WEBVTT - Bonus: Game Changers, Part 1 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:09.400 Hello, and welcome to Game Changers. I'm Bloomberg producer Matt Goldman. 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:14.040 As the Earth is facing an increasingly consequential climate crisis, 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.079 inquisitive minds all over the globe are hard at work 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.360 trying to find solutions. Many of them have been able 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.320 to translate their Eureka moments into action at a greater 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:26.599 pace and scope than the sometimes gloomy headlines will have 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.320 us think. In this four part mini series, will meet 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.479 the visionary minds who attempt to sculpt the future of 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.640 sustainable energy and global resources. We'll get a peek behind 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.880 the curtains of their factory floors here of the sometimes 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:44.400 surprising origins of their ideas, and be introduced to a 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:59.520 potentially greener tomorrow. Episode one is all about transportation. Oh yeah, okay, 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:06.320 they want me to clap, They want me to clap? Hey, 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.200 pen too good? Are you? So? This is This is 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:12.800 our new drive train. It's called duo power. Our original 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:15.880 drive train was a single electric motor. Ryan Popple is 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:19.520 showing us around the Protera factory floor in Los Angeles, California. 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:24.240 He's a tidy man in his early forties, confidently determined, 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:27.160 always with the number or stat to counter any question 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:29.720 we might throw his way. He speaks of the place 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.480 with fondness and an unbridled enthusiasm, like he's treating us 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:37.199 to a glimpse of the global future. The place is huge, 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:41.720 meticulously clean, filled with worrying busy robots, and dotted with 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:45.280 enormous vehicles. For the uninitiated, the scene is at once 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:51.280 familiar and futuristic. At pro Terra, they build buses, electric buses. 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.800 That is, yes, so so pro Tera, I would say, 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.400 is a is a late stage technology, venture backed company. 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.640 We are several hundred ease um, We have over a 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.760 hundred enterprise scale customers, and we have orders across the 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:09.000 United States and in a couple of Canadian provinces. We 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.520 often get the question, is pro Tarra bus company? Orse? 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.720 Pro Terra technology company? I think pro Tear is probably 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.720 the first bus manufacturing company that is a technology company. 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:22.440 But I think in the twenty one century, if companies 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.560 are going to remain relevant, if they're going to survive, 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.560 they are going to have to become technology companies. Paints, 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:32.840 more rap What else do we look at? Oh, here's 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:34.880 l A D O T so this is this is 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:36.480 one of the first bodies that's going to start on 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:38.800 the line soon. And this sole this is a thirty 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:41.240 five ft bus. It's part of a series of electric 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.560 buses that are going to be built for the city 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:51.160 of Los Angeles and their teachers. Together, busses and freight 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:54.880 trucks generate of all global warming emissions that come from 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.359 the transportation sector, and there are a lot of them. 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.359 Almost one million registered buses roll around the streets to 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:05.000 the United States. Here Ryan sees an opportunity not only 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.720 to help the environment, but to take a robust share 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.880 of an almost untapped but potentially huge market. And we've 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:14.680 taken a long view and said, we know that the 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:18.200 future of this market is electric, and we're not going 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:20.480 to waste any of our time trying to be good 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:25.520 at diesel buses. The industry lifespan, or the remaining lifespan 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.760 of the diesel bus industry is very short. It's probably 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.880 less than ten years. So we're able to simply focus 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:36.520 on building and perfecting an electric bus and the charging 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:40.360 infrastructure associated with it. But his passion and ideas didn't 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:42.960 come out of nowhere. To trace his journey to this 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.280 futuristic factory floor, we have to travel back to a 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.880 different time in a very different place. I serve four 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.440 years on active duty. I UM had the pleasure of 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.480 serving as a as a tank commander, a tank platoon leader, 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:58.640 UM Humby platoon leader, and a couple of other functions 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.760 as well. UM and deployed to the Middle East in 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:06.440 early two thousand three and participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom. 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.440 You know, certainly got a lot of experience with vehicle 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:12.760 technology and heavy vehicles. UM. It was a remarkable experience 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.360 to be able to serve with other UM, other soldiers 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.680 and UM lead troops and work for some of the 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.520 best leaders I've ever encountered. At first, his interest in 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:26.000 sustainable energy was utilitarian rather than idealistic, But it also 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.679 was a pretty stark experience in terms of just seeing 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.760 how volatile some parts of the world are, in particular 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.080 parts that were very much dependent on FORUM for fuel 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:40.279 production or petroleum supply. So, you know, seeing UM depolling 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:44.080 into Kuwait and then UM operating in Iraq with with 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:48.240 an infantry division, you definitely get a sense that that 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:49.800 that there are a lot of parts of the world 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.920 that aren't necessarily the best places to underwrite for long 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:55.520 term energy supply. So When I finished up in the 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:57.560 army in two thousand four and went to business school, 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.200 I very much wanted to work on something related too. 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.000 I guess what would be referred to as energy security, 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.400 and as I looked into it, I was not convinced 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.120 that we were going to produce our way out of 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.280 the problem. If you if you really look into the 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:15.680 way the oil markets function, regardless of how much oil 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.640 the US produces, we really don't have control over the 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.000 price of oil we are. We are not the cheapest 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.840 marginal capacity that's Saudi Arabia UM. And so if we're 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.800 going to have some energy security or energy independence, we 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:32.200 have to create alternatives to petroleum. Armed with his new 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.640 ideas in perspective and a business degree to boot, Ryan 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.320 gravitated to a company that seemed to match his ideas, Tesla. 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.640 My reason for being at Tesla was not because I 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.160 was a sports car enthusiast. It was because of the 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.720 environmental sustainability, that the clean tech aspect of what Tesla did. 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.320 By moving over to an investing role for four or 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:56.000 five years, I really got to look broadly at the 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.880 entire carbon problem, the sustainability problem, and I was able 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:04.040 to find companies and technologies like pro Terra that took 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:08.520 the technology that I loved and appreciated from Tesla but 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:12.920 deployed it into a category that um that probably wouldn't 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.360 have access to clean car technology for a long time. 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.239 But eventually Ryan realized that even though electric cars seemed 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.680 like a huge step in the right direction, they still 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.919 came with insurmountable issues when we look at urban sustainability. 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:29.520 The concept of everyone being able to afford an electric 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:31.520 car and driving an electric car is a very bad 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.440 thing from a congestion and lifestyle perspective. You cannot solve 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:40.080 the congestion problems simply by making cars cleaner. So Ryan 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:44.279 envisioned a world with environmental stability but without the congestion. 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.760 The answer, he realized, was right under our noses, mass transit. 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:52.440 During his time at Tesla, he had been introduced to 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.440 pro Terra, a company that seemed to fit his evolving 0:06:55.480 --> 0:07:00.200 sustainability philosophy. I joined pro Terra in twenty four seen 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.120 as the CEO when the company was just starting to 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.560 ship commercial product, and my role since then has been 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.400 perfecting the technology and really ensuring that e V can 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:14.960 become of the city bus market in North America. By 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:20.120 the way e V means electric vehicle, becoming one of 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.560 the market seems pretty grandiose, but if you zoom in 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:26.400 on the data, it doesn't actually seem like that crazy 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:30.600 of an idea. Replacing internal combustion busses with e busses 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:33.040 as well in the works, and electric buses will take 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:37.200 over half of the world's bus fleets. By the caveat, 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:39.960 almost none of this work is happening in the United States. 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.760 As of China already had a fleet of over four 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.960 electric buses, and counting in Europe, we're looking at just 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:53.400 over two thousand in the US about six hundred six hundred. 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.200 That's less than one percent of America's public transportation fleet. 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.400 So there's certainly a lot of room for growth. But 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.120 how is Ryan planning to seduce a market that clearly 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:06.640 hasn't been able to see the virtues of electric buses. 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:11.720 The benefits of going electric aren't always direct. Environmental improvements 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.680 can be slow and works in tandem with other technical 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.640 and philosophical changes, and perhaps more important for a potential buyer, 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.640 the buses with chargeable battery will last for about twelve years, 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:25.640 but that does come with an upfront cost for the 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:30.120 manufacturer and hence also the consumer. Back at the factory floor, 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.360 Ryan showed us how it works. Here's another set of battery, 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.200 or here's another look at the Praterra energy storage system. 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.680 So again, these are each ten kilo what hours. That's 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.240 over a megawatt hour of energy right there, just in 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.520 those ten packs. It's designed to be in a transit 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:49.160 application for twelve years. It's electrically and mechanically warranted for 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:51.400 that amount of time. We are trying to educate the 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:55.599 market to think about the fact that the battery represents 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.120 the energy that the vehicle is going to use over 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.119 a twelve year life. And when you buy a diesel bus, 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.720 you don't pay upfront for twelve years of diesel fuel. 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.840 That would be hundreds of thousands of dollars of capital expenditure. 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:12.040 The answer comes from the business side, not the factory floor. 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.599 Potera offers a kind of energy payment plan. So a 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:17.880 lot of the smaller cities that don't necessarily have the 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.600 capital for the switching cost, what we do is we 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.160 break the battery out of the cost of the vehicle, 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:26.160 and they pay for the vehicle for the same price 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.320 as a diesel bus and then they pay for the 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:30.960 battery over time like it was the fuel, and that's 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.400 enabled a lot of cities that that might not necessarily 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:35.600 have the capital to make the switch, to be able 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:39.960 to do so now. So we're there technically and financially. 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.320 The only thing Ryan c is holding us back is politics. 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.200 As an American, UM, I'm well aware of that. Our 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:49.760 tradition is that you know, it's that famous quote that 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.719 eventually Americans will do the right thing. Um. So I 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.800 think we're approaching that point where we are going to 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.480 wake up and then we will respond with an enormous 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:04.200 amount of energy and create UM. And technologically we are. 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.680 We are at the moment where we can start really 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.840 scaling clean energy. The energy balance of a solar panel, 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:12.400 as in the amount of energy you put in to 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.680 build a solar panel compared to the lifetime amount of 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:18.560 energy that'll it'll put out, exceeds that of fracking oil. 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.040 So we're we're at a point where the science and 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.439 the economics suggests that this is going to happen. The 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.000 only thing I worry about is if we hold back 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.559 or distort the markets and unnaturally extend the life of 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.440 the fossil fuel industry by another decade or two, once 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.880 Americans have come to their senses. Ryan has lofty ideas 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:42.120 and what the future holds for electric vehicles. So all 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:45.439 of the markets that share the same characteristics as the 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:49.400 city bus market, meaning markets where vehicles are driven a 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.240 lot of miles per year, and they're operating in an 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.240 urban or a fleet based region, and they're using a 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.160 lot of energy per mile, we think all of those 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.720 markets are great applications for EV. And that includes things 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:07.840 like school buses, like coach buses, refuse local delivery, construction, 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.360 mining vehicles. All of those applications are are going to 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.320 move to e V for the same reasons that the 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:19.280 city bus market moved to e V. I believe that 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.760 my my kids who are um, you know, grade school, 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.959 in high school, when they are adults and when they're 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:27.800 actually at a point in their career where they can 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.200 make a difference, it will be too late to have 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:32.599 made a difference. So they we will be in a 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.080 we will be in I guess an adaptation or mitigation 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.800 mode if our generation doesn't do more about this. So 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:42.120 I think that you know, when I look at my 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.680 own career trajectory and my peers were ideally positioned to 0:11:46.679 --> 0:12:04.720 do something about this. This episode was produced by Magnus 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:08.440 Hendrickson and presented by Yours Trulli MATC Goldman. For a 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.040 visual experience of Game Changers and other video content, check 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:17.160 out YouTube dot com Slash Bloomberg special thanks to Francesca 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.400 Levie and Jordan Applinger. See you next time.