Previously working as the head of Volkswagen’s head of emobility strategy and various electric vehicle related positions with Mercedes-Benz, he became the CEO of Electrify America in 2017.

Here is our two minute biography brief bio of Giovanni Palazzo:

Electrify America is actually a subsidiary of Volkswagen that installs chargers in all US states that came about as part of the US Governments’ EPA settlement with VW’s over its 2016 Diesel emissions scandal.

So why does a guy who works for VW under the thumb on the US Government make the top 10 most influential list, because he is required to spend at least $2 Billion dollars on chargers as part of VW settlement.  He has effectively settled the charger standard issue and is advancing zero impact charging stations.

Under Mr. Palazzo’s leadership Electrify America has has settled the charger debate by selecting the CCS (Combined Charging System) plug standard as a its primary fast charger.  It also installs old school CHAdeMO chargers which will likely be changed to Tesla plugs within a few years as CHAdeMO fades away.  He also decided to build a few solar-canopied stations that charge a battery energy storage system (BESS) on site.

“…The battery energy storage systems store power when electricity costs are low and supplement power during high points of consumption, minimizing impact on the electrical grid. The company expects to have more than 125 fully operational BESS installations in 2021 SOURCE

Mr. Palzazzo is also the CEO of Electrify Canada which was founded in May 2018 to install similar CCS and CHAdeMo chargers in initially at Canadian Tire locations across the country.  Notably Electrify Canada was not part of the Canadian Governments settlement with VW, it was a strategic decision to help sell EV’s.

He is also Chairman of Veloz which a very well connected EV lobby group.


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