[Bloomberg Transcript Mathieu Bonnet on Bloomberg Markets]
Matt Miller, Bloomberg
a SPAC acquisition with
Spartan Acquisition, that values the combined company at over $3 billion. The CEO of Allego joins us now Mathieu Bonnet, out of Menorca in Spain. Mathieu, thanks very much for your time today. Let me first ask, why go public via SPAC and what
do you want to do with the funds?
Mathieu Bonnet, CEO of Allego
Happy to be there, Matt, first. Well, we have a great plan of investing in new charging stations, and when we studied the different options of funding and
sustainable funding, we consider that the SPAC was the most efficient way to do that. And we wanted to have as well a very strong partner, knowledgeable in our industry, in EVs, that is a complex one, and with sustainability. So, we are delighted to
be with the Spartan, the SPAC franchise of Apollo, and we are very keen to work with them.
Matt Miller, Bloomberg
So what kind of EV charging stations are you going to be deploying? I know you have a history in renewables, you founded an energy management platform, you
also worked for one of the biggest hydro- energy companies in Europe. How is, how are your charging stations going to work?
Mathieu Bonnet, CEO of
Allego
Okay, so what is important is to offer the best service to our customers, so we consider that most interesting segment is the fast and
ultra-fast segment charging stations. We begin, eight years ago, and at that time we didnt have the technology and the cars to withstand such big charge, it was slow charging, and but because of that we rolled out and we have a great
experience in running our charging station. We own and we have more than 26,000 charging ports, but now we are focusing on rolling out fast and loose-dry-fast charging
stations. You can charge, and you can fuel all your battery in 10-15 minutes, so thats a great advantage for the future for the EV drivers.
Matt Miller, Bloomberg
So how long until these are on
all of European highways? I mean the numbers sound high Mathieu, but I recently drove for example, from Berlin to Frankfurt in an electric vehicle that was very luxurious, but to be honest, really slow, because not only do you have to keep the speed
down if you want to preserve the battery on the Autobahn, its taking me, you know, 45 minutes to an hour to charge it up.
Mathieu Bonnet, CEO of
Allego
Well, thats our plan. So, we want to be quick. And when we are ready to roll out 500 new big charging stations in the big countries in
Europe, and mainly, Germany, France, UK, our strong market, and we expect just in five years to have more than, 16,000 fast and ultra-fast charging ports. So, its going to be massive. The demand is here and the supply will be there, but it
takes some times, of course, because we are, its a new industry, and we need to have great connection, all these ancillary services but definitely, it will come.
Matt Miller, Bloomberg
I know Mathieu, that its
not just the charging that can be problematic. Oftentimes, its making the charging stations work: they have to recognize your car, youve got to figure out a way to pay, its just not as easy as going to Shell or BP and tapping your
phone on the tap. Is there a faster a better way to do that with Allego as well?