Podcast Notes: Darren Palmer on the EV Revolution

Preamble

I listen to podcasts while doing chores like cooking, travelling in public transport, doing dishes…etc., In most cases, I just absorb what I can with the partial attention I provide to the podcast. Recently I thought, I would listen to some of them with a bit more attention, like a lecture and take some notes. I learnt a lot in this one from how EV range anxiety is a non-problem to wineries hedge their quality of wine my mixing grapes from different fields.

Introduction

This one is a conversation between Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks and Darren Palmer, Ford Motor Co.’s vice president for electric vehicle programs. They take about Darren Palmer’s professional journey in Ford and Ford’s electric vehicle lineup and the future of Ford and Electric vehicles.

Ford Electric Vehicles

11 Billion starting investment
50 billion in current investment
use lessons from startups for velocity of execution
travelled to EV rich countries like Norway to China to learn
Interesting case where an EV user declined 100% refund of the EV vehicle and a BMW car to get rid of the EV and switch to petrol car, because he was holding the future and he doesn’t want to go back
focus on millennial market + Mustang brand
lack of Operating System is what was the limiting factor once the design was completed
using web technologies for creating the interface provided the team with great velocity
UI was hosted by a developer sitting at home, which was live updated during a test run based on customer complaint
from the first day, social media is being watched and feedback followed up
Team Edison - has a very flat structure
Ask what they want and move out of their way
fast track approvals and let them do their jobs

Converting Petrol Heads

Mustang club wasn’t comfortable and said they won’t be endorsing the EV Mustang
end of the launch presidents of both the Mustang clubs had purchased multiple vehicles
realisation - EV provides complementary experience with Petrol vehicles
petrol heads are not petrol heads, but performance heads and electric vehicles can deliver better performance
EV Mustang has such a performance that the only thing needed to be done to convert a person into EV is just getting them into the EV vehicle
tests for the vehicles are no longer done with humans because the acceleration limits are too high
torture tests for Ford vehicles on YouTube

E Transit - Vans

Focus on commercial customers
Payback starts from day 1
running costs are about half
extra mileage is limited because of predictability of routes - so EV mileage anxiety is not an issue
trips are planned and executed with right charging window
only 10% of our market
everyday seeing new use-cases in the commercial sector

Use-case #1: French Winery

wineries collect grapes from different parcels of land and mix them to get an average better wine (if 1 of 3 is bad), they still get a decent wine because of the 2 good parcels
but they don’t know if they have had 2 of 3 bad until a year later when they pull samples from the vats
a winery wanted to get the best quality and decided to use 1 vat per parcel, so at t
vat sizes are big and restriction on building above ground, so winery built the vats under ground by a mountain side
used the diesel vehicles for transportation
converted entire fleet to the electrical after seeing electrical performance
talks to American group of wine makers
now there is a huge demand from the wineries for electrical vehicles

USE-CASE #2: Mobile kitchens

popup kitchens with electric equipment
uses the battery to drive to people’s homes, plug-in and start cooking
battery operated electrical vehicles can use the battery to power the kitchen

BlueOval Charging Network

have the resources to setup independent network
but poor value for customers with each manufacturer setting up their own networks - so created a coalition
there are regional networks
remote monitoring of all stations
payment systems, terminals, ..etc all have to play along
they have instrumented vehicles, roaming the network, just to test the charging stations
problems identified are communicates to the CEOs of the stations of the network
problematic stations can be removed from the network if the quality problems aren’t addressed

Long charge times

perception is very different
charge in iPhone is bad compared to a flip phone, still no-one wants to switch back to a flip phone after using an iphone
the process of going to get petrol is obsolete
it actually takes 30 seconds to charge the car - because all you do is just plugin
daily charge is almost never conscious - go home, plugin and walk away, its charged and ready to go when you come back to it again
tech to charge faster is still developing
but it makes less difference than we think because the human element plays a very big role in when/how we charge
with 300 mile cars (current range of Ford EVs), it’s not actually a requirement
users will take a break after driving for a couple of hours (~200 miles), pit stops are more than necessary to replenish the charge
large miles like 800-1000 miles

Recycling and reusablity

materials are really in demand
if they don’t have access to minerals for batteries now, they are going to be in trouble
Blue City (Blue Ocean City? Blue Oval City??) - vertical integrated city for battery integration
collection of leftover and recycling to be more efficient in production

Buttons in the Cars

hardware switches/buttons are difficult to modify once installed
software provides the ability to change and modify
context level buttons - adaptable interface based on the context
parking camera buttons are not needed at 60 miles/hr - UI can hide them
smart vehicles can remember the way you park, so it will auto launch camera when on parking mode and can remember which camera is more frequently used and launch it automatically
smart UI with sensible human overrides
we think we need a button until we are presented with a better experience
no cycling around the cameras pressing the same button again and again

Customer education

basic problems because customers completely ignore the instructions
they just buy the car and use it without any research
so gamification kind of notifications to teach customers about nuances of an EV