The AI Brain Behind the Energy Transition

Summary
Giovanni Rossi, CMO of Electra Vehicles, discusses the intersection of AI, energy, and mobility, focusing on battery intelligence and its role in the energy transition. He shares insights on market challenges, competitive advantages, and future trends in AI-driven energy systems.

Takeaways
Battery monitoring and optimization
Market challenges in energy and AI
Competitive advantages of Electra's technology

Soundbites
"Battery intelligence is the future of energy."
"Market education is the biggest challenge."
"Agentic AI will transform battery control."

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to AI Speed and Electra Vehicles
03:18 Giovanni Rossi's Journey in Energy and Technology
06:06 The Importance of Battery Intelligence in Energy Transition
09:00 Challenges in Battery Performance and Market Needs
11:25 Marketing Complex Innovations to Diverse Audiences
14:27 Identifying Ideal Customers and Market Trends
16:57 Navigating Challenges in a New Market Category
19:56 Future Success and Regulatory Landscape
22:13 Trends in AI and Electrification
25:16 Vision for the Future of Electra Vehicles

Video

https://youtu.be/1gUnA2oFf5o

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Welcome to AI Speed, the show where AI powered companies talk about what actually works in the market right now. Business doesn't move at internet speed anymore, it moves at AI speed, and the people who figure out how to turn models into money will own the next decade. I'm Evan J. Chawfin, founder of Luxhammer and growth partner to high performance brands. Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Giovanni Rossi, Chief Marketing Officer at Electro Vehicles. Giovanni is helping define how one of the most important shifts in energy is brought to market. That batteries no longer just hardware, but intelligent systems powered by AI and data. As CMO, he's responsible for turning highly complex innovation into clear positioning, scalable pipeline, and real commercial traction. Giovanni, thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Thank you for having me, even very nice to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Yeah, so you're operating at the intersection of AI, energy, and mobility. What drew you into this space and what made you focus on bringing something as complex as battery intelligence to market?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah. So let me give you a little bit of background about myself. So I've basically worked all of my career across marketing, communication, and growth at the intersection of energy and technology, helping company scaling internationally and build a sustainable business model. I started in consultancy focusing on energy business model and international expansion across the United States, Europe, and the Arab Gulf and India. After you know, I lived in Dubai for a while and in India. And after that, I decided to come back to Europe and I joined a multi-utility group during market liberalization. So I saw all the process about transforming the energy market from a public market into a free market all around Europe. And that was a very interesting situation to live, live in, and especially working for a multi-utility group. I grew a lot into the positioning, you know, going to being a group head of marketing and communication and working especially on driving new innovation, new business model, new value proposition into the main companies, the different organizations in the corporation, and also working on post-merger integration and new startup selection and integration into the mother company. I found at this point the startup world to be definitely interesting and very close to what I wanted to do. And so I moved into my first startup. There was like a General Electric, a company as CMO at Cleanwoods. And we repositioned completely the business from an energy solution provider into an integrated energy solution provider for deploying technology, capital, and also resources to develop a VPP, virtual power plant, and energy community. At that point, we had a very good growth and we had a very good exit. And decided to join Electra, focusing much more into the battery field, as I think basically this is like the future. So right now we are like in a race and an intersection of energy and battery. Battery is like the technology that is needed to enable the energy transition. And it was like very fascinating to start working on these topics. And I found it like a very compelling value proposition to add the top layer of technology into this. As it is something that is completely missing, and it was completely missing. So that's why what drove me to Electra and why I'm still here, you know, working and supporting the value proposition and scaling, you know, into different markets.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

You mentioned right now it's a race. Are there other competitors that you're competing with in this race?

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah, we have a few competitors in in the space. I think that the difference is like they are very much vertical focused. So some of them are like you know focusing on just on hardware integration or like a specific type of batteries. Some other they are just focusing on like you know different pieces of the technology and providing just analytics and not controls. Some other just focusing on optimization. I think that the real value that we bring, it is like we do monitoring, optimization, and control of the batteries. So we cover the full value chain in the battery space. And this, I think it's like, you know, a very compelling value proposition and differentiating point that we have. Second one is like, you know, we do we have like a physic informed approach. No, this is pretty technical. I'll try to be as simple as possible. But basically, we understand the physical equation and all the physical activities, let's say this way, you know, happening within the battery. And then on top of this, we provide an additional layer of machine learning and AI that is basically combining information coming from different batteries all around the world and also combining different points, can be temperature points, can be driving behavior, can be whatever is the context around that specific battery, and merging everything together and like you know, putting in a system basically the chemistries and the physical layer with all the other information. So to provide an outcome that is much more precise and that can help you know unlock additional value into the battery space. So this is like you know a very good differentiator that we have. And the third one is basically we are hardware and chemistry agnostic. So the technology has been built in a way that can be deployed into any type of batteries and any type of verticals. So you know we can scale into different segments, into different chemistries, into different applications in a very easy, easy way. So this is like you know what makes us different from all the competition that are very vertical focus and not much horizontal focus.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So, from your perspective, what's the core problem the market is dealing with today that when it comes to battery performance and intelligence?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yeah, I think if you let me zoom out a little bit just about something about why batteries are so important and are the backbone of the energy transition. Right now, what what is happening is like a structural change, I would say it's like the energy field. We have you know the a lot of renewable coming in, solar, wind, other sources, you know, they are abundant, they are clean, they are increasingly cost-efficient if you look at you know the data and all the information. But there is one center issue that is like you know, they are intermittent by nature. So the sun doesn't always shine, the wind doesn't always blow, and so you need something to store the excess energy when it's available. That one is batteries. So you have like you know this infrastructure, this hardware that you know can store this excess of energy. At the same time, and on another level, you have what is called in the industry the energy trilemma. You have sustainability, affordability, and security. That are like you know very important elements in our in our current uh society, in our current uh political agenda and perspective. Mixing and matching, I would say, all of this together, you have a new ecosystem that is forming, and that needs, of course, an additional layer of optimization, an additional layer of complexity. So the real question is like, you know, why battery is so important, is like, how can we build energy systems that are clean, resilient, controllable, and secure? And the answer is hardware, battery hardware, a layer of technology. Why the layer of technology is needed on the hardware? Because battery alone is uh they're not enough. You know, they need something that can help them to be controlled. I like it to see and to visualize it as like, you know, the battery is a sort of you know body, and then you have the brain, the brain that is actually controlling, of course, everything that is happening in your body. So you want to move, you want to release your energy, you know, to make a step forward. Your brain is actually that power source that is telling you that you need to consume energy within you and make that step. The same is like in the industry. Right now we have a lot of batteries, but we have no basically, you know, brain on top of them. So these assets are like, you know, just position and working in a blind way. As you know, the industry keeps growing and then as like, you know, of course, we have sustainability as mentioned, you know, we have uh affordability, we have energy security. We need more hardware, but we also we need intelligence to use and optimize this hardware in a very useful way. So that's why, of course, you know, we are working on this specific value proposition, and that this is like you know, the trend, what is happening in this wider energy space. And basically having this technological layer on top of the batteries, what this enables, it is like basically having a very precise estimation of the energy that is within the battery that is called in in the industry state of charge. So you know how much energy exactly you have. This is like converter, let's say this way, in plain English in different ways. It can be range if you're like driving a car. And it can it can be also like availability of energy if you're using that battery for like you know different applications. For instance, powering an hospital, or like, you know, knowing exactly how much energy you have can have like a very big difference from like you know, arriving to your destination, arriving to the next search station, and powering the hospital. On the other side, you have state of health, which is basically how much what is like the health of the batteries, and now it is like you know degradating, and then you have also the value of remaining useful life, so it is like how much longer you can move with your batteries. So, you know, all of this is like you know, information that you have in the monitoring capabilities, and that you know you need then to optimize as you optimize your health, as you optimize your energy, like you know, always considering that body example, you know, you need to optimize your energy, you need to optimize your health, and you need to optimize how long you can live in your life. And so you go into like you know, dynamically, these different dynamics sorry about you know, how can I change the perspective, how I can charge my battery in a different way, as I can discharge the battery in a different way, how I can extend, of course, the lifetime through less degradation and you know, preventing failures. So all of these optimizations, capabilities until controlling, so acting specifically on the batteries and orchestrating different energy systems and providing again longer asset life, better utilization, a predictive safety, and so avoiding critical faults, fires. One of the biggest ones has been like in most landing in California for like a stationary storage application, but also like you know, I think a couple of months ago there was some issue in Korea, in South Korea, that you know stopped in the data centers that stop, of course, the operational and the administration in Korea for a while. So all of this, you know, it's like you know about being sure that the batteries are actually safe and that you you can anticipate what is going to happen. And all of this, you know, it's sort of a brain that you have that is like understanding and helping, you know, into into this.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Yeah, that's really amazing how you can understand and kind of track and monitor all those things. It's extremely helpful. So, as CMO, where are you spending most of your time right now?

SPEAKER_00 11:25

So I think it's about trying to translate sometime, you know, complex technical innovation into value proposition. It's like, you know, there are a lot of pain points out there in the markets, and sometimes they're more known, let's say this way, sometimes they're less known. Or the new you need to understand, of course, the root cause of that specific issue. And so the focus that I have is in what we call like you know product marketing, that is like basically trying to adapt our value proposition, adjust better our value proposition to the specific use case, and understand how much value we can provide. I think you know we have a very strong focus and I brought this into the company about we need to pitch to the client the value that we can provide. So it's basically, you know, like what is the outcome? What is the ROI? What is the extension of life? Depends on the use case because different customers have different needs, let's say this way. Uh, and also depends on the person or the people you're talking with. So if you're talking with like an engineer, it may be more focused on like you know, extending the life of a battery, understanding the root cause of an issue happening in the berries. If you're talking with like a business person, maybe more interesting about how much uh ROI can I get out of this battery if I sell more energy, if I can access to like you know that specific remaining energy that usually it's there. Just give let me give an example. Usually uh status charge is one of the variables, very important variables. Uh like batteries are oversized usually and use less than what they should for like you know avoiding uh issues. But usually you have a 10 to 20% more energy that you can squeeze out from your batteries. And this is like you know, can translate uh if used in the right way and if you have the right system that tells you how to do it, can translate into 5 to 10% more ROI. So that's a lot of value that is like you know unused and that we need to let the customers use instead. So that you can also like, you know, yeah, stopping overestimate plants, and so that is also like on the capital level, it's like you know, you can decrease the cost of investing in your renewal energy assets and so on and so forth. So it's basically like trying to adjust the value proposition and make clear what is the value that you can get. At the same time, it's about you know bringing and building the brand and like you know, showcasing to customers and investors what is the value that they're receiving and what is also like the level of trust and understanding that we provide and all, of course, in a in the most compelling way.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah, absolutely. So, how do you take something as complex as driven battery intelligence to make it resonate in a way that actually drives buying decisions?

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Again, it's all about the audience that you're talking with. So, like, you know, it's about adjusting to the specific audience and trying to, you know, to speak the same language that that audience is speaking. You know, if it is an engineer, you need to provide technical details. If it is a business person, you need to provide different details. If it is like a financial department, you need to provide numbers and like you know, ROI numbers and so on and so forth. So we do a lot of customization in this, a lot of adjustments, just to be as much as compelling as compelling for you as possible with a specific audience. At the same time, we like in our strategy, we have, of course, like you know, specific layers of value that we want to transmit and a specific set of strategies and you know directions. For instance, you know, be very much outcome-driven. That is for sure one. Trying to leverage, of course, the technicalities with a simple, simpler communication. So it's like you know, try to balance all of these different levels that we have, but be specific with the audience that we have.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Absolutely. So, who do you serve best? What's an ideal customer profile that converts fastest and sees the most value?

SPEAKER_00 15:14

So we in you know the different verticals they they can be a little bit different. I would say that in case of the uh the mobility, that is one of the verticals that we cover. We work very well with like you know, tier one suppliers that are basically those companies providing all the assets, let's say this way, that can be then deployed into the vehicles through the vehicle OEMs, the car makers. So they provide all the infrastructural assets that then will be deployed into vehicles. In case of energy players, I would say it is like the system integrators that the company then providing all the assets, so it's it's similar, it's tier one suppliers in the energy fields, and also like integrating our technology, of course, within the plants. And then in case of wider space, there can be more robotics and fleet management, it is directly the fleet operators that they need, of course, additional insights on how they can monetize more on their assets. So this is like you know, the uh the ICPs that we have.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Yeah, yeah, that's great. So what would you say has been your biggest challenge this year in building awareness and demand in a category that requires significant marketing education?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yeah, I think that that's basically it. It is like a completely new category that we are defining right now. So it's it's always like you do not have like a lot of reference points. So being so new, not being like, you know, one side it's it's good. That's like not a lot of competitors, not a lot of other companies doing uh what we're doing and the way that we're doing it. On the other side, of course, it's difficult to compare yourself against something that is not there. So it's like, you know, sometimes you have a lot of testing that you need to do, a lot of you know things that need to be tried out, see how that works, and then be very specific about focusing on the impact of the actions that you do. It's like, you know, if something works and gives you an impact, it's basically trying to scale on that. And so trying to operationalize as much as possible and scale on top of that. Uh, there is a lot of your brand awareness for sure, about especially a lot of education to be done to different audiences. For instance, investors is one of the audience that needs to be educated and that needs also to be helped into like connecting the dots about the technological layers and all the wider ecosystem. It's a very complicated topic in general. So it needs some additional layers of understanding in that space. But yeah, I think there is a lot of testing to be done and you know, knowing I think the energy market, knowing the dynamics of it helps a lot. It's navigating, of course, the different players that are out there and different needs that they have. So it's about you know, like, you know, listening to again, to the customers, listening to the markets, but also like matching it with the trends and you know, trying to be as also you know forward-looking as possible. You know, it's not only right now, but it's also like you know, in five to ten years, the situation will be completely different. So it's also being like, you know, in a way being visionary and being ahead, and so trying to also pitch always the big pictures, the big vision.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yeah, absolutely. So, what does success look like over the next year from a marketing and revenue standpoint?

SPEAKER_00 18:36

So we we are growing big time right now as a company. So we are expanding our customer base in different locations. Right now, we are like in the United States, Europe, India, South Korea, uh, Taiwan, and also expanding in in the Middle East. So I would say that you know we have some specific regions like the Middle East, that is a new one that needs to be developed much more, uh, and also like you know, Eastern Asia region that is definitely growing a lot and very, very interesting. And also adjusting to some, I would say, and we are already on top of that, let's say regulatory value propositions. So, right now, for instance, in Europe, there is like you know the battery passport coming out in 2027. So basically, every battery needs to have like a digital record from where the materials were sourced until you know the recycling phase. And of course, in between there is all the performance and state indicators and optimization of the batteries where we can fit in. This regulation is quite important, I would say, and other countries are like following right now, uh, because basically every battery that you need to solve in in the European Union needs to have this digital record, digital certification. So basically, you know, it's gonna be uh a lot happening in this space. So there is a lot of you know of work uh to be done to be compelling into these new regulatory fields that are happening as we speak, new safety fields that are happening as we speak, and so a lot of you know new changes. We need to be very agile in to this at the same time in terms of marketing and communication, is like being agile into positioning ourselves better and better, and in again, you know, like trying to understand what is the real trend and distill the value out of it, and you know, what is just something that is temporary and so you know not worth of a lot of focus, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Absolutely. I'm sure you know the various regulations and different markets certainly add a layer of challenges. Are you in the US market currently?

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

That's a main market. Fantastic. And what would you say uh are trends you're seeing in AI and electrification that are real versus hype right now?

SPEAKER_00 20:57

So I think there's gonna be a lot about the especially of course focusing on the energy fields, you know, there's gonna be a lot about agentic AI in a way. So the trend is I think it's real about having the batteries basically not operated, let's say this way, by a human operator, but having you know like specific actions that are performed on the base of an algorithm of the model in order to optimize the profile that the customer wants. So basically, you know, right now what is still happening, it is like we have our algorithms, but then the control at the end, you know, you know, it's you need to have like a person pushing, you know, a button to make that happen. What I'm seeing as a trend is like transformation of this, at least for like, you know, the 80% of the operations, into like you know, directly conversion into the control from the algorithm. So you have like you know the analysis, let's say this way, the action suggested by the algorithm, and the action you know happening directly after that. So there's will eliminate you know a lot of delays a lot of you know also safety issues that are happening of course you need the rules you need regulations you need specific you know settings according again to the profile so if you want to let's say maximize the value the life of the battery you have specific actions that need to be performed if you want to customize you know the ROI you need other actions to be to be performed but this is something that I see it is happening on the other side i there is like a very again we we are tapping this connection between the physical world with the cloud world so in some cases you need to have additional devices IoT devices connected with the batteries that perform specific actions you know control on the batteries but what I see it is like you know the link between the cloud and the real world so like in a physical world and the cloud world is becoming much more important and a lot of players you know are moving also in this direction so like you know stopping to have servers and to have directly computers you know close to the power plants but like using the cloud as the right the infrastructure you know to uh where the data are and like you know and collecting more and more data this becomes you know a good a good perspective and also provides the opportunity to use those data into a different way so to basically create new value proposition out of enormous amount of data that is out there and not yet used. I mean give an example we have right now 1.4 billion of data points that we use for our algorithms and our models that we train on. I envision this will like you know as we scale and we grow and more and more customers are you know providing data and stuff of course in an anonymized way and like following all regulations this will scale a lot big time and so you know all of this will give like an additional layer of opportunity to create new value out of those data and optimize even more the capabilities. Last but not least what I see it is like a complete decentralization of the energy infrastructure right now we still rely very much on like you know big power plant transmission and then of course all the smaller grids what I see it is like especially with like the renewable growing in a geopolitical situation what I envision it is like having a small set of like you know independent grid systems so it can be you know microgrids virtual power plants and all of this in this you know in this fashion that will grow so having like sort of specific subnet subgrids that are you know working all together perhaps in a federated way and so having like a sort of you know big virtual power plant or energy community as it is called in in Europe that is decentralized and that can be of course much more secure much more safe if you have like you know specific let's say hacker attacks or also like you know a war situation or like you know shutdown situation or like you know uh weather situation that are ongoing uh but at the same time you know you have much more reliability in the system and can be everything can be produced locally so the energy can be produced and used locally and and so also being much more sustainable. Absolutely so if we were to have this conversation again in 12 months what would need to happen for you to feel like it was a big win for the company I think in terms of big win for the company is like you know having established our brand even more and grow of course our our growth base our base are of customers and like you know be present in more markets. I think this is like you know what matters for us right now so to build our technology to how many customers as possible while also supporting of course this wider trend of the energy transition. So matching together I would say uh economic value for like you know different stakeholders but also for like you know increasing the sustainability in general it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Well that's it for today's episode of AI Speed. A huge thank you to Giovanni Rossi for sharing his invaluable insights and how electro vehicles is transforming batteries into intelligent systems and driving the future of electrification with AI. If you're building or leading an AI native company or a service business that uses AI under the hood and you care about revenue, adoption and market share, make sure to subscribe to AI Speed. Learn how the best AI operators ship faster, sell smarter and stay ahead. Thanks for listening. Until next time keep building and keep moving at AI speed