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T&FME catches up with Samer Choucair as ION continues its electrifying progress

The name Samer Choucair will be familiar to long-term readers of T&MFE. Last interviewed in 2018, the head of self-styled incubators of businesses Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Creates has continued to oversee the development of the region’s first sustainable transporter. T&MFE caught up with Choucair recently just as ION was announcing its collaboration with French company, NAVYA to operate and maintain the company’s electric and autonomous shuttles, as well as promote its vehicles and related activities in the UAE and the GCC region. It also announced it January that the joint venture with Bee’ah is partnering with the Sharjah City Municipality, and Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) to supply, install and operate public electric vehicle charging stations across the emirate. The new charging stations will play an important role in accelerating the UAE’s ongoing agenda of electrifying its transportation and supporting the current electric vehicle network. With a mandate to promote green mobility solutions in the region, ION said it will build a vast network of charging stations across the emirate in a phased approach. In more ways than one, this is a company on a charge.

Remind readers, what is ION and what makes it the region’s first sustainable transporter? About two years ago, we started thinking

We’re at a point where the private sector needs to contribute. We are at an inflection point”

about building a sustainable transportation business. Crescent Enterprises’ is a privatelyowned conglomerate based out of Sharjah. We are in various sectors including ports and logistics: we have construction; we have some aviation investments. About 10 years ago, the group decided to make the conscious decision to start investing in the sustainability space and making sustainability part of the ethos of the group. As such, we built various platforms that invest in different stages of businesses and one of them is called CE Creates, which is a very early stage incubator of new concepts.

Part of that platform is ION – which was an idea of creating a sustainable transportation business that we can roll out across the region. We took a strategic decision to partner with Bee’ah, which is today a sustainable living business rather than Waste Management

company. As you probably know 30% of global CO2 emissions come from the transportation sector so this needs to be tackled immediately and that’s how ION came about. We want to make electric vehicles and sustainable Transportation accessible to the public rather than making it keeping it as a niche.

Looking at the announcements such as your link-up with Careem, there’s clearly been a lot of progress made within the organisation. We were looking at industries and ridehailing made sense at the time. It’s a fairly big market, that’s at about a $180 billion dollar market last year growing to about $320 billion over the next few years. In the UAE alone, I guarantee it’s at about $3 billion going to about $7 billion. So, this is a space that we thought would be a good entry point. It gives us access to the masses, as part of our idea of making sustainable transportation accessible to everyone at an affordable price.

So everything has gone smoothly… (Laughs) You know, you think a car is a car right? But everything from the way you maintain those (electric) vehicles to the way you drive them…you know, even our drivers had to go through a major shift in the way they treat the vehicle and the way they drive it. And then it’s very different when it’s personal use versus fleet. I mean with fleet you’re running that vehicle down to the bone but for commercial use you need to really understand every little twist in that. So from a technical perspective we went through a lot. From a regulatory perspective as well. We’ve been working closely with all the regulator’s across the UAE to make commercial electric vehicles more viable. Yeah, you know today, Tesla’s compete with the Lexus which is less than half the price yet we’re charging the same fees. So, from a business viability perspective it’s also quite challenging. Generally, in the region we are very used to having government do this work for us? We are an oil-rich region. And, therefore, we expect government to do everything and we just kind of chill. I think those days are long gone.

We’re at a point where the private sector needs to contribute. We are at an inflection point. We have a major crisis on our hands with global warming and climate change that people don’t seem to take seriously

enough. And we cannot rely on governments to do this for us. So, I think we need to do something about this. And as the private sector we’re trying to pave the way for others to see that this can be done. This can be viable. There is money to be made even in doing good. Our mandate as a platform at CE Creates is to do good while also doing well. So the idea is sustainable business and profitability are not mutually exclusive.

So, this is a commercial operation in the truest form...What advice do you give fleets that are facing an electrified future?

Our mandate as a platform at CE Creates is to do good while also doing well”

I mean it’s going to happen whether you like it or not, right? So, it’s a matter of whether you ride to be ahead of the curve or be left behind. I think the big shift to be getting ready for – and that’s why and how we position ourselves — at ION is ultimately getting into the autonomous driving space. So I think from a business perspective what people need to prepare themselves for is not necessarily the technology itself and how to deal with it as much as the impact this technology is going to have on the economy and on the space that we’re in. Imagine in 10 or 20 years from now, truck drivers will no longer be

CHARGING UP SHARJAH Choucair (right) says ION has partnered with the Sharjah City Municipality (SCM), and Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) to supply, install and operate public electric vehicle charging stations across the city.

NAVYA’S NAVIGATORS As an official distributor, ION will engage with NAVYA’s existing and new customers on sales and after-sales support – as well as oversee regional expansion.

needed. Cab drivers and car drivers will no longer be needed.

That’s kind of a massive impact on the on economy in general as drivers make up a big part of the workforce today. So we cannot continue denying the fact that it’s happening. It is going to happen.

There’s no need to oppose it or fight it. Technology is advancing at light speed. For example, the autonomous vehicle fleet (Navya) will start running in the next couple of months in the UAE.

There is money to be made even in doing good”

What do you think the impact of better charging infrastructure like your Sharjah initiative will be? Infrastructure is lacking but some areas in Dubai for example are quite advanced; somewhere in the vicinity of 300 charge points. However, in Abu Dhabi and in Sharjah, there’s still need for development in that space. I think as the infrastructure develops and the prices of the technology and the vehicles goes down, there’s no reason for anyone not to adopt this.

Should we be looking to encourage the use of electric vehicles in the market as they do in other regions such as Europe. Absolutely. You have the carrots and you have a sticks and some cities have banned vehicles over weekends for example or in certain areas. I don’t think we need to go to that extent but I do believe we need incentives. Because in our region electric vehicles are still quite expensive. When you go to parts of Europe or the US you get subsidies that make these vehicles on par. We could do with a bit of support on that front, especially for Fleet operations, for example. You can do with some incentives on the licensing fees for example. I believe with a bit of support from regulators, we will see a lot more adoption from the private sector.

Would it be fair to describe ION as a disruptor? No, I don’t like the term disruptor because when you’re disrupting your actually destroying the other industry. I don’t think we are. I think we’re adapting. Yes, we’re bringing the future forward and we’re doing what’s absolutely necessary. Again, you know 30% of CO2 emissions today come from transportation. The IPCC recommends that we cut our emissions by 45% over the next ten years, so that’s not a joke. There’s a lot of work to be done and we can’t sit back and expect others to do it for us. It really comes down to each and every individual to do their bit.

TAKING ON TESLA WITH CAREEM In 2018, ION launched a pilot programme in Dubai with ride-hailing service Careem, providing a fleet of Tesla Model S electric vehicles. With the pilot programme successfully completed, the company is now expanding operations

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