Giovanni Palazzo: New Volkswagen Head of Charging and Energy

Volkswagen Group will continue to drive forward the strategic realignment of its charging and energy business with the appointment of Giovanni Palazzo as its new head of charging and energy. Palazzo, who has been responsible for the Volkswagen Group’s global charging and energy business since July 1 and also leads the Elli brand as CEO and head of sales, will focus on expanding the fast charging network and continue to build its own smart energy platform. Elli and Electrify America are to cooperate more closely and roll out new business models internationally. The division will also strengthen cooperation with the Group brands and intensify its proximity to private and fleet customers. The key points of the strategy were already presented to investors and analysts at the Capital Markets Day.

With its clear strategic focus, Volkswagen intends to offer innovative solutions relating to load balancing, energy market optimization and energy trading. For example, the Volkswagen Group plans to offer the first smart charging management services for fleet customers from 2024. Giovanni Palazzo brings important experience from the North American market, where he served as CEO of Electrify America since 2018. Robert Barrosa took over as CEO of Electrify America on June 1.

“We recognized early on that charging and energy is one of the most important future fields for ramping up e-mobility and driving forward the energy transition. It is therefore crucial to develop our own products and services along the entire value chain and to forge strategic partnerships in the energy sector,” said Thomas Schmall, Group Board Member for Technology and Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Group Technology. “With Giovanni Palazzo, we are gaining an excellent industry expert and a modern manager who will strengthen the Group’s competencies in the energy transition. As an internationally experienced manager, he brings the skills to drive global collaborations and innovation partnerships.”

Global fast charging network with Elli, Electrify America and CAMS

With Electrify America, Volkswagen already operates the largest open charging network in the USA. Volkswagen has set itself the goal of working with partners to establish more than 43,000 fast charging points worldwide in Europe, China and North America by 2025. In North America alone, Electrify America aims to double the fast charging network to 8,000 charging points. In Europe, the Group already offers customers access to more than 500,000 charging points through its Elli brand as a mobility service provider (MSP). In China, Volkswagen is building a total of 17,000 fast charging points by 2025 through its joint venture CAMS. At the same time, the Group intends to expand its range of charging and energy services to better meet the needs of its customers.

In addition to hardware such as wallboxes and flexible fast-charging stations, the company plans to offer more charging and energy services such as public charging, green energy and energy management in the future. Some of these services are already offered by Electrify America in North America. In Europe, these are covered by Elli. In the future, the Group intends to anchor the e-car in the power grid as an intelligent consumer and power bank, thus contributing to the energy system of the future.

Group Technology: The Group’s technology powerhouse

Alongside PowerCo, Group Components and the Third Market business, the Charging and Energy business area is one of four technology pillars of Group Technology. With Group Technology, the Volkswagen Group created a unique ecosystem around e-mobility two years ago, which covers all services from components for the e-machine and battery to charging and energy.

Volkswagen Group Technology bundles the Group-wide activities in the areas of battery, charging and e-components and supports the brands as a Group-wide technology supplier. The subsidiaries PowerCo (battery) and Elli (charging and energy) are also linked here. The high-tech portfolio includes the unit cell, which will be used in Volkswagen Group vehicles from 2025 and will set a new benchmark in battery technology. The area also includes the Platform Business, which comprises cooperations with external partners such as Ford or Mahindra. www.volkswagen-group.com

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