Welcome, everyone. Welcome, and we're very happy that you're joining us online this morning or this afternoon from wherever you're located on the globe. Thank you for being with us. We're going to start on time, so maybe some of you will join in a couple of minutes that will follow. But let me introduce myself. I'm Claire Couet. I'm a Business Development Manager for SGS INSPIRE. I'm based in Brussels, and it's going to be my great pleasure to moderate our webinar today. Global EV Infrastructure Outlook: Where do we stand in 2023, and what to expect in 2030? That's our topic for today. What are we going to talk about? Well, we will discuss who is leading the way in terms of EV rollouts and charging infrastructure deployment globally. We will look at the horizon for 2030. Are the 2030 targets that we see in many countries realistic and achievable? We are going to explore the drivers that are facilitating EV adoption. We will also look at the countries that are maybe lagging behind and why. What are the barriers that they are facing? What is standing in their way? Also, can they replicate success stories from other countries to boost their own EV Market? And we will also look at the challenges that are faced by EV customers. What do they really want and need? So this is the topic for today. This is the plan for today. Now, before we get to the heart of the matter, let me say a few words about SGS INSPIRE. SGS INSPIRE is the Market Intelligence Service of the SGS Group. You're probably familiar with our mother company, SGS. It's the leader in testing, inspection, and certification, namely, but not only for oil, gas, and chemical products. So what do we do at SGS INSPIRE, exactly? Well, we provide our clients with unique data on actual fuel quality at the petrol station across the globe, thanks to our worldwide fuel survey. And we use consolidated data for our reporting, while of course, the detailed information is available for purchase separately. And so we combine that data that we own with deep policy, regulatory, and market analysis on all transport-related fuels and all transport-related topics. That also includes electric vehicles, which is the topic for today, as it represents an ever-growing share of new vehicle sales today. So that's what we do. But you might ask me, who is behind all of this information? Who is generating this data? Well, we have a Global Team of Analysts, and I have some of them with me today, not all of them. In a second, I will start interviewing them, so you will get to know them better. The overall discussion will take us approximately one hour, but don't worry, there will be at least 20 minutes for questions at the end of this webinar. So before we start, let's warm up our brains, especially for the people joining in the morning zone, in the morning time zone. Let's warm up with a poll. We have two questions for you, and you're going to see a window popping up in your screen. The first question is: Do you think that electric vehicles will completely replace combustion engine in 2030? This is a yes or no question. And the second question is: What is the key barrier to massive EV rollouts according to you? This is a multiple-choice question, so you can pick what you think is the key barrier. While you do that, please do that. Please check the pop-up window and answer our poll. I want to give you some information about the webinar platform. So there is a gray and orange button on at the bottom of your screen. You will see the Q&A letter in orange and green, orange and gray, sorry. This is your tool to send us questions, so please use that for the Q&A session later on. You can send the question. We will receive it anytime during the webinar, so you don't have to wait until the end, and we will take the questions at the end. But please, react and send questions anytime during the webinar. Please, when you do that, can we ask you to mention who you are? Well, we see your name, of course, but if you could tell us the region where you're based and the company you work for, that would be great, so we can get to know you a little bit more. There's another important icon on the webinar platform. That's your email icon, again, that you will see at the bottom of the platform landing page. This little email icon is the way to contact us, SGS INSPIRE. If you want to have information about our services, or just, you know, if you have any question about this webinar, please do that. You can also contact us, by the way, to purchase our report, because all of the information that we will share with you today is compiled into a comprehensive report that is available for purchase. If you're not yet an SGS INSPIRE subscriber, of course. If you are a subscriber to our services, you have access to the report in full via your SGS INSPIRE account, so you don't have to buy that. But please, if you're interested in buying the report, please send us a line after the webinar. All right, let's see the results of our poll. Let's see if you had the time to fill in. Okay, that's a clear no. Good. We can start the discussion with that. And the second one. All right, lack of charging infrastructure as a top barrier, and then the EV price and supply chain challenge. Okay, very interesting. Thanks for participating. So without further ado, let me welcome our first speaker. Our first speaker is Dhanisha Juleemun. She is a chemist by background. She's our market analyst for Europe and Africa. She's based in the U.K. She has been working in the transport sector over a decade now in lubricant and fuel product development. She's been also monitoring trends, new technologies in the sector, as well as its regulations and policy developments in Europe and Africa. Dhanisha, welcome. Could you start with clarifying the scope of the study? Which type of electric vehicles do we cover in the report, and what kind of detailed information can people expect to find in the report? Hello, Claire. Thank you so much for the kind introduction. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone, depending on where you're joining. So yes, the SGS report on EV covers battery electric vehicle and the plug-in electric vehicle for light duty vehicles category. So the report covers the current number of EVs and the 2030 number of EVs based on national targets announced around the globe. The report also covers the current and future EV charging infrastructure. So here we are looking at the public charging points, unless it's otherwise stated. For example, in some national targets, they also include private or semi-private charging points, depending on their EV strategies, but we'll point that out if it does. I just want to point out as well that for an EV charging point, we are defining this as, you know, the point where an EV can be charged one at a time. So this is where the electric energy is delivered to the EVs. The report also covers current and future EV charging infrastructure. So, what is the current number now in 2022, and how is the number evolving to the 2030 targets? The report also includes detailed information on connectors and standards for charging points, but we won't focus on this today in our discussion. Thank you. That's very clear, and we're curious to know a bit more about the facts and the figures in the reports. Who is leading the race in terms of number of EVs on the market and charging stations in 2023? And can you also tell us a little bit why, according to you, and based on the facts? Sure. So from our recent study, China is the leading country for the number of EVs and EV charging points in 2023. Here I want to highlight as well that EVs include PHEVs and PEVs, which are described previously for light duty vehicles. So this is vans and passenger cars. China is ranked first with 16 million units, and the U.S. follows with 2.7 million vehicles. Germany follows with over 2 million EVs, and the U.K. is behind with about over 1.1 million EVs. If we look at China specifically, the Chinese government has been offering subsidies for over a decade for the public to switch to EV Ownership. In the U.S., from 2017 onwards, the EV sale has increased by approximately 44% per year since 2017, and this can be attributed to new tax laws, making EVs more accessible to the public. In Germany and the U.K., there are tax exemptions on EVs when purchased since 2016 in Germany and 2017 in the U.K. In terms of EVs charging points, again, we see China by far is ahead of all other countries with about 5.2 million charging points. In other countries, the range is around 100,000. So Vietnam is about 150,000, followed by the U.S., which is 144,000. The Netherlands is with 132,000, and France with about 100,000 charging points. All of this is driven by policies and national incentives. So in the case of China, the government doesn't fix an exact number for the future, but instead it's aiming for a ratio of EV to EV charging point of 1:1 by 2030. So in general terms, it's implied each EV will have an EV charging point available. So a quick example is if there's 10,000 EV units, the charging point available is 10,000, but China is aiming to do that in millions, and this is very ambitious if you think about it. A bsolutely ambitious and impressive. If we dig a little bit further, you already mentioned some of the incentives or the policies, but what really are the incentives that you see across regions, and what drives the adoption of EVs, if you have to make it simple for us? Yeah. So I would say national policies or government initiatives drive the adoption of EVs, as I mentioned previously. Likewise, incentives to make EVs more affordable to purchase is a key driver. In the case of Germany, regarding incentives for initial registration, from 2016 to the end of 2030, there is a tax exemption for 10 years for EVs when purchased. There are also environmental bonuses depending on the price of a new or used EV. In the U.K., there is tax exemption for EVs with a price tag of about $50,000 or less. There are also grants for those who buy an EV, so they can install it at their private home through the EV Home charge Scheme. In addition, businesses and companies installing EV charging point benefit from about £100,000 allowance towards the expenditure to install the EV equipment, charging equipment in the first year. Now, the price of new EV has reduced over the last few years. We've seen more models being launched, and they cost less than, let's say, a typical Tesla S dual motor, which is currently about $100,000. Among the cheaper models is the BYD Dolphin model, which costs about $33,000. These prices are in the UK market, but of course it could differ in other countries. But just to give you an indication of the price range of EVs available right now. However, the cost of EV adoption in other parts of countries of the world is still not accessible. For example, in Africa or parts of Asia, we observe a different trend in this region. For example, the electrification of two- and three-wheeler vehicles, as it makes the majority of existing fleet. In general, there should be more financial help and collaboration between the Government, International Organization, Private Sector to develop EV policies and adoption of EVs in these regions. The UN, so the United Nations Environment Programme, is trying to do this for its Global Electric Mobility Program. But yeah, this as a whole is what I would say what we found in our study. Thank you. I think the overview is quite clear, and you made the point also on the cost of buying an EV, which is what our audience also noticed in the poll, you know, as a barrier. So you made that point very clearly. Thank you very much. Now I would like to give the floor to my colleague, Lucky Nurafiatin. Thank you so much, Dhanisha, for your insights. Let me say a few words about Lucky. Lucky is our Senior Market Analyst for the Asia Pacific region. She's joining us from Singapore. She's based there. She has a background in physics and business management. She's an expert in fuel specifications, Vehicle Emissions, and alternative fuels, and she's also our SGS INSPIRE Energy Talk podcast anchor. So she has a lot of hats. Many hats for Lucky. It's fair to say that she knows the energy and transport, market dynamics in the Asia Pacific region inside out. So with these words, Lucky, welcome. Thank you, Claire. Could you give us a taste of what to expect in 2030? That's also part of our report, the targets for 2030. Which countries have the most ambitious targets for EVs and charging infrastructure? We already heard a little bit about China from Dhanisha, but we would really love to listen more and learn more from you. Yes, thank you again. First of all, not all countries set an absolute number of EVs. Instead, some countries set the minimum market share for EVs. In general, most countries aim for between 20%-60% of new sales of passenger cars and light-duty vehicles to run on electricity by 2030. As explained by Dhanisha earlier in this report, we look into the current situation of the EVs market and government's announcement of their targets, particularly for passenger cars and light-duty vehicles. However, in some cases they only set a target of EVs without specifying the type of the vehicles. So we mention these type of vehicles wherever it's relevant. We expect China to continue leading the EVs movement, like mentioned many times by Dhanisha already. The EU follows closely as more countries announce a ban on new internal combustion engines vehicles between 2030 and 2035. The U.S. is expected to follow, mainly driven by the government's target and the Inflation Reduction Act. I think it is not fair to compare the number of charging points without considering the size of the country... So that's why we investigate the ratio of EVs per charging point. China, again, leads the pack with a target ratio of 1 EV per charger. South Korea may continue with the ratio of 2 or less of EVs per charger. In general, countries are mostly trying to reduce the ratio to less than 10 EVs per charger, especially for fast and ultra-fast charging points. Thank you. That really helps. I have a slightly maybe difficult question for you. What is the optimum ratio, according to you, of EV to charging point in 2023, but also with the objective of 2030? Yes. Well, defining an optimum ratio of EVs per charging point really depends on the type of chargers. So for example, two EVs per slow charger may be sufficient, but for fast and ultra-fast chargers, this ratio will be too small. So a fast charger that can charge an EV, let's say, from 0% to 90% in about two hours, will only operate for four hours if we use a ratio of two EVs per charger. This means that in the remaining 20 hours of a day, if we use a ratio of two EVs per charger, this will be idle. This will even be more problematic for ultra-fast charger that only need about half an hour to charge an EV. So the IEA look at a ratio of. The ideal ratio of 10 EVs per fast charger and about 2 EVs per slow charger as the base, but we may see different numbers depending on the country. So establishing a charging station requires significant capital and a return on investment that makes sense. Without this, no companies will go and build one. So this is also one of the biggest reasons why development of EV charging stations is left behind the EV adoption. To increase the number of charging stations, some countries grant, I mean, some governments grant subsidies, but as I mentioned, no countries in the world have unlimited resources to subsidize this forever. So EV charging stations need to make some profits to sustain. For this reason, an optimum ratio of EV per charging station is required, and this is also the reason why battery swapping stations may become big in the future. I hope this answers your question, Claire. Absolutely, and thanks for shedding some light on the economics behind also the charging stations and the profitability needs behind that also. Thank you so much, Lucky. We will hear more from you at the end of our session. So until now, we've heard a lot about the front runners, and we've heard about the incentives that boost their markets. We've heard about charging infrastructure, but I would like to know a little bit more about the countries that are lagging behind, both today in 2023, but also with respects to their 2030 goals. And to zoom on this specific topic, I would like to welcome our dedicated market analyst for China. This is Chee Yin Lee. Chee Yin has a degree in chemical engineering. He's an expert in biofuels and the Chinese transport sector, and he's going to use actually his experience with the Chinese markets to see what are the success stories or, let's say, the recipes that other countries could use from the Chinese experience, and looking at what other countries, those are who are lagging behind, could get as an inspiration from, from the Chinese example. So, Chihyin, tell us, China is a country that you know best. Hi, Claire. Yes. Yeah. What are the factors, according to you, that can explain China's top position? Do you think that the countries at the bottom of the race could replicate some of the winning strategies implemented in China? Floor is yours. Okay. Thank you, Claire. I will go into answer your questions. There are many success story around the group. If you look at China, what are the elements that make China so special compared to other countries? In my opinion, there are three major factor, which is early development of new energy vehicle industry, wealth resources on EV key materials, and government policy. First of all, I will share three dates for you to understanding the early development of EV in China. In 1986, the Chinese government introduced the new energy vehicles 863 Program. The new energy vehicle is defined as the plug-in hybrid vehicle, battery electric vehicle, and fuel cell electric vehicle. In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization and wished to expand the Chinese vehicle market. But the Japanese, European, and U.S. conventional internal combustion engine technology is far more advanced than Chinese technology. So to compete with this country, the Chinese government invested $525 million in an EV research and development. In between 2001-2008 period, the Chinese government was continued investing in this industry. Moreover, the well-known Chinese car manufacturer were participating in this program, including the SAIC, Dongfeng Motor, Great Wall Motor, Chery, and FAW. So this program gave China a good basis to develop their EV industry. And secondly, the most important component in EV is the battery, and lithium-ion battery is the most popular battery type used in EV. So at present, China possess huge amount of lithium, cobalt, and nickel resources. These are the major raw material to produce lithium-ion batteries. In addition, semiconductors are also a key element in EV manufacturing. China also hosts a huge amount of rare earth material reserves in the world. In 2022, China accounted for around 70% of world rare earth mining production. Coming to the third factor is government policy. I will separate into two parts. One is subsidy and another is environmental protection policy. The Chinese government provides different kind of subsidy to support EV industry development, including the EV research and development subsidy, EV purchase subsidy, electric subsidy for EV charging, battery invention subsidy, and the subsidy for installation charging infrastructure. So with this subsidy, car manufacturer have the resources to invent new technology and also to reduce the cost to produce EV. Furthermore, citizens can purchase EV at a relatively low price, and thanks to subsidy, the EV charging is cheaper than the conventional fuel. And now I will focus on the countries that are really lagging behind. In general, Latin America and the Caribbean, former Soviet country, the Balkans, Africa, and Turkey, are still in a stage of more moderated growth compared to China, U.S., and EU. For South America, it's the case of Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, and Venezuela. There are other regions in the world, in Eurasia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are at the bottom of the race. And in Africa, most of the countries are only starting their EV roll out, leaving Zimbabwe and Namibia at the bottom of the race also. Finally, in the developing countries, the United Nations Environment Program, the UNEP, cooperate together with other international organizations and private companies, has launched a Global Electric Mobility Program to accelerate the shift up to EVs in these developing countries. So this is my answer. Thank you, Claire. Thank you. Thank you. It's clear that China has started quite early on, and so of course, has an advantage on the time. But it's good to also see that, well, other countries are maybe lagging behind but are starting with their programs, if I might say, or with the policies in other regions of the world. So thanks a lot for that, Chee. I would like to now look into an essential factor in this equation, which is the consumers. You know, what's their take in all of this, and they're part of this development. To shed some light on these interrogations related to consumers, I would like to invite my colleague, Daria Kochetkova. Daria is our market analyst for former Soviet Union countries, Western Balkans, and Turkey. Daria has a long-standing research experience in fuel production and development, including biofuels. She holds a PhD degree in Chemistry and Technology of Fuels and Environment. So with those words, welcome, Daria. I would like to ask you, what are the key challenges faced by customers, EV customers, today, with their EVs and with their charging points? Thank you, Claire, for the kind introduction. Yeah, let's talk a little bit about our psychology and our ability to overcome these challenges. Of course, still, the main challenges are the lack of charging points for a long journey and a fear that battery life and performance is not what the manufacturer actually claim. These two barriers are very strong for already drivers of EVs and for future owners. This shows very, very strongly in the Eurasian region. You know, big, big, big countries, long distances, sparse charging infrastructure, or simply lack of public chargers in remote areas. For example, you can see on the map here of Kazakhstan. You can find just not even hundreds of units of chargers. You can find only tens of units of chargers, in some cases, units, and they are very, very, remote from each other. 90% of EV drivers in Kazakhstan charge their vehicles at home, and most of them they live in urbanized areas. So people from rural areas, they don't buy EVs in these countries. But this problem is not only in the Eurasian region. This problem was also viable, for example, for a country like U.K. U.K. It does experience the same problem. The pace of rollout is slow for some charging points, particularly on-street charging. This is a critical barrier to consider for people, for example, without an off-street parking. They don't have space to park their own and leave their car for charging for a long enough time. And for some countries, a harsh climate conditions is also a challenge to overcome. It does not favor the use of EVs. It gives us, as drivers, a rise of range anxiety. So we just while we are driving an EV in a cold and predictable cold climate, we're afraid that we don't reach our destination. Not the last role, let's say, please, the cost of course of vehicles itself and the cost of further maintenance and service because of lack of specialized services and specialized service workers. It is a very big barrier to overcome, including in post-Soviet countries, where the car fleet is old, meaning that people have a tendency to use their cars for as long as they can drive it. And they use it for everything. They use it for short, long short-time drives. For long journeys. They move everything in it, including themselves, including their moving out. And this is just a reason that they can't change them too often, and they have a barrier to overcome to switch to electric vehicles. For that reason, for example, people in Asia have found a way for themselves. In India and Vietnam and Africa, they prefer two or three wheelers. They're cheaper, and they can afford EV two or three wheeler motorbike, for example, rather than vehicle. But you need to understand with some countries, for example, say in Kazakhstan, you can't really use bike instead of vehicle because of harsh winter. Thank you. Thank you so much for reminding us of the different realities in this globe and the different, you know, types of countries and necessities that people have in their mobility in terms of needs. So thanks a lot for that. I have a follow-up question for you. The charging is also an important factor for the consumers, and you mentioned it already briefly. So what are the different types of charging that are being developed? And, according to you, how is this making a difference for consumers? Well, there are different types of electric chargers based on power output and speed. The exact output and information divided by countries and regions very extensively, you can find in our report. But the general idea, the general division is on slow charging, fast charging, and super fast charging. At the end of 2022, there were 2.7 million public charging points worldwide, more than 33% of which were installed in 2022 only. Out of them, more than 67 were slow charging points. The number of fast charging increased only. Well, comparing to slow charging points, only to 330,000 globally in 2022. Developed countries, of course, aiming for a fast and ultra-fast charging points for customers to spend as little time as possible next to the charging stations. In some countries, for example, in U.K., it's, it's a form of incentive. Very clear. Absolutely. Time, time definitely matters. And what does the report highlight in terms of charging infrastructure requirements? If we go a bit more into the details. Okay, our report highlights charging requirements very intensely in every region. For example, the Eurasian Economic Union, members of which are, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia. It has very strict technical regulations for the import, export, distribution, and trade of EVs on the territory of these countries. Technical regulations. These technical regulations specify safety standards for charging equipment, also electromagnetic compatibility, general requirements, and transportation, storage, and operation conditions, in different climates, which is very important for these countries. In the EU, the proposed Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation requires charging points to be deployed with at least 400 kW output and at least every 60 km along the core of Trans-European Transport Network by 2026. This core Trans-European Transport Network includes the most important connections linking major cities and nodes on the territory, and must be completed as planned in 2030. China also has distance requirements for charging points. Let me think. Surprisingly, the USA, they do not mention any limitations or requirements for their charging points installation. Mm-hmm. Different realities. And in terms of- Yes you know, the comparison between... Well, comparison, I would say rather the dilemma between public charging infrastructure and home charging, how do you see that evolving? Well, while the most charging demands now at the moment is currently met by home charging, publicly accessible chargers are the key. They need to be provide the same level of convenience and accessibility as for refueling our conventional transport, what we use now every day, because otherwise it doesn't make sense. People just won't switch. It's hard. It's hard to give up what you use on daily basis. So publicly accessible fast charging points need to be widespread, especially those located among motorways to enable long journeys, and they can address this range anxiety, which is a huge barrier, psychological barrier to EV adoption. We also need to look in a way of automation. It's not addressed yet, with a few exceptions, but it is expected to be developed very soon, not least due to the emerging of driverless vehicles, that futuristic concept. And, the other thing is, bidirectional capabilities, which were appraised in the, when, EVs emerged. They are also to be developed now, and, the research is looking at them more closely. This capability is used into vehicle-to-grid, vehicle-to-infrastructure, vehicle-to-vehicle applications. You can see here an illustration of schematics of this kind, technology. If it's understandable, a large fleet of electric vehicles connected to the power grid can be a very massive source of electric power and energy, that if this controlled, can become a very important player on electricity market and can actually help better grid stability during the peak hours. Technology that facilitates such operation, they expect it to be developed significantly within the next decade. Well, also, it was noted that battery swapping for EV offers the best total cost of ownership compared to even stationary charged vehicles, not only the conventional vehicles. Battery swapping is a technology. You can see here an illustration of the principle schematics too. It allows battery EVs to quickly charge, exchange, sorry, exchange a discharged battery pack for a fully charged one, without staying on a point for too long. And this is an alternative to recharging vehicles via charging station. In general, as the daily distance traveled increases, battery swapping technology becomes more and more economical, comparing to the point charging, and of course, comparing to our conventional vehicles. Battery swapping of two and three wheelers is particularly gaining momentum in India and China, and also spreading to Africa already. Such concepts just works, and it's convenience. Also, if I may say that, I heard a rumor that, for example, in China, people already started to make such services as a pro, as a sharing of private charging points. For example, somebody owns a private charging point and uses it only at night, and he has it free during the day, and he shares it with somebody else who can use it during the day. It's pretty simple, and it does work in some areas. If we look a little bit further into the future and work our imagination a little bit, we will think that the future technology is supposed to enable easy charging, and it will be a priority for a customer. And it will be, of course, wireless. The wireless or inductive charging stations and wireless charging roads, like the Vegas tunnel, Tesla tunnel, you can see on a photo. This is called scientifically sane, a system that can provide a continuous electric energy supply to a vehicle while moving, and refers as an Electric Road System or ERS, and it's for researchers now, a future of charging points. Thank you so much, Daria, for also giving us a glimpse of what the future can hold and can promise in terms of charging and innovations. Very, very interesting. interesting. I am now going to move on to the last part of our discussion. So it means you in the audience, you can already start preparing your questions. If you have questions for us, send them via the chat, so the Q&A icon. But to do the concluding remarks, if I may, call that this way, I would like to give back the word to our colleague, Lucky. So thank you, Daria, and I'm inviting Lucky back with me for some final words. Lucky, we've heard a lot of different things this morning, this afternoon, and if you could extract a little bit the substance of what we've heard until now, and go back to the question on the targets. You know, are the targets achievable with everything that you've heard? Well, EVs, as we all know, EVs are currently more expensive than conventional cars, primarily because of the battery cost. And the battery itself, the battery technology directly influences the range and performance of EVs. Like Daria mentioned earlier, we tend to compare the EVs and conventional vehicles that we already know and use for so long. So what we want from EV typically will be almost the same than what we have now in the conventional vehicle. So we want more powerful EV. We want EV with longer range, which kind of reducing the range anxiety. To meet that demand from the consumer, so the higher battery capacity will be needed. In the end of the day, it will be even more expensive. So in addition to that, the state of distribution grids is equally critical for the EV and the charging infrastructure rollout, because we don't want when we, when our EV completely flat, we don't want that we don't have any, if charging infrastructure nearby. So in most regions, the distribution grids needs to be upgraded and enhanced to accommodate the increased demand from the electricity for the charging stations, and this includes the infrastructure improvements to ensure that, charging stations can function effectively without straining the grids. Another couple of hours to, you know, kind of, charging the vehicles until it's full or we can use it again. So distribution grids must deliver electricity at high speeds to meet the consumer expectation and maintain charging reliability. Slow or unreliable charging experiences may discourage consumers from adopting EVs. Smart grid integration is becoming increasingly important. Smart grids optimize charging times, manage peak demand, and balance the grid loads. Typically, these functionalities contribute to grid stability and energy efficiency, and it makes it easier to integrate EVs into the energy system. So in summary, both the battery technology and the state of distribution grids are interconnected factors that impact how targets will be met. As we heard earlier, most governments provide direct subsidies to push for the EV uptake. Some countries also provide subsidy to expand the EV charging points. But as I mentioned earlier, no country in the world has unlimited resources. No one. So these subsidies should be ended at one point, and when this happens, we are not sure how the market will react, basically. We can take China again as an example. The Chinese government decided to end the EV purchase subsidy. I mean, they're already subsidizing it for almost about a decade or even more. So they announced that, beforehand, that they will decide that they will end the purchase subsidy for EV. But when it happened, the market reacted negatively. No one wanted to buy EVs, and the sales of EVs declined significantly. So the government, the Chinese government, extended the subsidy periods. So it's those are the factors that I think it's difficult to see whether the target's achievable, depending on that. I see. Very clear. Thanks for showing us also the challenges related to grids, and Daria had also mentioned vehicle-to-grid integrations, and you mentioned smart grids, so that's perfect, connecting the dots. Now, Lucky, if we look. So you mentioned a lot of the challenge. Now, if you look specifically at the countries that are really lagging behind, you know, what are the challenges that they face in particular, according to you? Yeah. Basically, the growth and adoption of EVs, well, it vary significantly from one country to another. A number of factors influence that. The first is government policy, like we heard since the beginning. Infrastructure development, consumer preferences, they want faster cars, power, more powerful cars, shorter refueling or recharging, and economic conditions, because it's not cheap. So the main barriers for EV adoption include legislative gaps, insufficient charging infrastructure, high initial cost to purchase the EV and to build the charging stations, and also competition from other technologies. For example, more efficient ICE engines, hydrogen vehicles, or those kind of other technologies as well. For instance, we look at Africa. Africa lacks of strong regulations, the grid reliability issues, and some legislative gaps persist. In some African countries, the electricity grid is not well developed, which is a barrier for EV uptake. This way, solar charging point is maybe part of the solution, and therefore the future target for EV infrastructure development are in the long-term plan, for example, in South Africa and some Latin American countries. In some countries, such as Rwanda, Uganda, among others, the existing vehicle fleet is mostly composed of two and three-wheelers, as they are cheaper than cars, like, again, mentioned by Daria earlier. So the governments of these countries are focusing on attracting investors to electrify these vehicles. Even some company are offering services to battery swap into our three-wheelers or retrofit conventional motorbikes, change it into electric motorbikes with the additional electric batteries or electric motors. This trend is also seen in China, in India, in Indonesia, in Vietnam, and other countries, in the Philippines as well, where these vehicles, the two and three-wheelers, have a major share. Moreover, some Asian countries deal with profitability concern of charging stations, lack of clear infrastructure targets, and high popularity of conventional hybrids. Europe and the UK share challenges such as insufficient rural charging points. Latin America grapples with regulatory gaps and limited infrastructure, and North America addresses charging limitation and materials availability. So I think these all, they all the region have their own challenges to adopt the EV and switch from the conventional vehicles and conventional infrastructure to EVs. Thank you. Yeah, there are the overarching challenges, and then when we zoom on each region and each country, it has its own challenges. This is what our audience can also discover in the report if they read the report. Thank you so much, Lucky. That was enlightening. Before I move to the Q&A session, I would like to ask our audience now to play with us a little bit more and participate in another poll. So we have another poll for you. So you can interact with us, and you can also think about your questions for our speakers today. So again, use the Q&A orange and gray button on your platform. You can send us a question anytime. So if we look at the poll now, we have one question that is more related to your reality. Are you in our audience, dear participants of this webinar, are you confident that your country will meet its 2030 goals? Yes or no. And then the second question would be, according to you, which factor could most disrupt the 2030 goals of front-runner countries? So we heard about the front runners, and what do you think would be the reason they will not meet their targets in 2030? We're going to leave you a few seconds to interact with us and answer to this poll. In the meantime, I would like to ask a question to all of my colleagues in the panel. So to all of you, you are a specialist in your regions. If you had to pick one or two findings from the report that were surprising, you know, when you drafted the report, you prepared the report, you know, one or two facts that you thought were particularly surprising about your region and that you'd like to mention, what would those be? Two surprising elements or things that maybe you weren't expecting. So can I ask you to start with that? Maybe I can ask Dhanisha to start with it, as you were the first speaker. I hope you can hear me clearly. We can. Yeah. So, for me, I would say in Africa, the surprising fact probably is, although EV is not accessible, not affordable to, you know, to the public due to the price, the initial price cost. Some countries have managed to find a way to adapt, let's say. So, you've probably heard about the two and three wheelers vehicles, battery swapping. Just right now, with Lucky for these type of vehicles, so they're not picking up a new EV, let's say, how the West is thinking about it, you know, like, "Yeah, we need to buy a new EV and then progress with that." In Africa, it's different. So they looking at what makes the most sense for their country and for the public, and then try to optimize that, so two-, three-wheelers vehicles here, I'm speaking about. In terms of infrastructure, again, in Africa, it's not very well developed, the electricity grid. A lot of people still... I think I heard in the Africa Summit last week about 600 million people are still not getting access to electricity in the whole of Africa. So, it's a barrier, of course, but if we're speaking about EV specifically, in South Africa, for example, they're looking at solar charging points. So these are more independent, and so they can be in remote places. But then, whether the technology is there, how long that will last, it's kind of, we will have to see how this develop. But, I think there are barriers, but there has been also thoughts about how to implement and address it in certain, a certain extent. Mm-hmm. Yes, absolutely. There are also other... The access to electricity is also an essential need, and it's a challenge, of course, so that comes first. But maybe I can ask to my other colleagues now. Maybe I ask Chee, if you had to pick one surprising fact or two from, you know, the reports in your region, what would it be? Okay. So thank you, Claire. So I'm focusing in the China market. I'm talking something in China. So there's a very surprising things in China happened this year, because last year, in December 2022, the government has removed the purchase subsidy for EV, the 13-year purchase subsidy in EV. And we see that the EV development in China is very mature, but it still need the subsidy to support the sales of EV. For example, in early this year, there's a price war in China about the regards to the EV sales. So a lot of EV manufacturer lowered their EV price and to make the target of the sales. So we can see that the EV market still need the subsidy to promote the sales. In the meantime, the government also extending the tax extension in EV, in purchasing EV. So this is the surprise thing I see in China market. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Yeah, so still need for subsidies to incentivize customers to buy an EV. And if I ask the same question to you, Lucky, what would be the two surprising facts? Yeah, it's... I think if it still needs subsidies. So while the technology is mature, the market is not mature yet because it's just still too expensive. So I think what I realized when I doing, I did this report, is that the need, a big need to do some more R&D to get the cheaper, to a cheaper price of battery. That's I think that the first. And the second one is, in some countries, actually, they sell the electric vehicles without the battery. So what they do is they, the battery, we can rent the battery. So we purchase the vehicles without the battery, which is affordable, and then we go to the battery swapping station, and we rent the battery. When it's flat, then we go back to the swapping station, and we exchange it. So we never own the battery in the first place. I think that's some pretty clever idea as well to, you know, kind of bridging the gap between the price, which is more, more expensive than the normal vehicles to that. Mm-hmm. It is enticing people to switch as well. Very interesting. So technology mature, but the market is not mature, and how- Yeah The battery ownership, you know, we could move away from the battery ownership also as a solution. Thank you. Daria, last question. So the same as your colleagues, what would you pick? Well, I was aiming the Eurasian region, and I completely agree with Lucky about R&D. It's still a lot to research to make it cheaper and to make it better, because the question of quick discharging of batteries in very cold conditions, it didn't go away anywhere. And it might be surprising for you, too, but for me, it was definitely is that thing that without the additional kick and legislation from the governments and proper authorities, the not much being done, to be honest. Yes, market like. P ublic investments, the commercial investments, it all works for the certain degrees, but it doesn't really let it to completely penetrate the society. So until the governments took proper steps into incorporating EVs in my countries, in Eurasia, people were very reluctant to adopt new technologies. Because why to change what works good for you already? But sometimes you need to show the public that something works even better. If I may add, Claire, sorry, just a little bit jump. I want to give an example for Singapore. I mean, Singapore, where I stay, is famous for not subsidizing anything. So, there is no subsidy here in Singapore for electric vehicles. Yet, we see more and more electric vehicles on the road day by day. And why? Because in Singapore, it's also very famous for very expensive car ownership cost in Singapore. But But the government stated already, 2025, no new diesel vehicles allowed to be registered. They already decided. So three years before that, typically, all the dealers, they don't want to bring in the diesel vehicles anymore. The reason why, because Singapore has 10 years scrappage policy, so we purchase the vehicles only for 10 years, and the maximum you can extend, and you pay another cost of entitlement of the vehicles, is for another 10 years. So 20 years is already the longest period of a vehicle can be on the road in Singapore in general. So because of the strict scrapping policy, then you don't have any choices that if you need to buy vehicles, you need to buy EV in the end. That's one interesting fact, a little bit different than the other market, probably. Mm-hmm. Well, thank you for explaining that. For sure, I mean, the EV development is heavily regulated in terms of policies, different types of policies, but of course, it's also connected to the global effort regarding climate change and the bigger discussions on that. So there's the connection there. But very interesting to zoom in your regions and hear from your different, you know, learning experience in drafting and preparing this report. I would like now to show the results of our poll, so we can see what our audience has voted for. Are you confident that your country will meet? No. Okay, so 92% of you are not confident. I guess that our analysts were not very confident either, but we highlighted a lot of the challenges today. At the same time, we always have to try to keep optimistic, be optimistic. If we look at the other question, the results. According to you, which factor could most disrupt the 2030 goals? Raw material shortages or battery supply chain issues. Yes. We didn't discuss this at length, but maybe one of my colleagues want to comment quickly about this. And then the change in political priorities as number two. Okay, very interesting. Thanks for participating in the poll. Maybe I can ask Lucky, that is a topic that you would like to say a few words. You already talked about battery costs, but in terms of supply chain, this is not, you know, part of the report, but if you would like to share, you know, your views on that particular challenge. What I understand in my capacity as an analyst, actually, but we don't really look into this raw material in the deep. But not all countries, it's very limited countries that they have the raw material for battery, cobalt, lithium, nickel, some in Asia, rare earth in Malaysia, for example, in some nickel in Indonesia. China has a lot, and in Eurasia also have, in Latin America also have, but, the biggest part is in China, as that's the first and, I-- With the new supply chain constraint, the geopolitical tension and everything, is a little bit more difficult to make sure that they will not disturb the supply chain. That's the first. The second one, I news here last yesterday, the news on the saying that here in Singapore, the news article saying that Malaysia now actually plan to stop export of earth, rare earth, production. They want to use it domestically. They want—They don't want to export it. So this kind of thing may add to the... It's not shortages in term of the volume for now, but more into the protections of each countries for their own resources. That's also highly challenges. But when... We don't know yet, I don't think anybody has a study yet, but if-... a big if, the whole vehicles that we have now changed to EV, I don't know whether it's enough or not. Mm. Yeah, we, we don't know yet that fact. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Now, thanks a lot for sharing your views. Yeah, you made the clear link also with the geopolitical dynamics and the national politics and potentially measures also protecting their own markets. So thanks a lot, Lucky, for explaining that. That was very useful. I am going to turn to our audience now. Have you had the time to send us your questions? We are going to look at your questions, and I see there is a question on China. Maybe I can direct that one to Chee. I see- Okay. What are the- Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I saw the question. Yeah, so. Okay. What are the current areas that the Chinese government focuses on in EV charging infrastructure development? Okay. So basically, yeah, because now the Chinese government is the world leading in EV charging infrastructure, also in the number of EVs. So in terms of... So as I can see in my study, there are three major pathways Chinese government want to develop. The first pathway is the development of EV charging infrastructure in rural areas, also in the highway areas. So currently, as mentioned by the Dhanisha just now, China has 16 million EVs and also 6 million charging points. So they are mainly in place in cities, but other than in the highway, also in the rural areas, the market share is very less. So the government is focusing on developing the EV charging infrastructure in these two areas. Also, the Chinese government is providing subsidy to expanding the battery swapping station. Also, the construction of fast and ultra-fast charging point in among the countries. So for example, in Shanghai, the government is providing the subsidy for transition from slow charging point into fast or ultra-fast charging point. And the third one, I think, China government is focusing in fully transit all the public transport in the EV. So in the recent policy, in early September this year, so the government just announced that they are focusing on transit all public transport into electric vehicles. Yeah, so these are the study I found when I working on this report. Hope this answer your question. Thank you, Chee. Yes. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. In the meantime, I see that we received another question, which is why we didn't look at EVs for heavy duty vehicles in our reports. So I think that one would go to Dhanisha. Thank you for your question, Claire. I hope you hear me fine. I would say that for heavy duty vehicles, obviously, there has been some trials. There are some of these vehicles emerging, but we do not see it picking up to such a big extent because of its load, like the weight, for a big vehicle, if you have to look at the battery size, it doesn't really. It's not feasible in reality, so you have more charging time, and the capacity is probably not there yet as well. So we see EVs really emerging for light duty vehicles due to all the factors we just talked about throughout this presentation, actually, this discussion. I would say as well that we are, in this report, we focus mainly on EVs, but also we have other technologies, fuel cell electric vehicles. There are also internal combustion engines that are being fueled by hydrogen being looked at. So these technologies were probably picked up more for heavy-duty vehicles. Thank you for answering that question from the audience. I would like to check now. Give me just a second. Well, I think we don't have further questions for now, but maybe just to add on what you just said, Dhanisha, it's true that it's... This report is just the beginning of our research on this topic and our investigation, and so we could look into heavy duty vehicles at some point in the future, more into detail and develop a report that could be part of the plan in the future. I don't know if the audience, I'm gonna give you a couple of more seconds to send your question to us. If you have more questions than the one we already tackled, this is your chance. Otherwise, I would just ask my colleagues to have a final word for this webinar. If you just, you know, if you had to pick from the poll, if you have to answer the poll yourself, you know, according to you, which factor could most disrupt the 2030 goals? I would like to hear your views. Okay, so think about what you would pick as the answer. In the meantime, I'm seeing I didn't get extra questions. Oh, yes, we've just got one, which is the question, very topical one. We already mentioned earlier, Chee, about the fun facts or at least interesting facts that you figured out when you drafted the report. And one person is asking about this phenomenon of abandoned EVs in China. Could you say a few words about that? And then I would like to hear from my colleagues what is your answer to the poll question? Okay. Thank you, Claire. So about the China abandoned EVs. So recently, there are a news from, I remember, Bloomberg, I think is it. So they found a lot of abandoned EVs in parking lot in few, few cities. So the EVs is abandoned in the city for a long time. And why will this happen? I think the from our research, because of those EV are outdated, and there are, there are no specific technology, and they have a low battery capacity. So this is why and the, the, the market evolve is very, very fast in China, and those abandoned EVs, nobody want it, and the battery, the battery is mostly abandoned there. And though, and government... The main reason is, this abandoned EVs are purchased by those car rental companies. So car rental company invest in this number of EVs, and they try to rent to those online services, like the Grab service. So the people will rent the cars from them and working on the Grab service in China. But the problem is the battery capacity is very low, and they need to frequently go back to charge the EVs. That's why no people buy the rental cars from them. And few years ago, a high range EV is developed, and those EV just are abandoned there. And those car rental company is bankrupt, and they don't have any resources to recycle or scrap those EV. That's why they abandoned in those city. Yeah. Thank you, Chee. So that's a topic we didn't touch upon, the recycling, because that's totally out of the scope of this report, but it's definitely when you're talking about massive adoption, this is the type of topics that will come up. Hopefully, we won't have a massive abandoned movement of EVs all over the world, because that would be a bit weird. But it's very interesting to hear from what's happening in China. In the meantime, while you were speaking, we've received a comment from a participant about the report, where you can purchase the report. Just click on the icon where there is a little envelope or email symbol, and you will get in touch with us, and we can send you all the information about that, okay? So just contact us, or you can visit our website, SGS INSPIRE. If you look, just on your, on your internet, search engine, you will find us very easy, SGS INSPIRE. All right. I don't see further questions, so I would like to ask my colleagues. I don't aim to put you on the grill here, but I would like just to hear your personal views. This is not in the report, but according to you, which factor could most disrupt the 2030 goal of front-runner countries? So if you have to pick an answer, and that would be your final word for today. Maybe I start with Daria. Thank you, Claire. Pushing me the first on the barrier. I trust you. Yeah. I think I agree with our audience. Raw material shortage or battery supply chain issues is very, very important right now. I agree with Lucky, with what we don't know now if we have enough raw material for if it's going to be enough for all the purposes we plan these raw materials to be available. It's a little bit hard geologically. It's hard procuring them, not easy to predict. Hence, well, there's too many variables here. And but I do not agree with the second reason, which our audience chose, change in political priorities. I did say that it's important for governments to give initial momentum for development, but when it starts, it's already going itself and change in political priorities. Let's say, I would choose lack of public investment before the change of political priorities. And I would put geopolitical tension on the last position, too. Maybe because it's from my perspective, from what's going on in my region now, because all you know about the things, geopolitical situation going on now in Russia. Even though it's happening, the development of EVs is progressing, and it's being funded, it's being incentivized, and it seems like the tension kinda subdued it a little bit, made it slower, but it's not going away, and it's not stopping, the development. Very interesting. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Very interesting. Yeah. So you went beyond my request because you ordered the priority, so thanks a lot. That's perfect. So maybe I can go next to Lucky. Lucky, what would you pick as a top answer? But you can also, you know, give your perspective on all of the answers. No, I will just choose one of the top one. Actually, in my opinion, it's more based on what happened today. The raw material shortages, I think it's only for the future, not 2030. For 2030, I think it's mostly on the change in political priorities, because we have change in government in a lot of countries next, within two years. And as long as the regulation is not like really... Sometimes when you change the administration, they change the regulation or whatever. Typically, it's like that. So I see there's highly possible to change in political priorities, or maybe at the first place, also, the announcement of the electrification also, it's probably because of pressure rise from other developed country for such condition. That's also possible. I choose a change in political priorities for the short term until 2030. Thank you. Interesting. Different perspective from Daria, but that's very, very good to hear from you. I would like to ask the same question now to Dhanisha. What do you think? So for me, I would say raw material shortage, or battery supply chain issues and also geopolitical tensions will come after that. And I'm saying it from for Europe, with everything going on, we've heard that where the main supplies of this raw material is coming from, you know, Asia, China, Australia, Latin America, even in Africa. And also there's a lot of legislation ongoing with how to get these raw materials. There's also regulations that's come out for recycling of this material for Europe, and Europe has quite an ambitious target for 2030. So I, yeah, this is a big thing, for Europe and how they're gonna get it, given the current geopolitical tensions. Also, I would say that, of course, we're speaking about EV and all the incentives that we touch on today of EVs, but let's not forget that, that's my opinion, that there will be other energy carriers that will also play their part. So, it's not gonna be only EVs, there will be a mix of renewables, and that's my hope. Thank you. Thank you for reminding us of the competition, of course, other competing technologies, and other energy carriers. Indeed, this is something we didn't mention, but very interesting angle. And last but not least, Chee, can I ask you your views on this? Okay. So I think I will pick the change in political priorities. So because the main reason many government is promoting the EVs because of to reach the carbon-neutral targets. Yeah. So... And now we have a lot of alternative fuels to help us to reach the target, like the biofuel, the biomethane and other hydrogen also, and as well as the ammonia. So... I will say that we in Malaysia and Indonesia, the government is pushing more in the biodiesel. So, and in China, currently, the government also heavily pushing the development of hydrogen vehicle. So I think the market will be separate out, not in the future, not only EVs will in the market, we will, we will also definitely will have the ICE, the compression combustion engine, and also the hydrogen FCV. So, the thing is, we need to see what is the policy the government is focused in? What are the fuel? What are the mobility that they, they would like to use it? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Gene. Absolutely. Looking at hydrogen fuel vehicles and other options as well, and this is definitely part of the conversation. Some of this information can sometimes be also found on our platform. We also cover topics related to hydrogen on our platform, and it might be the topic of our next webinars and discussion. So stay in touch with us. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening, everyone. I'm going to close our webinar a couple of minutes early, but it's better to be on time rather than late. I guess everybody has also meetings for the rest of the day. So thanks so much for participating also and, you know, sending your inputs via the polls. We appreciate that very much. And again, I repeat, please don't hesitate to visit our website for those who are not subscribed to our service, and for those who are, check out our new report. Please don't hesitate if you have questions or comments and our analyst will, definitely tackle them and come back to you. Thanks, everybody. Have a great day, and we'll be back for more webinars. We have one more planned on, on the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S. and the impact of, that on, hydrogen and, also on other technologies. Come back to us and, we hope to have that conversation in the next webinar very soon. Bye, everybody. Thank you. Thanks to the speakers as well. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you for joining us.