THE HOTLIST
Remember the names, these are the 10 most influential people in the EV industry today...
The 10 most influentialpeople in the EV world right now. Yes, Elon’s on there, and so’s the Norwegian prime minister
ELON_MUSK CEO TESLA INC
Musk believes in miracles. And, just as significantly, people believe in him. He arrived in the electric-car game in 2004, bringing a huge cash pile from other web ventures. Plainly Musk is a genius and a visionary, so Tesla is about more than the cars themselves. He knows how to nurture a cult, how to play the Silicon Valley messiah. Frankly, if General Motors had come up with the Model S, its sales would have been far smaller and GM’s stock would still have languished. Always remember he’s a qualified engineer as well as an entrepreneur. All that said, his self-belief is in dire need of a filter. Think the vile ‘pedo guy’ Twitter spat. Or the $40m SEC fraud penalty. Or his getting drunk and stoned while live streaming. Or downplaying coronavirus and keeping the plant open when the state wanted it shut. Duh.
ALESSANDRO_AGAG CEO, FORMULA E
It’s fair to say Agag’s Formula E was a bit of laughing stock at first. Now look at it: vast TV and online audiences, high-level drivers and more manufacturer teams than any other motorsport. Agag, a wellconnected former politician and serial entrepreneur, saw the direction the wind was blowing and brought sponsors and cities on side, and used clever social media techniques to boost fan interaction. The racecars’ technology is catching up fast. Meanwhile he’s on to the next thing, Extreme E off-road racing.
WANG_CHUANFU FOUNDER AND CEO, BYD
Starting from rural poverty, Wang learned chemistry and built a vast battery and EV empire in China. Warren Buffet bought eight per cent of the company back when it was mostly making phone batteries. BYD is as big a business as Tesla, with battery plants supplying its own vast sales of electric cars in his home country. It also sells commercial vehicles round the world including hundreds of London’s electric buses, and has had talks with Audi to supply it with batteries.
ULI_KRANZ CEO, CANOO
He ran BMW i from its inception, foreseeing city mobility changes. Briefly went to Faraday Future; as that bombed he and other FF refugees started Canoo. Engineered its low-cost EV, a lounge-shaped machine to be short-term leased, not sold. Its steer-by-wire platform will now be further developed with Hyundai to bolster the Koreans’ huge commitment to EVs – think MEB equivalent.
JB_STRAUBEL CO-FOUNDER AND CTO, TESLA, TO 2019
The under-the-radar boffin who made Tesla possible. He came to Tesla just ahead of Musk. His genius was in making big batteries affordable, using detailed management to nurse long life out of commodity laptop cells. Supercharging was his baby too. And assisted driving via big data. Well, basically, all Tesla’s big innovations. Departed the firm last year, though still advises it, to work on battery recycling.
HERBERT_DIESS CEO, VW GROUP
Diess was in charge of engineering at BMW when it finished the i3 and i8. In mid-2015 he went to run the Volkswagen brand... right before the manure-fan interface of Dieselgate. Within weeks, he was part of the decision to pivot the whole VW Group, and invest big – £30 billion big – in an all-new electric platform called MEB, and the factories to
build it. The plan was to be making one million MEB-based cars a year by 2025, starting with the ID.3. Nowadays, Diess is chair of the whole Group, and that target has been pulled forward two years to 2023 (pre-coronavirus numbers, mind). It’s also licensing the platform to Ford for cars to fit in the range below the Mustang Mach-E.
MATE_RIMAC
Rimac’s electric hypercars seemed like a bolt from the blue – well, Zagreb. They emerged fully formed with great design, huge power and advanced driver assist. Mate Rimac had grown up obsessed with engineering, and wanted to show EVs could be more fun than petrol. In 2011, his selfconverted BMW E30 beat electric acceleration records, and the Concept
FOUNDER AND CEO, RIMAC AUTOMOBILI
One followed in short order. His company can make world-leading batteries, motors, driver assist and HMIs. Porsche and Hyundai/Kia have bought significant stakes – that’s confidence for you. The firm’s main reason to exist now is to sell all those technologies to other manufacturers. Aston Martin, Pininfarina and Koenigsegg among the first.