Sinah Truffat
International Expansion Manager at Swobbee
Sinah Truffat, International Expansion Manager at Swobbee, talks about renewable and portable energy, and how Swobbee makes it possible.
The interview was filmed during Autonomy Paris 2022.
A few words from...
Hi, my name is Sinah Truffat and I’m Swobbee’s International Expansion Manager.
What is Swobbee?
At Swobbee, it’s our mission basically to make renewable and portable energy accessible for everyone everywhere. And we tried to do that by building up a network of public charging infrastructures that are compatible with any kind of LEV fleet. So we are really building an open network that is universal and can be used by any kind of light electric vehicle, be that an e-bike, an e-moped, e-scooter, or an e-cargo bike.
What are some challenges for Swobbee?
For us the main challenge is the fragmentation in the battery markets.
Currently, there’s no standard battery yet. We see that there are many different battery types out there, and that makes it very difficult to on the one hand lower the cost, but also the end of life, so the recycling of the batteries. That’s still quite challenging. And also for sustainability that means most of the batteries are not recycled yet.
We are working with a couple of industry partners to really push for a standard, and we hope by doing that we will not only more safely charge the batteries and lower the costs, but also make sure that batteries are sourced sustainably. They are used most efficiently in their first life, and are then transitioned into a second life application, and then end-of-life with recycling.
Can you tell us one sustainable approach of Swobbee?
One other way we try to address sustainability within Swobbee is that we are working on smart charging.
That means that we aim to only charge batteries just before they are needed So we are not constantly charging them.
But if we know that one of our customers comes by regularly at 6am in the morning to start their route, we will start charging just a few hours before that.
And ultimately that enhances the lifetime of the battery and makes sure we make really the most of the battery capacity that we have.
What's the future for Swobbee?
Currently we have around 50 stations. Most of them are in Berlin. That’s where we have our densest network.
But we’re also active in a few other countries in Europe. Among others the Netherlands UK. We’re looking to expand into France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
How is it to be a woman in the mobility industry?
Yeah, it’s been a great journey so far. It is still a very male-dominated environment, but I would say it is changing a lot. And the great thing about mobility is the enthusiasm. It doesn’t really matter what your gender is.
So I want to encourage all women to work in this field because it’s enjoying a lot of momentum, there is lots to learn and many opportunities.
What is your daily mode of transport?
I regularly use the kick scooters where I live in Norway. And apart from that, I also sometimes rent an e-bike. I also love actually just walking around on the side.
