18/09/2024
The Climate Transition: The business of electric vehicles...
__Problems are opportunities for you, as entrepreneurs!
Have you heard the expression “Opportunity knocks once"? Well, it’s not true. As a friend said to me last week: “Opportunity smiles at the person who is prepared.”
There are so many opportunities arising from Climate Transition and Mitigation priorities globally... but how can you ever see them if you are not engaged, knowledgeably concerned, or seeking to be part of the ?
The richest man in the world at the moment (Elon Musk) made most of his money through Tesla. His company's core business and revenue source is Electric Vehicles (EVs).
While Tesla manufactures a few other products, most if not all have a mission to speed up the world’s transition to sustainable energy...
Why did Elon Musk decide to make Electric Vehicles instead of petrol cars? He saw an opportunity to serve a new customer demand which was unhappy about the contribution of petrol and diesel cars to the Climate crisis.
“If you want to be successful (as an entrepreneur), identify a human need and reach out to solve it in a sustainable manner” [my paraphrase of something said by the Evangelist TL Osborne].
Tesla sparked a “market race” as entrepreneurs particularly in China “fast followed”. Today the market is actually dominated by the Chinese.
Last year alone, about 10,5m EVs were sold worldwide, much more than the 1,1m total cars sold in Africa!
Unfortunately, it is estimated that there are only 600,000 (four-wheel) EVs in Africa!
This data is according to the International Energy Agency Global EV Outlook 2023 Report and various automotive industry reports for 2022. The number of EVs in Africa is estimated from reports from the UN Environmental Programme and other regional studies up to early 2024. These numbers can indeed change rapidly but....
Are Africa’s EV numbers changing much yet? I doubt it.
Why is that? Why have Africans sat on their hands and watched this industry take off, just like that?!
Imagine, if your country’s entire fleet was EV, just think of the billions in foreign currency savings?!
Would it not be enough to strengthen your currency or serve the international debt?! Amazing!
Now I know that there will be a chorus of comments about how bad things are, but that is NOT an entrepreneur’s response!
We SEE opportunities in the obstacles! Some of you are going to tell me there is no demand for such cars, but that is NOT an entrepreneur’s response! We CREATE the demand.
If I was younger, like some of you, I would map out every single aspect of this industry and look for an entry point for myself.
Take for instance the problem of creating an Electric Charging Network. This can be done at existing petrol stations. I know some countries where governments now require every petrol station to have an Electric Charging Station.
These can also be put at shopping malls and hotels. You can partner with all sorts of players.
Then there is the issue of power. What an OPPORTUNITY! With the advent of mini grids, this is an opportunity screaming to create billionaires in Africa LOL!
There are also dealership opportunities with some of the new players in China for instance. And opportunities to build maintenance facilities. To be honest with you, there are opportunities to build even the cars themselves; they are really simple!
What is wrong with our entrepreneurs in this space?!
There are so many other opportunities being created by the Climate Transition, it’s mind blowing, and we are just watching. Then one day we will wake up and find ourselves just consumers!
I have been screaming about the opportunities created by this Climate Crisis [and believe me, it’s real!] for over 20 years now. There is so much opportunity that I cannot do it alone.
Come on guys!
Let’s do this!
Image credit: KWB-Ubuntu Hope via AI. My team asked AI to imagine a solar-paneled electric vehicle charging station. Why not?!
