ODESA, Ukraine (CI Ukraine) – The Odesa, Ukraine-based Ecofactor electric vehicle recharging company is well on the way to disrupting the largely fragmented and inefficient EV industry through innovation, cost efficiency and unbeatable time to market.
[Ecofactor founder and CEO Sergii Velchev speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using CI Glass on his Odesa, Ukraine based EV charging company at the SelectUSA Investment Summit at the National Harbor, Maryland on June 25, 2024 and tour of Ecofactor factory and headquarters in Odesa on July 29, 2024]
Ecofactor founder and CEO Sergii Velchev travelled to the United States leading a Ukrainian delegation of companies to the annual SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington DC, the world’s largest foreign direct investment conference hosted by US President Joe Biden and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and attended by nearly a dozen US governors.
Velchev said he was attending the SelectUSA to look at launching an Ecofactor manufacturing plant in the United States after having grown Ecofactor out of Ukraine to neighboring markets of Romania, Moldova, Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Austria. Ecofactor later expanded their operations to non-EU markets of the United Kingdom, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
In the same way Tesla founder Elon Musk built his start-up from the engineering legacy of the all but defunct UK’s Lotus, Velchev is quietly making Ecofactor into a global competitor as Ukraine’s engineering, IT development and industrial production remans peerless to any rival found in the west and China.
[Tesla and SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk filmed by Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using CI Glass at closed door AI Insight Forum organized by Senate Majority Leader Chuck at the Russell Senate Building in Washington DC on September 13, 2023]
In fact, Ukraine was able to beat back Russia’s unprovoked invasion of its country by transforming $500 commercial drones into swarms of guided explosive missiles, defeating the world’s second largest military by brain power and not brawn.
Ecofactor’s factory inside Odesa is a case in point. Velchev needs only 45 employees to compete against larger rivals, with EV car sales, service, production and R&D all located under one roof.
Velchev is also the Tesla dealer for the Odesa region but says Elon Musk has not given him, nor Ecofactor, any love.
The most glaring example is the refusal of Tesla to sell or ship its Cybertruck to Ukraine where the truck’s factory standard bullet and bomb resistant body can save hundreds of Ukrainian lives.
The Tesla “salesmen” in northern Virginia said anyone can export their Tesla Cybertruck but it would not have supercharging, Tesla Full Self Drive capabilities nor any mechanical services.
Musk’s inexplicable anti-Ukraine bias — from disactivating Starlink over the Crimea to supporting fervent anti-Ukrainian polemicists such as venture capitalist David Sacks and Trump’s VP pick US Senator JD Vance – may have fatally hurt Tesla’s chances to defeat increasing competition of Chinese EV rivals such as BYD.
Elon Musk’s former Paypal co-investor and Palantir chairman and owner Peter Thiel bankrolled the senatorial election and VP appointment of JD Vance (R-Ohio), the fiercest foe of Ukraine in the US Congress.
Taylor Beis, a DC energy lobbyist originally from Ohio, said no-one understands how JD Vance could be elected in Ohio, where a large part of the residents are of eastern European heritage and anti-Russian. Ohio’s top economic city and residence of Vance — Cincinnati — is the Sister City of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.
Ukraine, unlike almost any where in the world, has proven capacity to beat Chinese imports both on price and quality. In fact, a Ukraine made Tesla car would be able to beat any Chinese made EV on price and at the same time have the quality and engineering excellence rivaling the best German automakers.
Ukrainians have dismantled Tesla battery packs and used them to provide electricity to residential buildings after Russia targeted numerous power stations. Velchev said Ecofactor has even invented a EV energy storage system using imported Chinese lithium packs so people can recharge their EV even in a blackout, an ever increasing phenomena in the developed world.
The Ukrainian government is pulling all stops to convince the leading US and European utilities such as Chicago’s Exelon, Atlanta’s Southern Company, Italy’s ENEL and Greece’s PPC to help the country replace all the bombed out power prodution and transmission inflicted by Russia. Ecofactor may able to provide real world solutions to the major utilities.
[US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi filmed by Capitol Intelligence using CI Glass test driving electric Ford F150 and General Motts Bolt and visiting stands of EV charger Blink as part of review of “American made” EV producers at the Washington DC Autoshow on January 25, 2023]
But Ecofactor ‘s Velchev and his company could have the last laugh in the EV race with their near-term entry into the Unted States, the world’s largest economy. While US President Joe Biden earmarked more than $7.5 billion to build fast charging EV station across the United States, only seven charging stations have been built of a planned 500,000 by 2030.
If Velchev and his team can keep electric vehicles running in Ukraine — where the capital and many other cities face almost nighly and daily bombardments from Russian drones and missiles – they should have no problem in rolling out a cost effective and efficient US national EV charging network.
By PK Semler in Odesa, Ukraine. For more information, email pks@capitolintelgroup.com
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