In this episode I’m Joined by Mike Nakrani, CEO of VEV. Mike is an OG in the electrification of transport, and that’s ignoring the milk float joyride! We talk about the challenges, opportunities and many converging technologies and factors that impact fleet electrification.

There are of course many examples now that light and heavy-duty electric fleets are here and scaling. Grid connections aside, the biggest challenges is to demonstrate and achieve better TCO and true commercial viability. As Mike said during our conversation, “Electrification only works when it works commercially.”. We also talk about how having worked in behemoths like Ford and BP have been a positive rather than a negative as he leads a nimble start-up, taking the good and the bad, and how he sees and leads innovation at speed.

We talked through:

The new economics of fleet electrification
What genuinely drives ROI
Why scaling is very different from running a pilot
Financing models and infrastructure ownership
The role of software and optimisation
And what kind of leadership this next phase requires

It’s a thoughtful conversation about what it really takes to move from ambition to operational reality, from pilots to scale.

I hope you enjoy it.

Mike Nakrani:

With more than two decades of experience spanning automotive OEMs, mobility services and energy transition, Mike Nakrani is steering VEV’s mission to support commercial fleets in moving to electric power.

He stands at the intersection of automotive, mobility services and the energy transition – three sectors converging rapidly. Through his role at VEV, he represents how commercial fleet electrification must be executed at scale: not just with EVs, but with systems, infrastructure and business models that work. His leadership offers insight into how fleets can drive real-world decarbonisation.

Nakrani promotes a pragmatic, ‘technology-neutral’ view of fleet decarbonisation – emphasising the transitional role that fuels such as HVO have to play, while reinforcing the scale and operational efficiency electrification delivers in the long term, delivering the most compelling business case for organisations needing to decarbonise.

About VEV:

VEV helps organisations deliver on their carbon reduction ambitions with an end-to-end fleet electrification solution that integrates across vehicles, charging infrastructure and power. VEV is owned by Vitol, a world leader in energy, which to date has committed circa $2 billion to sustainable energy initiatives worldwide.

VEV navigates the complexities of EV transformation to design and implement cost-effective EV fleets optimised for specific fleet requirements. It supports EV fleet operations to guarantee resilience and keep mission-critical fleets running at scale. Bespoke, scalable business solutions are designed around the customer’s own fleet data analysed by a powerful assessment tool, VEV-IQ, and VEV’s experts in energy and sustainable e-mobility. VEV sets businesses up for success in an electrified future.

Social links:

Mike Nakrani on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-nakrani-28400012/
VEV on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vev-services/
VEV website: https://www.vev.com/

Episode Links:

From Good to Great- Jim Collins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_to_Great

Benjamin Graham- The intelligent investor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership