In a conversation with Mobility Portal Europe, Manuel Sande e Castro, Sales Director at Hellonext, unveils the company’s long and medium-term objectives.
Firstly, Sande e Castro states, “We aim to be one of the biggest direct current (DC) charger suppliers in Europe. It’s ambitious, but achievable.”
The Sales Director acknowledges that, thanks to recent investments announced by the European Union, numerous charging point operators (CPOs) are seeking tenders.
This allows Hellonext to generate large production volumes, among other opportunities.
Another goal of the firm is to “expand into other emerging markets such as Africa, South America, Central America, and, in the near future, North America.”
The fact is that some markets considered “unexpected” for the company are already demanding Hellonext chargers.
It’s worth mentioning that, currently, the company offers its products in Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Romania.
However, this year, they will also establish themselves in Slovakia, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, and eventually in Eastern European countries such as Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
Furthermore, it’s important to note that, as explained by the sales director, the factor that sets Hellonext apart from the competition is the “desire to get close to the customers.”
This is reflected in their presence of commercial and technical employees in each country where they have fixed consumers, to ensure an effective experience with their products.
Another factor that facilitates sales and after-sales processes is the state-of-the-art remote support center in Portugal, which is currently under development.
Hellonext sees the need for financing and streamlining processes
“Providing financing to companies is important, but governments can do much more. There are two ways to finance electromobility: one is push and the other is pull,” says Sande e Castro.
The first involves providing money to firms to develop their products and to CPOs and private companies to develop their network.
The second is based on creating laws that establish fiscal and corporate incentives to attract demand to the market.
“If authorities institute a fiscal incentive, the adoption of vehicles will occur naturally.” asserts the Sales Director.
He adds, “Providing discounts on income tax, offering incentives for the purchase of cars and DC chargers is the primary way to promote electromobility, rather than just establishing rules.”
Additionally, the executive mentions a second technical challenge related to the availability of energy from the power grid.
According to Sande e Castro, existing electrical infrastructure must be able to meet the demand for electric vehicle chargers.
To address this, he emphasizes the need for significant and rapid investment in the power grid, as well as local energy production to reduce short-term dependencies.
He also underscores the importance of implementing energy storage solutions.
Regarding the administrative aspect, Sande e Castro comments, “It’s a lengthy process. Governments take time to respond, approve projects, and ensure permits are granted for construction.”
He adds, “That’s something that could accelerate development, especially of public charging, which is our main focus.”
The truth is, a difficulty that suppliers and CPOs also face, is to meet specific compliance requirements for each country.
Truthfully, chargers are the same in all European countries, but for some reason, each country is creating their own “rules” and compliance procedures.
“Europe needs to work more as a whole if we want to compete with China or other more advanced countries in terms of e-mobility.” acknowledges Sande e Castro.
It’s worth noting that Hellonext works with recognized charging point operators such as Galp, Powerdot, Mota Engil-Renewing, Renovatio, Repsol, among others.
Furthermore, regarding the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), which came into effect on April 13, the Sales Director expresses agreement with the program, although he believes “it was not ambitious enough.“
“The number of available chargers should be even greater than the goal AFIR sets,” he indicates, although he highlights that “even so, it is already yielding results.”
