Flexis SAS Press Conference
Good morning everyone and welcome it’s great to be here part of this event here in Paris my name is Asha I’m a journalist and I cover themes around sustainable Mobility it’s a great pleasure to be here today and welcome to all my colleagues from the media who are
In the room here and I know that some of you are behind your screens joining us online so make sure you keep your questions handy because we will have a Q&A session of course at the very end but before we begin let’s probably start with some context first and it’s no news
To anyone as you know climate change is accelerating the need for electrification transition on top of that you know the future CO2 emission regulations in front fright transport and access to cities are actually radically transforming the logistics ecosystems while we know e-commerce is booming so what’s more the electric van
Market is set to grow by an impressive 40% a year it already started between 2022 to 2030 so a new market is emerging and to seize this opportunity and this is also one of the reasons why we are all here today so vul group honog group and CGM are indeed joining forces and
Become Pioneers in this new market in an all new generation of fully electric bands and unprecedented Associated Services we will talk about it straight away I think it’s time to begin so let’s uh ladies and gentlemen join me in welcoming on stage the president and CEO
Of vulvo group Martin lunad the CEO of cmacgm rodol Sade and Luca Deo the CEO of Rono group please join me [Applause] Gentlemen fantastic thank you for joining me it’s great to see all you three together usually I see you just uh individually but it’s good to see you together right thank thank you anyway for bringing all us together I will start with you maybe Luca so let’s end the suspense with flexus so what’s
Behind tell us more I mean first of all I think uh this thing is a a revolutionary let’s say project and at the heart of it is a re revolutionary product I remember when I came to Rena 2020 I had one of the first meeting probably the first meeting I had with
The commercial vehicle team uh you know in uh um in San Frederic where they have their their headquarter and their Development Center and they show me a chart that was showing 50 years of development of commercial vle on the different segments small medium and and large and I look at the
Chart and basically you had exactly the same thing for 50 years so I the guys but you you guys are doing the same thing since 50 years 50 years and this is a typical situation when where there is space for disruption at the same time you had you know project like rivan or
Project like arrival that were popping up left and right and I said okay why don’t we try to do people that have 100 years experience of commercial vehicle to reinvent ourselves and to really change the game and that’s the the way it started and and uh you know my my obsession for you
Know kind of team sport to Collective horizontal approach so I talked to about it to to Martin and I remember rodolph coming you know for you know a chat on in my office and it took me like 20 minutes to convince him to get into the thing that was very reassuring because
These guys they know about business so they’re not going to put chips on things that uh you know that don’t have a chance to work so that’s what it is it’s a revolutionary thing we change everything electric skate platform new electronic architecture completely different concept of the body so this is
Uh you know maybe if I maybe it’s a kind of a Tesla of the of the commercial vehicle in a way right that’s the way you have to see it all right and of course free Champions behind it but but may maybe look if we took a closer if we
Took a closer look at the product itself a few words about that look it’s uh it’s a family of products okay so you have the let’s say the classical Vans Etc and the things that you can completely transform because there is a revolutionary I would say way of
Building Lego like you know different customization transformation of the thing quick okay in a big plant in sandville we announced Friday that the car the cars will be produced there and as part of the range you have a really unique uh product that doesn’t exist which we call Stepping van you will see
Some shade of the thing later but this is a you know a car that basically is designed for uh you know last my delivery and uh it’s uh it’s done for that it’s very tall it’s very short so it’s the size of a kangu that means a
Small van it has the carget capacity of of a mid van it turns like a car like you know because you don’t have the engine in the front and and uh you and and the the fact that we um let’s say are changing completely the content of the car especially electronic
Architecture this will be the first car of Theo group where now it’s it’s shared with between us but the first product on which we will implement the software defined vehicle right and that means connection to the cloud you can update you can you know you can update the
Function is evolutionary etc etc so it’s just like you know some that doesn’t exist the whole the whole project has been dringen by the idea that we should be able through the concept of the car to the arure to the old thing that we are going to do together to reduce the
Cost the total cost of usage of the product by 30% now if you imagine that in the life cycle of a product of such kind of product people spend between 100 and €120,000 to pay for the gas to pay for maintenance to pay for insurance etc etc if you reduce that by
30% it means that basically the people will be able to buy the car for free and that’s the revolution of the thing right so we are fighting hard but I think it’s a good example on how the European Automotive uh you know truck uh you know logistic industry moving is uh kind of
Moving into Attack Mode re venting itself and playing Collective you know how much I’m you know I’m fond of this kind of things and this is a very clear materialization of of of the idea that I think will be one of the ways to get Europe back you know in a competitive
Position we’ll talk about that thank you Luca to to transition maybe U playing Collective what Luca just said so why this joint venture Martin why did you have to create this joint venture I mean you’ve done many things alone in the past so why why do this now now first
And foremost I would just like to say it’s great to be here in Paris and to be together with um both teams here all all all the three of us uh but to start with I think I mean uh when we look into the logistics sector and all the downstream
Customers but also customers customers I mean decarbonization is everything climate cannot wait but at the same time and we have seen that so many cases and I think covid in that aspect made it clear that we cannot live without very professional Logistics and Logistics will continue to increase in volumes
Because you have all the mega trends when it comes to urbanization when it comes to e-commerce when it comes to Growing populations uh Etc uh but it must be considerably more sustainable in all different aspects and all of us we are working hard on that together with
Our ecosystems and customers uh but what we see I mean if you take Vol group as one example I mean 2040 everything that we deliver globally and we are in 190 countries right uh should be fossil free uh and then it’s fossil free when it comes to input material when it comes to
Propulsion system when it comes to products in use and that means that you need to move a brown fossile based platform ecosystem to a green uh sustainable platform and you cannot do it alone partnership is truly the new leadership and the equation is easy you can have great
Equipment but if you don’t have that times infrastructure times green energy times TCU times a su sustainable supply chain with scaling capacity it will not happen and I’m deliberately saying times everything because if one of these parameters are zero it is zero and that is tend to be forgotten actually and and
Therefore we need to partner up and we need to be open how to do that and what we see now with our customer base we are uh one of the top three Global players in in heavy duty and medium Beauty uh proud uh proud owners of Renault trucks
We have a great partnership with with Renault already as you know on the lcv side what we see now is that the S curves are accelerating and urban distrib distribution and L mild deliveries being one of the key Pioneers not only when it comes to the Last Mile
In itself but it’s starting from the Hub to HUB it’s starting actually from the port rol right and then all the way through until the last Mile and we wanted to have a platform that we can continue to build on a software platform because this is not a product Centric
It’s a fantastic product hardware and software but it is a system Revolution right where we can connect the dots and and this is I mean I mean just take e-commerce it will be 13% growth annually up to 2026 globally and that’s huge I mean if you really add on uh so
We are trying to combine and this will be a challenge but we will manage because we are so firmly committed to that uh the combination of the two best of the Two Worlds a flexible agile time to Market set up with flexes pulling all the opportunities that uh
These three companies are sitting on in terms of scalability industrialization customer base service network um uh all connectivity in Fleet Management so fantastic you know it will be rock and roll fantastic we keep an eye on that Martin so two are we leaders plus logistic champions again a really unique
Combination there so to reflect back on what Luca was saying Rudolph the 20 minutes you spent in in in Luca’s office was very convinc he was very convincing so what what really motivated you Rolph to team up with Volvo and Renault maybe one may say what is a
Shipping company doing in a car maker press conference that was the initial question I wanted to ask yes so maybe what I will do is I will try to answer it uh first of all as a shipping company and a logistic provider we are uh very mindful of what happens to
Decarbonization especially in our industry so we have taken quite a lot of bold commitments to reduce our CO2 emissions first of all is to become carbon neutral in 2050 and at the same time reduce our Greenhouse emissions from now till uh 20 uh uh 50 which is also quite a challenge
Number two is we also operate a Logistic Company and this Logistic Company is using electrical vehicles and when luuka in 20 minutes said why don’t you join in I said with pleasure you could make me a good price on the vehicles we will be buying from you and then and we’re good
To go uh but it is true that especially in nowadays if we manage to find a solution to reduce our uh CO2 emissions be it in shipping in logistics and especially when when it comes to electrical vehicles I believe it makes quite a lot of sense and we have also
Set up a fund uh with a billion five to be invested in decarbonization of shipping uh and Logistics and this is the fund that we will be using to uh invest alongside Oro and Volvo you you want to say a quick word about the fund
Sure um during the covid days uh we have been looking at many ways on how to to reduce our CO2 emissions and we have looked at many projects as uh we were quite profitable during this period we have decided to set up this fund uh with
An amount of 1.5 billion euros to be invested especially in decarbonization of shipping and Logistics so uh investing in flexus is quite the the flagship of the Investments we will be making on the pulse and we look forward to growing and developing more Investments along side the decarbonization thank you rodolph right
So look after what has been said about flexus I imagine that flexus can be seen and you mentioned it yourself at this great European asset serving the sovereignty of this the European automotive industry this is what you you mentioned earlier a little bit can you
Expand a little bit on that well I look I mean I have I have to say it’s I’m very proud to you know be standing here with uh two great companies and actually the most exciting thing is that actually they are not exactly of the same you
Know industry or kind of or segments that we are that shows that uh some of the issue which has I’ve always said in the last years and months Etc is that some of the challenges we have like decarbonization or you know or digital Revolution these are topics that require
That actually cutting Industries and even functions in the companies horizontally right so you need you need to be able to partner you can of course that you have the choice to do everything by yourself right so soal vertical integration it’s a model but what we’re trying to apply is uh is
Actually an horizontal model where we we try to partner with the best to solve the problem and by doing that we share the risk we have a better quality of capital allocation but we also learn every day because nobody knows logistic better than the team of rodolph we don’t
No we are not into this thing we’re going to get a lot of learnings through through the process and we’re going to readapt the product to serve his needs and the same thing goes with you know the experience that uh car comp a truck company like volv is much more oriented
To service down time except then people selling Passenger cars we’re going to learn a lot of things they’re going to put a lot of things so we put everything we can do in the basket so this is a very good example I think there is no
Project like this in Europe we see a couple of things of course in the US which I mentioned a couple of things in Asia there is absolutely no project on the origin uh like this one and and you know I think that Europe has to demonstrate capacity of disrupting
Things I think we are in general a place where you know logistic is very critical is very complex with a lot of countries etc mean rodolph good come and better me and so it’s the perfect home turf to actually as you know to prove that we can you know reinvent the thing starting
From the hardware because we are we are Hardware companies right so I think there is a way to come to the problem from the outward side and uh yeah as I said it’s it’s a very good example of uh you know European companies you know trying
To play Champions not not even CH world world championship and uh and I’m very excited and I’m very proud of being there with Martin and and Rolph it’s it’s a great moment thank you luuka let’s let’s talk about customers a little bit uh how rodolph maybe uh how
Does your expertise in logistics ensure that the flexus struck meets customers demand you know that and the needs actually um I think maybe U if you allow me if I go back to what Luka was saying about joining forces of the three of us I very much believe also in Partnership
Especially between three European companies I mean we look we talk a lot about Old Europe but here we give you a good example that it’s also new Europe that is building up this partnership we’re talking about decarbonization we’re talking about electrical vehicles and the fact that this flexus initiative
Will allow us as a Logistic Company to utilize about, 1500 to begin with uh utility trucks that will be able to uh go around cities uh without emitting any CO2 emissions that would would be quite remarkable brilliant Martin same thing U the lives of customers this is really
How it’s going to improve the lives of customers with yeah but first and foremost I think I mean it has been said both by by Luca and Rudolf I mean if you look at our customer base around the globe uh I mean the absolute majority are professional logistical companies
But they are actually uh operating in all different type of sectors and that is the beauty obviously I mean in order really to meet their demands uh you need to be an application uh specialist and really understand the operation Downstream and if you look at the merging corporate so to speak demands
Coming up now of course we talk a lot about the societal requirements in terms of Regulation City bands and zones Etc but the reality is that the Big Driver would be the corporate sector is because companies like ourselves by the way but also a lot Downstream it could be in the
Retail sector it could be in mining could be in I mean Automotive have their own science-based targets up to 2025 it’s I should say uh it’s a directional Target it’s not Material it’s like minus 15% or something like that but 2030 when we have gone through inol group all the
8,000 global companies that have actually adhere to science based targets then you’re talking about minus 50 minus 60% and in order to get there regardless if you’re a minor or if you’re a retailer or if you are a COR manufacturer or if you’re a shipping company you need to address your own
Logistics and that you need to do in a system end to end View and that I mean we were out uh yesterday had a great meeting with one of the biggest players in Logistics in Europe they were talking about their end to end design where the
Last mile is just a very important link of what is coming through the whole end to end structure and when we look at the outcome here um e-commerce growing Logistics is growing yes it is about decarbonization but it’s also about noise reduction it is about ergonomics uh we have been traveling
Ourselves with the drivers that are heroes actually delivering our Parcels to ourselves and seeing how the planning cycle looks like everything here can be combined with a joint expertise that we are sitting on together with the customers and the softwar defined vehicle that LCA was alluded to provides
A safe a secure digital stack but that is not closed because on top of that you can really do the customization right based on the different type of services that we are sitting on for their specific need because it will not be you know uh you can get any color you like
As long as it’s black you know that was back in the days now it’s about exact customization but combining that with scale because so far in this sector we have seen a lot of ini initiatives but not anyone that has been able to actually pull the resources out and
Flexes is an asset light structure but with a fantastic uh pool of resources that they can uh pull from I mean with all the expertise the ren Reno group is having in in Light commercial vehicles in industrialization uh all the expertise that we have from godol and the team
When it comes to Logistics and what other the demands and and also from from the Volver group also of course Network provide services Etc customer base so um yeah brilliant can I say one thing yes L to just to build on on on what Martin said just a couple of information or you
Know underlining a few things one is there is a tendency sometimes in the conversation we Al also do this like to confuse the CO2 issue with the uh pollution MH okay CO2 is a Global problem pollution is a very concentrated in urban areas so where the where where
It really hurts in terms of noise in terms of smoke etc etc and particles is the urban area and that product will is designed to actually solve this thing this is where it hurts okay second information just to make a simple example of what it means to have at the
Same time agile project uh you know company project structure uh vers and and combination with the strength of the companies in distribution okay we will sell those vehicles with Renault brand through the Rena distribution Network I think we have 5,000 only in Europe okay of them
So as much as we sell traffic or Master Etc all this will continue part of it will be sold to Renault trucks uh you know trucks uh thing we might have some opportunities within our for example our alliance to have some other customers so they can buy products and then we will
Dedicate a line of product that is actually a combination between product and software and service package you know this is a kind of white label thing is designed for the big customers where they don’t only want the product but they want a combination of a product plus the transformation plus the
Software right you know because you have to connect the the system plus some micros service that they will want to have and last information is remember that this will be the first product in which we will you know try to implement the software Define vehicle thing and
This thing is designed with Qualcomm and with Google that means it is based on Android and you can when you do your own electronic architecture you probably have two three 5,000 Engineers coding the OS of the thing this is designed by Google on Android and you have 6 million
People on the planet that can not two or 3,000 or 5,000 6 million people on the T that can code an Android operational system so you imagine the possibility you know of people adding services for the because they are from the big company so they have they have
Coders they have software Engineers so they can code the thing and add on that that’s the IDE it’s again Orizon right thank you LCA and and uh Rudolph Martin and Luka you’re coming back for the Q&A but if you allow me bear with me for for two seconds because we’re going now to
Welcome the two persons who are here with us to whom you have entrusted the keys leading the next stage of the flexis adventure please join me in welcoming Philip Di and Krishnan [Applause] sundarajan fantastic thank you thank you for joining thank you we will see of course Rudolph Luca and Martin later on
And now uh Phillip and uh Krishna maybe for people who don’t know you guys do maybe just a quick word about you philli correct me if I’m wrong so you had a long career at Volvo in France Sweden and India you’ve LED several Industrial and Commercial businesses but also have
An extensive experience with joint ventures and strategic Partnerships and Krishnan as for yourself you’re an automotive professional with experience of running vehicle programs for different geography spanning across Asia us and Europe and like Philip yourself passionate in setting up this project that’s moving into a new chapter and
That’s a great adventure so maybe my first question so I’m sure you are impatient both of you to lead this uh Next Step but what spontaneously comes to your mind when you think about the journey which led to flexus philli well I sh first I’d like to thank our
Founders for their trust and support and for their Visionary strategy towards this booming Market opportunity that we talked about you know I’ve been in this industry for many years and I always heard customers telling me logistic Urban Logistics they are 20% of the ton kilometers but they are actually half
The cost and when you listen to them an even greater share of the complexity because that’s a difficult environment to operate in and they have to constantly increase the efficiency of their operations reduce cost improve quality and now on top of that they have this new challenge of energy transition and
Decarbonization and what they told us is that so far no one has brought them the full solution to this problem that’s why when we created flexes we decided to build it on three pillars first the Innovative breakthrough vehicle platform second a wide portfolio of B2B efficiency services and third a dedicated customer
Interface and it’s those three things together that form a radically new value proposition to help our customers make their Urban logistic operations cleaner and more efficient at the same time brilliant thank you for that philli maybe uh just a quick word about the free pillars um what’s really behind
Them so maybe the first one Krishnan on the new vehicle platform yeah so this this platform is very Innovative it’s a grounded up is a native Bev electric vehicle and it’s a skateboard and you are able to adapt multiple body types which means you’re going to become more and more friendly to the
Customers the per se the car is running in 800 volt system which means you’re able to top up the energy in a rapid pace and that’s something very important for the B2B comes with two types of battery to the different cluster needs of the customer
Then the brain of the car which is the software and this is going to be the first car which will be the softwar driven car Android OS and we have been working with a different logistics company to understand that what are the services that should make this software
Enabler and great but in the last two and a half years we have been with many customers retail and wholesale customers logistic customer and we have chiselled and fine tuned the product and the services to the need that will make it as a breakthrough last but not the least the
Important thing is the team with the knowhow is the knowledge Capital that we are going to Embark into this flexes I’m really excited to make this happen thank you fantastic thank you chrishan and it may be Philip quick word about the two other pillars which were services and
The organization yeah I think Services Martin and Lucas spoke about them you have a lot of Efficiency Services for professional companies which exist in other segments or in other Industries but so far those Services were not available for Vans and we’re going to change that now with the new electronic
Architecture that will make vans into connected devices into our customers systems and that means that not only they will have access to those Services they will be able to connect the vehicle to their own Fleet Management transport Management systems and we will be able also to customize that to their exact
Needs but in order to do this and that’s the third pillar Asha we realized that we also needed a new organization because it’s not the traditional type of ordinary sales relationship it’s project sales and to do this our Founders once again have been Visionary they have dared to
Disrupt themselves by creating flexis as a new independent company an independent company that will have expertise teams able to engage into this dialogue with the customer and tailor the solution to their needs and uh I would say yeah go ahead go ahead no I think uh I think I would
Stop here Ju Just just maybe one final question philli what’s next now where are you headed well we are starting operating now and we have a team coming from Renault Volvo and other companies we are going to do two things immediately first of all we are going to intensify the dialogue with our
Customers to go into more detail about the solutions the second thing is that we will keep looking for other partners additional Partners it can be strategic Partners it can be Financial it can be technology and software Partners to expand our offer and accelerate our growth um so deliver is coming up in
Very soon yeah very soon but you know we’re starting deliveries uh in two years so we’ll have time to give you more updates and I will be pleased to meet all of you again within a few months to give you more details about how we are going to transform Urban
Logistics and deliver the future fantastic really looking forward to that thank you Krishnan and philli for that so in a couple of minutes we’ll be taking your questions so keep them handy with Luca Martin and Rolf will be joining us here uh but before that maybe just a quick glimpse of what the
Vehicles will look like right so as you can see that was really a sneak peak and that hopefully we’ll want you to ask more questions let me now welcome back on stage Luca Martin and rodolph for the Q&A session thank you for joining Gentlemen all right I think we have enough room for everyone here fantastic so there you go uh so who want to ask the first question we have a gentleman here um if you have head Mars hopefully let’s go for it thank you good morning I’m Olivia Bali from Le Magazine from
France er a question for rodolf Sade please do you intend and do you plan to increase your investment if it’s successful in flexus and may you comment a little more about the Strategic investment for for your group in that Enterprise please I think 20 minutes €10 million EUR is quite a lot
Of money so I believe that from where I stand what I would like to see is that we meet the requirements that we meet the deadline of delivery of 2026 and also most importantly is we deliver a competitive utility truck uh as to the strategy as I have said in
My uh Speech is I very much believe in decarbonization and decarbonization using new technologies uh we are a logistic company as well as shipping and in logistics we need to also use uh electrical trucks that allows us to reduce our CO2 emissions and the concept that has been proposed by Luca meets uh
Our our requirements and that is why I believe this makes quite a lot of sense and I’m very eager to get this started brilliant thank you OD thank you for that great question um we have questions or we get to you we hold on can you rise
Please thank you thank you it’s working oh yeah yeah hello G from Reuters uh I’ve got two questions uh my first questions would be uh on which brand will be the Vans uh sold will they be under the Renault r no trucks brand could they be sold under a white label
For other companies will flexis be also a commercial name for Future Vans and the the the the tour the table you’ve been presenting today is it definitive or are you open to other partners thank you I’m going to try to answer this one so as I said for sure with Renault for
Sure with the Renault trucks right uh you have Volvo in or or not no no the Volvo brand is yeah Runo trucks uh we we have we have discussion with uh with Nissan uh as as as much as they buy already you know our commercial vehicle
You know whether is the kangu or or or the master so we will uh we will maybe take also advantage of that is another possibility to sell um and uh and we will also have a white label I’m flexi is the is the actually legal name of the
Thing uh we have to see if we take uh this name as a commercial name or we change it but this is not big uh big thing but the idea is we’ll for sure have a part of the cars that are sold really in the logic of the white label
Because it’s a combination of the product and the services and the things so this is also the very inov imagine that you have I don’t want to mention company because but big companies that want their own transformation of the thing their own uh microservices in because they have they have to connect
The system to their Software System Etc we’re going to design car for them right we have the possibility you some of you we’re in sandov Friday you see that we have space we have a lot of capacity uh and but we also have competence you know to do things you know commercial vehicle
Like it’s actually a very very complicated uh let’s say business uh you know from a manufacturing point of view so this is also an element so what I’m trying to say is that we are probably in the condition to really do volumes still doing a revolutionary thing because we
Do commercial vehicles since 100 years it’s not easy see it see at other competitor that are coming up in that segment that they came up in the last year I mean they had to face a lot of challenges when it came to Simply the production of the thing right and we can
Do it at scale we can do it very competitive terms of cost that’s a part of the story are we open to other things I mean I I don’t thing that none of our company have a problem to finance completely thing right now we have no issue we are in the process of
Development of of the car we have the cash and the money is secured to the project company but if uh you know you know by definition this thing is open because the most beautiful thing that could happen is that product like this become some form of a standard in Europe
Where the product is an excuse is the ecosystem is the connection the logistic system the software system is behind and I think that Europe deserves needs such kind of thing right because uh we have engaged into the green deal one of the issues you know to lower down uh you
Know pollution in in uh in in the urban environment and this is going to be a tool uh to do that because that’s the playing field of such kind of cars so we are very open uh you know we are very open to to that to Industrial investor
To financial investors thanks maybe if I think I mean first and foremost 100% in line with what Luka is saying I think the good news is that I mean uh when you’re starting a venture like this uh that has I think an operating model that is super interesting in terms of because
Often you talk about I mean the it’s so to speak the uh the difference between agility speed flexibility on one axis and then you have so to speak scale or non scale or is it a niche product here actually we can combine the two and that
Goes of course for the product and for the industrialization but also goes for the global reach the reality is that uh if we combine uh I mean the different investors as we have it today we have the global reach and then depending on what is the right type of setup for
Different regions when we go there I mean we start in Europe obviously to lead the way there but that will also be a fantastic opportunity to build out globally Latin America we have a very stronghold together in Brazil and others uh North America we are strong with
Different brands Etc so I think it’s good to keep it open the good news is that we have the renewal brand in common that we can start with now and then we have all the different opportunities but I think you should have that in mind that really combine the the Two Worlds
Here the startup and the corporate H keep that type of setup will serve us well and we don’t have a volume issue we already have the backbone scale in the whole value chain from Supply from industrialization from product knowledge from services from service network from customer base and and build on that
Scale but keep the speed and flexibility is the name of the game thank you thank you Martin we had a question here in front row yes we have I’m raising up this is Tas from AFP French price agency um in it’s a question about the price uh
Electric trucks are still a bit more expensive than their diesel equivalent when will it start to when will reach price parity with this product and also let’s talk about margins um at which volume volume does it get interesting for you you’re you’re asking uh a very standard question for a
Revolutionary project right of course question for an unorthodox project I mean I think for sure this thing will be uh you know as a from a price point of you let’s say more expensive than a traffic with a diesel engine but uh traffic with diesel engine maybe in 10 years time they will
Not be allowed to enter city center right we already have like at least 35 zero emission Zone planned in Europe and that’s a solution for that I mean say that uh maybe you were not there before but I mentioned that the key thing is not the
Price list is the business case that we are providing to the customer with the with the total cost of ownership that is 20 to 30% lower than conventional product and you know these guys are not looking at uh because they are professional you know customer they don’t look at the
Least price they look at the cost of ownership and the cost of usage and that’s that’s where we can be really radical right and uh in terms of margin I mean I’m not going to comment on margin but we wouldn’t do it if this project would not be profitable and I
For sure would not have let’s say convinced either rodolph or Martin to come in something to you know even if you have good coffee in your office yeah even if the coffee is very good it’ll be not enough so that’s a good I mean that’s a interesting let’s say it’s a sign that
This thing is a healthy project right it’s a healthy project we have to do a lot of work and two years to go we have to EIT the cost etc etc but we won’t do a dilutive project that run for sure and I’m sure that it’s even more true for
For C CGM and Bo trucks yeah and and I mean yes compliment what Lucas said I mean we have been in in serial production for medium duty and heavy duty both with renew and Volvo now uh since 201819 and it was actually blendville here in France that was first out as you
Remember and we see exactly what Luca is saying first and foremost obviously because there are certain I mean regulatory conditions cities will lead the way they will just ban uh combustion because uh it’s about pollution as Luca said but secondly what is interesting to see is that when you really do this type
Of setup you plan it in a different way because the reality is that the L mild deliver are highly unmature still when it comes to planning when it comes to ergonomics when it comes to you know turnaround times H and also when it comes to the energy optimization because
Since these are a professional B2B production equipment type of uh situations uh you will also optimize the whole Depo sh because the majority will be Depo charging right and here you can do a lot when it comes to the energy Arbitrage and again the whole service layer in
Order to optimize it so I’m optimistic about it in relation to this and on top of that you will have carbon pricing both corporate and public but more importantly for us when we have looked into this is not if it will be because it will be competitive with diesel or or
Gasoline Etc so don’t worry about that but will it be but will it be the best in the world in this space because we have a tendency to talk about I mean comparing that with diesel but we need to be be best in the world when it comes to these
Type of solutions because those this is the and that is what we’re aiming for maybe one thing maybe one thing is like to to make it uh profitability right if you do something that is good for your customer you make money right and I remember with Krishna at the beginning
We were trying to get every second out of interaction between the driver and the product out because maybe 30 seconds that you save in a delivery we we estimate it’s 1% profitability for a logistic operator abut so you get into the car from the side you don’t have to
Go back and open the door you everything is you know you have you have mechanism to you know to to to order the packages based on the rooting uh you know everything will be like this because 30 seconds is 1% profitability if you say one minute is two and I mean Logistics I
Think it can be profitable but also it’s a very tough business so the margins uh you know are relatively you know uh small and you know this kind of solution are fantastic right right how can you and how can you prepack it I mean now
You’re carrying it in I mean p i mean travel a day and you will see potential maybe H off quick word yes maybe to add on what Luca and Martin said I think two key things from my side is delivery dates um we did not speak about
Competition coming from Asia and we know that they are very bullish when it comes to building electrical cars and also electrical trucks so the sooner we can deliver flexes uh in early days of 2026 the better it is and also the cost before talking about profitability let
Us make sure that we build a competitive electrical truck I’m playing the bad guy here but this is my role as well no no way you’re absolutely right I think we have two questions in the front row please uh we one here and then the lady over
There uh altina from uh Bloomberg I think you anticipated my question I think the elephant in the room is a bit the Chinese competition we’ve heard a lot about it in for electric vehicles so if you could elaborate we hear more and more about uh the Chinese threat where
The Asian threat for trucks and vans is that one of the reasons why you are you know got so quickly together on this and how do you see that panning out and should the EU um also uh keep an eye out on that be on the just the uh Passenger
Cars uh threat and then what’s the name of the coffee brand you had in that office because it was curely persuasive joking no but I mean do you know what I I think it’s a very good and important question obviously uh but but I mean if
I if I start with Volvo we are a 50 billion Euro company Global we have 2% of our sales in Sweden so 98% outside Sweden we have 30% in in Europe uh one thing that we have to rolf’s uh sake here you need to be
Best for real in the long run because if you are not competitive in the long run you can have whatever protections that you like but you will not be successful then it’s so I mean that is what we’re going for I mean if we don’t believe in
This that we could be uh one of the really key players in this when it comes to decarbonization when it comes to competitiveness uh when it comes to flexibility when it comes to the solution end to end should not go for it I mean we have a lot of different
Priorities when it comes to capital resource and talent uh allocations all of us but we truly believe in all these parameters and we also know that this is a sector that we need to address then when it comes to competition what we are advocating for as I mean free trade uh
Friends is that it must be a level Playfield regardless with what reading you are talking about and and it is even more important now when it comes to decarbonization that we have a me a fair system when it comes for example input material carbon Etc but having said that
When we look at the potential uh we are of course aiming to to meet any competitor because if you are not ready to do that you will not be in in other words you not have their license to operate if I put like Martin in other words you’re not scared of Asian compe
No I’m I’m I’m I’m very humble uh I’m I’m um cheric about I mean the competition uh because you need to be extremely uh uh of course I mean it’s like standing in an escalator backboards if you’re no it is if you’re standing still you moving
Backwards you need to move in a certain Pace you has to stand in the same position and you need to move quicker in order to to make progress and that is the same in all different segments for all of us by the way all of us are representing Global businesses we know
What it means we are taking that extremely seriously but we should not stand here if we said okay we are we are up for losing right I I can add work hard have fun make history the uh I I think that it’s fair to say that of course of course Chinese
Competitors are very very capable etc etc in general uh but it’s also fair to say that in that segment uh you know European um still have um an advantage I mean Rena is if you take the brand Rena is a number one commercial vehicle brand
Uh in Europe so it means that our brand does a good job we are one of the leaders uh and in general European commercial vehicle are amongst the most sophisticated okay if you look uh you know commercial vehicle in Japan or commercial vehicle in us or commercial
Vehicle in China compared to what we deliver today to the custom for number of reason or history even if I was kind of teasing them that they they were doing the same thing for 50 years it’s the the product itself in Europe it’s the most sophisticated and now if you if
You think about the fact that we have that kind of competence we accelerate we do a pure native EV platform but the most important thing is in the integration of the Software System into the European ecosystem and that that is going to for sure give us a little bit
More room that we might have on other segments where we have bigger challenges okay so let’s see it like this without underestimating the potential you know what they could come up with Etc but I think it’s an environment where we kind of you know lead the game okay all right
We’ll get back to the room we have a question coming virtually I I think we have a question online question from a media colleague Celia yes hello um uh you you on mute oh we don’t have your sound hello hello I think I think okay can you open
Your microphone ah hi hi hi hi I’m for and who will be the Prov capacity of the new vehicle be in the sandov plan uh will you focus on like commercial vehicles only or or are your thinking of increasing the commercial portfolio with the of time and also you mentioned that you are
Looking for new investors is fing negotiation with other the investors and partners actually if we get the question clear all right so uh it’s it’s not very clear right um I mean the sound but I don’t know if you get the gist of part of it with asking yeah I mean on they
Were talking about capacity in sandville yeah exactly we never we never talk about that okay okay so so we’ll try to do you know as much as we can and we can sell but I think that the logic is uh you know is not only based on volume is
Based on the business that is around the product the second thing where we want to do something else investment part no there anything else than V right the project is centered right now on the on the Light commercial vehicle of course we might have the possibility to extend
The range as was saying also for other geography because they need different things but let’s not let’s try right now to focus on what we have it’s already big job for for Philip and uh and and all the team uh so uh so anyway and the third one is investors I think we
Already said right we we would be welcoming for me the ideal scenario is other people other industrial partner that can participate to grow the business business and have a long-term view on the thing because this is a journey right right so we start from the product we create the ecosystem around
We we you know we will probably you know be creating things with our shareholders so so if you have people on the table can bring something new to complimentary to what then it makes sense to what uh we are able to do then it makes sense
It’s not it’s not a question of money right it’s a question of you know right sharing competences um Celia thank you for that question um I I’ll get back to the room but one more question online hopefully the sound is better this time we have Charlie Charlie over to
You good morning thank you very much for your time St um I just had a questions regarding the disruption you’ve mentioned the modularity of the platform and your Ambitions to disrupt the commercial vehicle sector how far can you push that disruption in terms of what we think a
Be and you launch passenger vehicles based on the van okay we got uh it’s it’s about the platform the disruption maybe philli you were talking about that a little bit yeah as we say this platform has been designed as being only electric so it’s a native EV it’s not like you take an
Existing uh ice vehicle and you try to Electrify it and that gives you the possibility to optimize the platform much more make it shorter for the same cargo capacity look I mentioned about the maneuverability all those things come with having a native EV design and this being said this platform as you see
It it can be as Luca said expanded you can make variance on it so it has the full power of being a robust skateboard but with a lot of uh variant possibilities on it chran you want to add something I mean on the platform to supplement you know the one of the
Important requirement for the logistics is the floor height and we have ensured that we are best in class on that we have the best-in-class Turning Circle radius as Luka mentioned it’s a b segment car turning Circle radius so we have looked into all the ergonomics of Designing the platform that allows us to
Scale on sizes and ensure that the modularity is maintained throughout the life okay and maybe one thing to come back to the ergonomics a lot of logistic companies see their drivers changing job after 12 to 18 months so you have to imagine changing your whole Workforce
Every 12 to 18 months and if we can make our vehicle more easy to drive more friendly for people who deliver 100 or 150 packages a day and we can keep them longer on the job that is much more value much less disturbance in the customers operation rodolf I’m speaking
Under your your control here Lear or learning phip or the vehicle learning because it knows the routs it knows how you know you know when I have to charge ex this is also one thing understand yeah absolutely thank you thank you I hopes that answers question Charlie yes
We have a question in the room yes go on uh Den per from The Daily Newspaper laqua a question to Luc Deo do you plan other Partnerships with other car manufacturers for example around uh small calls this is not the subject of the day
I know a lot of my I’m I’m a very open guy do like this so I I I believe in these things right I think uh I think it’s uh it’s also a way to get challenged right you you you’ve you’ve heard rodolph is you know putting
Pressure on us as a shareholder and yeah so I think it it gets us better right and uh so of course you can’t do only this right in life but I think in some in some segments on on some business where we have to learn or we have to get
Scale or we have no solution alone I think it makes a lot of sense I mean even from a renau perspective you would have a the Pon here as a CFO he would tell you about the let’s say the the enormous transformation in terms of quality of capital allocation in in Rena
He also comes from that I mean let let’s let’s let’s say the things that they are right sometimes people like me that we have to be creating a fun solution right four years ago three years three three and a half years ago we actually didn’t
Have the money to do that but we had the idea right that’s the reality of the thing now of course Rena is getting much better and it works but when we had to do this so we had to find solution and my solution was Martin first and then
And then Rolph but then you get into a thing and you understand that each company can bring a lot of course uh you know that they have competence they have a market they become become customer that’s a story of but we actually didn’t have the means to do that of our
Ambition ambition was big you know Port Monet was more now it’s different but you know the thing started like this and I I think it’s great and it’s uh and if we find other opportunity we will do it I think there is a challenge on small car a
Segment cars in Europe is going like this right they went uh because of lack of product offer lack of real potential to because of Regulation prices exploded we we used to sell cars a segment at € 10,000 Euro you know electric electric uh electric car you know small it’s
Actually double so we have to find solution yeah and we’ll find any way to do it thank you LCA thank you LCA just reminding you let’s keep the questions to flexus thank you Sophie F from leemon I have a question can you elaborate on the concept of skateboard is it um well
Is it a new trend in the industry or buz word or and my second question is Misha as an internal startup Whata who is trying to Electrify um also Vans did you have discussions with them or plans with michan I’ll first elaborate about the skate and of course investment is is a
Good a good thing that we will have an oxygen to breathe so as a skate it is firstly as I said three important characteristics we are doing it’s not the fun word it’s really how you ground up keep all the electrical vehicle in mind so you are not going to do a ice
Engine with a different floors so it’s a it’s a real flat floor and we ensure that the engine is positioned in such a way that we have the best turning Circle radius and the third element is the floor height with all this as as a skateboard we are able to adapt
Different body types that means you move from one type of body to Second type of body you don’t do a lot of adjustment in the plant to do that this is something very important on a skate is a lot of Lego in mind Lego in Industry Lego in
Supply chain everything is Lego based so that all the super structure you build are able to be stitched in a seamless way in a robust way and with high durability because we make durable vehicles thank you and coming to the investor portion I think I can comment
Just to say that you have a lot of companies who are now taking standard Vans or standard electrified Vans and trying to package them for Ser some services to customers but what we will have at flexus is that we will have the vehicle and the service which are
Designed together so we don’t have this difference between hardware and service we are going to build all this into one integrated solution and the possibilities that the hardware gives they will reinforce the service op offer and vice versa so that’s a much more powerful combination I think Sophia asked on the
Let’s say transformation of kind of U transformation of of uh combustion ban into electric B is that your your the initiative of mishan who’s designing software and Capt to um to provide services to uh craftsmanships who you know people who use this uh I mean it’s it’s it’s kind
Of could be competition could be I mean we were there together with the with Michelin team couple of weeks ago no three weeks ago so we we look at things or it’s a company with which we cooperate uh if we see opportunities I mean when you do something that is good
For your customer normally you’re never wrong so we have to look at what is good for our customers and then we we’ll try to find solution for sure with the architecture both physical and software thing we have a lot of flexibility to adapt the product and that’s the thing
It’s not the white box on Wheels with the diesel engine anymore it’s really some revolutionary product product designed for that thank thank you Luka um but but I think I mean on this it’s a very important question because if you think about the ecosystem uh already on
The heavy duty transports today you have a very intense uh ecosystem around the services uptime predictive maintenance safety standard driving times a battery surveyance systems since these products are used to a very high extent Etc Charing um residual value guarantees Etc so customer Finance Insurance everything
Is custom made and I mean if you take the Volvo example we have more than 1.6 million connected units with our customers today and the ecosystem is open so if any company can provide services into that software uh stack uh of course it should be possible because that’s good for the customers
Productivity or safety or decarbonization that’s number one number two on the hardware I think uh on the commercial vehicles which is super important in order to be successful and that is where we are so to speak meeting is the modularization the Lego and what is modularization it is uh that you define
Standardized interfaces in your in in your uh architecture and why standardized interfaces are important because between those standardized interfaces you really can actually add adapt to the specific need without losing scale where it matters because you want to have scale where it matters in the backbone uh but
You don’t want to um compromise the application excellent for the final Customer because a van in this context that we’re talking about for flexes is a production equipment it is not a car these equipment are used I mean a car is used 3 4% of the available time a
Van is used 60 70 and in these Cas is obviously up to 80 85% of the time so so modularization in commercial vehicles is key and that is what chrishan and team uh really and and the whole of course engineering team of renew has done and excelled upon that you can create this
Platform and thereby doing the application Excellence thank you Martin I’m also looking at the time maybe we have one final one or two more questions we have one in the front here if we could pass in the mic please on the front row lady yeah thank you very much maybe one
Final one after that sorry yeah thank you I thank you Liz Alderman with the New York Times my question was actually going to be about the elephant in the room which was which was Asia uh which you all answered but I guess a follow-up to that would be to what extent uh would
You see you’ve talked about the need to be highly competitive with these vehicles uh to what extent do you see this product possibly being able to penetrate the Chinese market how could you be competitive in that huge market and secondly um how can you uh stay also competitive with American companies
Given the mass subsidies for example that we’re seeing in the United States with the IRA Etc what is being done by European governments to help guarantee the creation of a European champion on this Muk I think uh I think I mean the structure I I I speak under the control
Special but the structure of the Light commercial uh let’s say vco Chinese SL commercial is completely different from Europe it’s a lot of small things a little bit like maybe of course you have some few electric things but it’s not at all the same structure so at this stage there’s
No plan to go to China with flexes because it’s a product that is designed for such kind of ecosystem we probably look more at more sophisticated markets okay in terms of that segment with the more sop that absorb more sophisticated products than trying to find to fight
You know 8,000 Euro small electric uh vehicle that you see dwelling around in the Chinese City because this is the reality of the thing today um regard the second question is a big question I don’t think we have the time in 1 minute 25 but for sure I don’t know if you have
Seen uh you know the uh let’s say the letter that I wrote to some of the potential saying it’s we need a strategy for that um we’re getting a lot of support I have to say I mean Friday we were in in sandville and you have heard
The French minister of economy and you know you know how you know he was there and they’re pushing and they’re helping us etc etc but there is in general a need for a strategy okay to on how to make this kind of transition in Europe and not just a bunch of Regulation that
Come every six months on on on our neck because that’s part of the story but we need a strategy that’s was our call also from the side and but at the end of the day you know it shouldn’t be an excuse for people like us to only say
That the thing doesn’t work because the authorities are not doing the job right or they not I mean it’s not that they’re not job but there is no kind of plan like you for example see it in China so it should be an excuse that’s why I
Think you have to see this project as an initiative a proactive initiative of a bunch of people entrepreneurs that are trying to find solution for our customer and to push the European economy and for the for the American competitor that they want to come in that segment uh to
Play in Europe the market is open and we’ll say please come but but I think what is interesting about European versus American strategy and we should not prolong it because as Luca said but I think a specific element when it comes to commercial vehicles in in us that is interesting I talked about
I mean the brown to a Green platform and what they’re doing through Ira if we just disregard I mean when it comes to the competition uh is that they are actually addressing the whole value chain and in particular the demand signals because that is very important that you’re getting so to speak the
Transporters and the transport buyers on board with a demand signal because otherwise you will not pull the ecosystem when it comes to scaling up in terms not only about equipment by the way but also in terms of Shing infrastructure refueling if it’s hydrogen Etc so I think we need to think
About how do we drive the demon signal uh since we have a regulatory landscape that today is just based on uh the EMS to get the volumes out but the volumes will not get out if we don’t have a demand signal coming in or real demand
Basically orders coming in so so there I think they have been rather uh Smart in the construct of of we have looked at we looked at rivan we have looked at uh you know bright drop we have looked at rival Etc we’ve seen this kind of it was an inspiration for
Us and I think we learn a lot from uh all of them for all of them and we kind of chewing that and you know and bringing our i’ been 100 years experience on I don’t know how many years it’s Volvo yeah 100 but if if we
Count Berle also is even more actually and I think I think that will be the final question that’s all the time we have it’s it’s going to be a great adventure and hopefully it inspires others to do the same but you have two years two or three years Advance
Right all right thank you gentlemen thank you very much thank you it was great to be part of this enjoy lunch and see you next time thank [Applause] You
Flexis SAS press conference, with Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault Group & Ampere, Martin Lundstedt, CEO & President of Volvo Group and Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman & CEO of CMA CGM.
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