Cleantech Disruptors — An interview with Aymeric Libeau, Founder & CEO of Transition-One
Cleantech Disruptors is a series of interviews showcasing innovative cleantech startups, who through the development of disruptive technologies are changing the future.
Transition-One converts internal-combustion vehicles into electric ones, saving money on fuel, maintenance and CO2 emissions. They are on a mission drive down emissions, simplify electrification and move towards a cleaner planet.
Aymeric Libeau is passionate about the environment; “the climate emergency is a reality and we must act now”. He founded Transition-One to play his part in reducing emissions and making electric vehicles a possibility for many more people, by building a simple solution with an affordable price tag, making electric cars more accessible and increasing adoption across Europe.
What inspired you?
I believe that we must take ownership and responsibility for the changes required for a cleaner planet, and not leave these changes to the next generation. Change must start now. On July 6, 2017, the then Minister of Ecology, Nicolas Hulot, presented his climate plan. With the change of president, we could expect the launch of challenges. The ban on the sale in 2040 of combustion vehicles seemed to me lacking in ambition.
With my experience in technology, innovation, and change, I did the exercise of answering the question “How can we quickly reduce CO2 emissions in mobility at scale?” — to achieve this quickly, it was necessary to be able to use existing resources (reduce the emissions of a new solution). It was also necessary to allow acceptable losses. The synthesis of this approach is the retrofit with the conversions of existing vehicles with adapted autonomy. The was then industrialised, because with the irreversible climate emergency, it must be available to as many people as possible.
What factors do you focus on to ensure accessibility?
Transition-One has 3 main considerations for our customers:
- Electric
- Connected
- Affordable
We believe that all 3 are crucial if we are to see large scale adoption in the electrification of ICE vehicles.
Electrification of cars is a huge challenge — there are currently about 260 million cars in Europe. We are on a mission to convert 100,000 of these to electric vehicles in the next 5 years
For society to reach the environmental goals, we need to both reuse and replace; for some to buy new EVs and for others to convert their existing vehicle. When you reuse, you have a big impact on ecology by reducing emissions and reducing waste, a big economic impact on the cost of running your vehicle, maintaining it (no oil to change, no spare parts etc.).
You talked about climate change — where do we start?
There is no one specific solution to tackle climate change, it must be done through thousands of smaller solutions across every industry. In mobility specifically we must change our core — we are pumping out around a tonne of CO2 every 10,000km, that’s about 12 tonnes each per year in France alone!
Our mission is to massively reduce CO2 emissions by finding a pragmatic solution to change. The solution cannot be for everyone to go out and buy a new EV. Don’t’ get me wrong, new EVs are wonderful, but this would create huge amounts of waste and at the current cost are not accessible to many people, but retrofitting their existing vehicle lowers the barrier to entry. We know there are many people who are hugely passionate about the planet but don’t have the means to trade in their old car for a new EV. We can help them to fulfil their wish to drive a greener car, and in many cases the cost of the retrofit is offset within a year!
How are you disrupting the industry?
In the automotive field, the practice is simple to change car: I buy a new car, or I buy a used car. The “improve my car” scheme is not in practice. Our disruption is not on technology (electric motor, batteries etc.) but the circular economy approach extended to the car. Thermal-electric conversion exists in many countries in artisanal mode with small quantities. Our disruption extends to a desire for industrialisation to allow as many people as possible to benefit from this possible. Our business model focuses on local partners; your local car garage will do the conversion, digitalisation and connection.
How do we drive change?
We must not look to the future with the experience of the past if we want to succeed in changing practices. Otherwise, disruptions will be very limited. We must convince and convince again that we are changing the era. The COVID-19 crisis is a very good example of how the authorities wanted to manage the crisis with previous practices when the population wanted something else. We are starting to measure changes in behaviour, very impactful post-crisis expectations, but we are only at the beginning. It is very exciting to be part of the change which will impact the world of tomorrow and everyone can do it in their own way, and on their own scale.
What’s next for you and the business?
As I mentioned, our mission is to massively reduce CO2 emissions. The next steps are obtaining approvals in France and then in other European countries. We focus on increasing the adoption and therefore the benefit to the environment and the economy. So, after approvals, it is market access that will be fundamental. The challenges are there!
Find out more about brightsmith and Transition-One below.
