INTERVIEW

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: HAZIM NADA

Hazim Nada, Founder and CEO of AEHRA, explains the process leading to the design of a world-first electric vehicle (EV) that defies automotive norms

At EV Magazine, we were blessed with witnessing a groundbreaking new vehicle design, which represents a new perspective for the automotive industry.

After the unveiling of the AEHRA SUV—and speaking to the company’s Founder and CEO Hazim Nada—we learned that there was more to the story than just innovation. The team underwent a project with the aim of not only making a product that’s sustainable by design, but that also defies all conventions of traditional car manufacturing to get to the finished automobile.

Directly from the company’s home city of Milan, we gained insight into the foundations of the business, which will compete with automotive firms to occupy the ultrapremium EV sector.

DESIGNING A PRODUCTION-STAGE EV THAT DEFIES CONVENTION

Why is sustainability so important to you as an individual?

“Well, electrification has proven that what we had until today is obsolete. When you're able to churn out far more power than the internal combustion engine has for over a century with systems that are nearly three times more efficient, it already tells you that this is the future. There are issues to address that are still open, and they’re being addressed bit by bit, but the future is already set in that sense.

I come from the crude markets, having been engaged in the crude trade for many, many years. During the last phase of my career in the crude market, I was directly seeing the result of the transition.

In fact, some of the trades that I existed in, I would not have done so because the flows of crude were already established from place to place. The historical destinations of crude were no longer working because demand was shifting.

The more I got involved in the crude business, the more I was really sinking into it. It's an activity that takes over your entire life. In the 10-to-15 years that I was actively engaged in crude, I hardly ever had

"WE MET AT A RACE TRACK WITH OUR CHILDREN AND THE FIRST THING HE TOLD ME WAS, YOU'RE CRAZY"

a moment where I could really say I disconnected from the activity.

It's a profitable business, and you can make a very good living out of it, but it closes your vision entirely. You're stuck in that crude system. It became a bit of a prison. In the beginning, you're happy because you're making profits; you're engaged in a constant flow of commodities, you're supplying countries across the globe. You feel like you're doing something that's worth it. But, as you go through that first phase and you become accustomed to the profits and lifestyle, you start to feel the other elements that you're missing. Moving away from oil and into electricity freed me from something that I know has to give way to something of greater impact. This is really what fascinated me about the shift.”

"ALL THE STAFF ESPOUSE THE SAME IDEA"

How did you get the designers (Filippo Perini and Alessandro Serra) of the AEHRA SUV on board?

“It took quite some time to convince the designers. We met at a race track with our children and the first thing he told me was, ‘You're crazy. What are you trying to do here?’

I kept hammering, hammering, hammering. At one point, he said, ‘Okay, I think there is a reason to do this, but we cannot have a short nose. We need to have a long nose. And the reason for this is we need to go to the Alto Classica—the event for traditional, classic cars.

And he took me to watch the Diabolic F-type Jaguar, a very old Jaguar. He's like, ‘Look how beautiful it is!’. But I had to say, ‘Sorry, I really don't like it’.

Shifting his classic mindset to really espouse the main idea was the nicest part. It was challenging, but when it happened, when he married that concept and he started expressing it, that was very satisfying.”

What is it about AEHRA's culture that allows the company to succeed in challenging the norm?

“We have titles, but everybody is focused on bringing the main idea to product. So we see that all the staff espouse the same idea, which is the key determining factor, because once you translate belief into passion, the process carries itself.

I think that's the key differentiator that we have. For me, the key milestone was when I saw Filippo espouse this idea, because I saw the way it translated into the wider development of the car.”