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Seminar Speakers

We are delighted to announce the following speakers who will be appearing at the EV Expo 2024.

opening address

Andrew Day and Jess Rae

Andrew is Chief Executive Officer, City of Manningham

Jess is Climate Emergency and Environment Coordinator

Andrew has been CEO City of Manningham since September 2018. He has held a number of executive and senior management positions in local government over the past 16 years, as well as management roles in the not for profit and health sectors.

Jess is Manningham Council’s Climate Emergency and Environment Coordinator, leading a team of 10 members who work on sustainability initiatives, including the solar and battery program and environmental education programs. Jess has worked at Manningham Council for just over a year, with over 15 years of experience across Yarra Ranges Shire, Nillumbik Council and City of Yarra in similar leadership roles.

 

Andrew will officially Open our Seminars on behalf of the City of Manningham, and  Jess will discuss Manningham’s Climate Emergency Response Plan, climate targets set for council operations and community, along with key actions related to transport emissions.

Seminar 1 - 11am to 12.30pm

Electric Vehicles industry trends, the key issues, and Myths, the technology in our cars and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems.

20 Minutes each

Introduction to the Seminar Series

Brian Negus

Chair – Ambassador ITS Australia, Formerly GM Public Policy RACV

Brian is passionate about the use of smart technology to improve the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of all modes of transport. He was formerly GM Public Policy at RACV, Deputy Director, Public Transport for Victoria, Regional Director VicRoads, and a Past President and Ambassador of Intelligent Transport Systems Australia. Brian was awarded the ITS Australia Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 and inducted into the ITS World Congress Hall of Fame in 2019. He was the Chair of the Organising Committee for the ITS World Congress held in Melbourne in 2016 which attracted 12,000 delegates. Brian has been a member of Rotary Manningham City since 1985 and served in several Board roles, including as Club President in 1992-3 and 2020-21.

Overall industry trends, the key issues to be aware of in buying an EV, and the myths that abound

Bryce Gaton

EV Choice Transition Consultant, EV writer/commentator

Bryce Gaton is passionate about all things EV. He has more than fifteen years of experience with EVs and works to support business, government, and the general public through the EV transition support consultancy EV Choice. He is also a writer for Australia’s premier EV news site, The Driven, and also Renew magazine, and the AEVA (Australian Electric Vehicle Association) national website.

EV Choice provides services in all aspects of the EV Transition including fleet EV Transition planning, policy advice, information copywriting, along with public information lectures and webinars on EVs, EV charging and the wider aspects of the EV transition.

Bryce was also a member of the Project Steering Committee for a recently developed accredited course for electricians on EV charging and is currently a member of a Standards Australia sub-committee developing a Publicly Available Standard (PAS) for understanding domestic and commercial EV charging needs and solutions.

(AEVA)Australian EV Market Trends and Predictions 2024

Riz Akhtar

The Driven and Director Australian EV Association

Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He has a passion for the automotive sector, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia while building the industry of the future. He writes for Australia’s leading EV publication, The Driven, is a director of Australian EV Association and co-hosts the leading Australian EV podcast, “The EV show by Ludicrous Feed”. Riz’s presentation includes:

  • EV National Data & Trends
  • EV Model Sales and Uptake Trends
  • Key EV Model Launches in 2024 – 2025
  • Production & EV Model Availability data
  • Changing Infrastructure Growth and Key Public Charger trends
  • Trends for EV Sector
  • 2025 EV Uptake and Charging Predictions 

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and Automated Driving – Reaching the highest levels of safety and comfort

Xavier Vagedes

Engineering Manager Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, Robert Bosch (Australia) Pty. Ltd

Xavier is the Engineering Manager of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems team at Bosch Australia. As part of Bosch’s global development network, he leads a team of engineers developing the latest generation of Driver Assistance and Automated Driving technologies.

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of automotive technology and services. It has been pioneering active, passive and driver assistance technology, introducing safety-critical systems such as Antilock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Stability Program (ESP) and Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) into the market.

Summary

Why driver assistance? Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving technologies can help to significantly improve road safety. The vehicle takes over monotonous and tiring driving tasks such as stop-and-go driving in traffic jams or on highways and help prevent safety-critical driving situations. Driver assistance systems such as adaptive cruise control and lane centering assist are already available in many modern vehicles.

In the future, more and more of these systems will be available in a broad range of vehicles, and the assistance systems will take over more and more tasks from the driver. In this presentation, we will see how these systems have evolved over the years and discover the challenges which need to be overcome to reach the highest levels of safety and comfort.

Seminar 2 - 1pm to 2.30pm

Electric Vehicle Charging at Home and on the Go.

17 Minutes each

Introduction to the Seminar Series

Brian Negus

Chair – Ambassador ITS Australia, Formerly GM Public Policy RACV

The JET Charge Residential Installation Process

Ash Harun

Residential Installation Co-ordinator, Jet Charge

JET Charge has successfully completed more than 10,000 residential installations to date. Additionally. Ash has served as a Residential Installation Coordinator at JET Charge since June 2023, she works closely with a wide range of JET Charge partners to assist customers in installing EV chargers at their homes. Her role focuses on ensuring seamless coordination between stakeholders to deliver efficient and reliable installation services that meet the unique needs of each customer.

JET Charge designs, distributes, installs, and manages EV charging solutions nationwide. A brief introduction about JET Charge home installation coverage, and the home installation process will be discussed, with a couple of scenarios featured.

Benefits of charging your EV at Home and RACV Public Charging Network upgrades

Rohan Smith

Product Manager, Home & Commercial EV Charging, RACV

Rohan has worked in the energy industry for the past 10+ years, across energy retail, distribution, and generation. His EV journey started back in 2017, where Rohan led the first energy retail home EV charging proposition at AGL (“$1 a day” home charging product), and then went on to manage an ARENA funded smart home charging trial “EV Grid” at Jemena electricity network, in collaboration with four other Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSP). He is now at RACV leading the home and commercial EV charging product portfolio. Personally, Rohan is extremely passionate about EVs and has been driving his BMW i3 since 2018, which is mostly charged at home from rooftop solar and battery storage.

Summary:

Currently, 80% of EV drivers charge their cars at home, and with good reason. This presentation will uncover the various charging options available for home charging, and some of the benefits and ways to charge at home at the lowest cost, whilst also reducing your carbon footprint.

Australia’s EV Charging Platform

Nick Wodzinski

Head of Product, Chargefox

As the Head Of Product, Nick leads the design and build of the largest EV platform in Australia, which connects hundreds of thousands of people looking for a charge with charging infrastructure around the country. With a background in construction software technology, Nick has established multiple Australian software product teams who have built the software that much of Australia’s commercial and capital works projects run on top of.

Summary

A few ideas on the topic of ‘charging at home and on the go’.

  1. Chargefox is working with leading energy retails on ‘single bill’ solutions, enabling Australian EV drivers to pay for their EV charging at home and on the go via Chargefox.
  2. Chargefox is partnered with a number of councils rolling out Kerbside charging in NSW, enabling those without off-street parking to charge ‘at home’ without needing to use DC fast charging at destinations like shopping centres
  3. AC Charging infrastructure being deployed where cars are idling, not just DC infrastructure being deployed where there is spare power – If you can charge everywhere, you don’t need to charge fast (all the time) and you don’t need to fill up, you can get away with topping up (ie. charge a little at work, on the street, and at the shops.