Interview with Nunzio La Vecchia, Chief Technical Officer nanoFlowcell AG, on 28 July 2014
Interview with Nunzio La Vecchia, Chief Technical Officer nanoFlowcell AG, on 28 July 2014
Question: Mr La Vecchia, you have once more taken the automobile industry by surprise by obtaining approval to use the QUANT e-Sportlimousine on public roads in Germany and Europe as a whole. Nobody expected that you could manage this so quickly after the car’s world premiere in Geneva. What can we expect from you next?
Nunzio La Vecchia: Approval for the use of the automobile in Germany and Europe as a whole is of course an important milestone for us. Since then we have had a number of interesting, high level discussions with investors, banks and automobile manufacturers. There is enormous interest in our innovative drive technology featuring the nanoFlowcell®and of course in our QUANT e-Sportlimousine. We are all the more delighted now that from the wide range of interesting offers and options we have been able to put together an ideal team of partners for the future, both in financial and technical terms.We are confident that as an energy source and drive technology for the future the flowcell represents a highly promising alternative to the existing systems.
Question: What is currently the position with the QUANT e-Sportlimousine – what has been achieved in the meantime and what are the next steps?
Nunzio La Vecchia: The QUANT e-Sportlimousine is currently in Weissach, near Stuttgart. There we are working on two further prototypes of the QUANT e-Sportlimousine with nanoFlowcell® technology in partnership with Bosch Engineering, PROCEDA and a number of other companies. With these two prototypes, the focus will be on the further development of performance values and on quality and safety testing in preparation for the homologation process, which will lead to approval for series production.
Question: Do your competitors need to worry about you?
Nunzio La Vecchia: No. With our innovative ideas and new approaches we aim to show that as an energy source the nanoFlowcell® is much more than simply an alternative fully-electric drive system for vehicles. Not only because it is low-cost and environmentally friendly, but also because its possible applications are not restricted to the automobile.The nanoFlowcell® also represents a very promising alternative form of energy supply for houses, ships, aircraft and trains. With this innovative invention and the vast potential it represents we are currently only making the initial breakthrough. The possibilities for the future are enormous. And the more we enter into a dialogue with specialists from other industries in particular, the more we notice that the nanoFlowcell® is something that many researchers and developers have been waiting for: a decentralised possibility of generating and storing energy – low-cost inits production, low-cost and sustainable in its operation, and environmentally-friendly in its disposal. We have big plans: together with our partners we will soon be able to announce developments which will not only make a strong impact on the developers of automobiles and electric vehicles in particular, but also on experts in the fields ofcommercial and energy technology.
Question: Are you satisfied with the pace at which the nanoFlowcell® and the QUANT e-Sportlimousine are being developed?
Nunzio La Vecchia: We are aware of the fact that we are setting a very fast pace while applying extremely high quality standards. We're working at top speed and with full commitment– testing the very limits. We are ahead of our times, and it is our intention to retain this advantage in the future. STAYING AHEAD THANKS TO R&D, so to speak. With our DigiLab in Zurich and strong partners such as Bosch Engineering we have the ideal preconditions for continuing to maintain this competitive edge in the development off low-cell technology.