive it for 2 Euros for 100 km,

and you have your own parking space
for your car near your home,

that makes a lot of sense.

You basically get a
0 marginal cost product.

So the whole cost perception of
the product of an electric car

will be totally different
than a gasoline car.

And that will be disruptive.

This is what's gonna
happen in the end.

What we will see is
in the coming 10 to 15 years,

we will see this market accelerate

Today this market is growing

at 50 or 100% per year.

And that will accelerate.

And it will go through the hockey stick
in the coming years.

And that means that in the end,

gasoline stations will be disrupted.

The existing car brands
that are sitting ducks,

they will be disrupted as well.

Only car brands that will
really really step in,

and today start their development,

they will get there,

they will be able to go along.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)