'It’s our generation’s responsibility to solve [the climate crisis].' Envision Group’s CEO Zhang Lei has no time for greenwashing
f you need any further proof that electric vehicles are taking over the world then consider the fact that my 86-year-old father already drives one. And like EVs produced by BMW, Mercedes, Honda and Renault, the model he owns—a Nissan Leaf—runs on batteries crafted by Envision Group, a world-leading greentech company founded by CEO Zhang Lei.
“I like [Formula E’s] slogan ‘We are racing against the climate crisis,’” says Zhang. “It’s kind of symbolic of things.” He compares the ethos to the thinking behind the Net Zero Industrial Park Envision is building in China’s biggest coal city, Ordos in Inner Mongolia. “It’s an attitude, a kind of demonstration. It’s also about technology. In racing, just one second can separate first place and number 10. So you need advanced battery management systems, IoT systems,” he says.
In 2006, I was working in London and had the idea to create a renewable energy company and the vision was to harmonize energy and the environment. If you look at Envision’s character, we are a company to solve challenges; it’s not about discussing, it’s not about debating, we take real action. Our goal is to help our customers solve their challenges. So companies like BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Honda and Renault are our important customers—they have huge pressure to decarbonize their supply chain, and also to have the most advanced batteries. So, this is a challenge that is not only happening in the U.S. It could happen in Mexico, in other parts of Europe, or in China. They need top quality batteries, competitive prices, advanced technology, and they need the supply adjacent to them.
There’s lots of talk about recycling EV batteries but it’s actually quite a dangerous process. Do you think there’s going to be some breakthrough to enable the large-scale repurposing of EV batteries? I’m very optimistic for the [medium] and long-term. Because today there is a rush for electrification, but once new demand reaches a [steady] level in time, the pace of refineries and mining facilities will increase. So you should see shortly that prices will come down. [Maybe] three to four years.