21st MAY, DAY 1 TOPICS

Plenary Session

Charging Ahead or Staying Grounded? Navigating Australia’s Fleet Electrification

The electrification of fleets is a critical and contested topic across the Australian transport sector, touching upon infrastructure, cost, environmental impact, and technological readiness. This session aims to unpack these complex issues, providing a platform for informed discussion and diverse viewpoints. Attendees will acquire a detailed insight of the challenges and opportunities presented by fleet electrification in Australia.

Sponsorship Available

SPEAKERS OF THE EVENT

Steve Lewis

Steve has 20 years’ experience as a leader in renewables and utilities, having led major projects and teams within the energy, renewables and e-mobility sectors throughout Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, USA and UK.

Steve is a trusted advisor to state and federal governments, e-mobility representative bodies as well as commercial fleet managers and regularly speaks at events in Australia and abroad.

Kristian Handberg

Kristian Handberg is the Head of Future Business for JET Charge – one of Australia’s leading EV charging solution providers. He formerly led Electric Vehicles for AGL Energy and Viva/Shell and has deep experience in both the electricity and transport sectors. His current role focuses on business model innovation and growth, including JET Charge’s response for the Australian Government Future Fuels Program.

Scott Naggar

Scott has over three decades of experience in the motor industry in technical, media, product planning and technology advocacy roles. At NRMA Scott worked in vehicle inspection, judging and writing on Australia’s Best Cars Awards and as a member of the Technical Working Group with the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).

For the last 13 years Scott has been working for Hyundai Motor Company Australia in senior technical management, product planning, environment and Government engagement policy roles. Scott leads the company’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle project and future mobility programs. Scott was the co-founder of the Australian Hydrogen Council and was a Member of the Board of Directors.

As a passionate proponent of vehicle safety, renewable transport and autonomous vehicle technology, Scott has engaged with many levels of Federal and State Government, as well as policy and academic experts and key industry partners around the world.

Alex Kileen

Holding master’s degrees in Physics with Astrophysics and Engineering with Management, Alex moved to Canberra in 2014, working in intellectual property specialising in mining and oil & gas technologies. Alex moved to ACT Government in 2019, innovating the delivery the renewable energy auction which secured 100% renewable electricity for the Territory, before moving to lead the ACT Government’s transition to zero emissions vehicles.

Alex now leads the Zero Emissions Vehicles Strategy Implementation team, responsible for driving the uptake of zero emissions vehicles in the ACT through financial support, deploying public and apartment electric vehicle charging, providing advice through the Business Fleet Advisory Service, and continuing to oversee the Government fleet transition.

Alex has overseen nation-leading projects such as the REVS vehicle-to-grid trial and operates Australia’s largest fleet of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, 20 Hyundai Nexo, out of Australia’s first publicly accessible hydrogen refuelling station.

Paul Sor

Paul joined the Australian Red Cross Society in 2014 after a stint at LifeBlood. Managing Fleet, Property, Travel and Procurement, his goal was to improve the operational, safety and environmental objectives of the areas he managed withing the organisation. Paul’s achievements earned him AfMA Fleet Manager of the year in 2020.

As a “specialist Generalist” he achieved these improvements through his collaborative management style. Having overseen an EV trial at Red Cross, he has some interesting learnings to share.

Richard Schuster

Richard has managed every aspect of the client side of fleet management, with fleet management his work passion for over 40 years. A mechanical engineer with a master’s in technology management, Richard has managed fleets ranging from 180 vehicles to Telstra’s national fleet of over 40,000 fleet assets at the time. Richard has won the AfMA Fleet Safety award, National Fleet Manager of Year award and the Environment award.

He was putting electric vehicles into fleets before EVs became trendy and introduced policy that has seen over 2 million trees planted to offset fleet carbon emissions. He has also worked directly with national and international fleet safety experts to implement key fleet safety initiatives.

Most recently, Richard has been consulting on fleet management to government, councils and NFP organisations. Projects have included transitioning large fleets to EVs, complex sourcing arrangements, safety policies, and incident investigations involving complex crash scenarios.