M3E Team
M3E Team
2. Mai 2024 · 14 min read
Exclusive interview on M3E's fifth anniversary
M3E GmbH
We met with Christian Milan, the CEO and founder of M3E GmbH, on a sunny but cold April day on Torstraße in Berlin for the interview. There's much to discuss: M3E is celebrating its fifth anniversary! It's a reason to reflect on the years gone by, discuss the current situation, and look ahead to the future.
Interviewer: Hello Christian, we'd like to start by extending a warm congratulations on M3E's fifth birthday! Did you celebrate the occasion properly?
Thank you very much. It's still unbelievable to me: Has it really been five years already? Incredible! We certainly celebrated the anniversary properly, that goes without saying, despite the current – to put it mildly – challenging situation facing the mobility transition in Germany.
Anniversary in difficult times
You told us a lot about your motivations for founding M3E last time. So let's dive straight into the difficult situation you mentioned...
(Interrupts) Yes, that suits me just fine. Let's move past that and onto more pleasant topics! In summary, the current situation in Germany regarding electromobility vividly demonstrates what happens when state support or incentives are withdrawn: it stagnates. That's precisely what happened after the ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court last November (We extensively reported on this topic here, Ed.). To plug the resulting budget hole, four absolutely essential federal funding programs for electromobility and charging infrastructure have been discontinued.
What exactly are these programs?
Three of the four mentioned programs focused on specific vehicle segments, each promoting electric cars, electric trucks, and electric buses respectively. First, in December 2023, the environmental bonus, the subsidy for electric cars, was abruptly halted after being restricted to private individuals in September, excluding companies from the subsidy. This was followed by the discontinuation of the KsNI program in February 2024, which had significantly supported electric commercial vehicles and their charging infrastructure in the two previous funding rounds since 2021. Through just these two funding programs alone, our application service has successfully secured over 105 million euros for our clients since 2019, a considerable sum in my opinion. Simultaneously, federal funding for electric buses was also discontinued, and recently, a program to promote commercial fast-charging infrastructure followed suit.
What are the exact consequences resulting from the discontinuation of these funding programs?
The consequences were immediately apparent, understandably leading to significant uncertainty regarding electromobility – extending far beyond the industry and into society at large. On one hand, the federal government set lofty goals for 2030 – fifteen million electric cars and one million public charging points – but on the other hand, these goals were undermined by the discontinuation of the programs themselves. Who can take these goals seriously now?
In my opinion, a significant loss of trust in electromobility has occurred among users. This naturally reflects in the new registration numbers, which have plummeted sharply since January 2024. So much so that according to a recent CAM study, Germany has already lost its position as the leading market in Europe to the UK. The latest forecasts project only about 10 million electric cars on German roads by 2030, a number that won't be achievable under current conditions.
And what about the commercial vehicle sector?
We are well connected in this sector and would have submitted many applications for our clients in the already announced third call for proposals of the KsNI program, which was repeatedly postponed in 2023 and finally canceled. Particularly here, there is widespread discontent: the CO2 differentiation in truck tolls has created a negative incentive for switching to electric trucks, but this was not complemented by a positive incentive following the discontinuation of KsNI. Transport and logistics companies are therefore either struggling with the high, unsubsidized costs of acquiring electric trucks and especially the associated charging infrastructure, or with the increased toll costs for their diesel trucks. I recently witnessed this discontent firsthand at the Handelsblatt Annual Commercial Vehicle Conference 2024 in Munich. Nevertheless, I am highly impressed by how most companies are still giving their all to contribute to the mobility transition even without government incentives – that's encouraging!
Navigating towards the future with adaptability and innovation
So, an anniversary in difficult times! Let's use the last sentence to turn our focus towards the future: M3E is a consultancy firm for electromobility, which notably excels in the field of funding expertise. How are you navigating through these challenges?
That's correct, we started in 2019 with the implementation of a funding database for the European market. So, we originally come from the funding sector and subsequently quickly launched an application service for funding. We now operate the most comprehensive funding database in the European market, covering 274 funding programs for vehicles, 180 for charging infrastructure, and over 200 other incentives (tax and non-monetary incentives) for transitioning to e-mobility in 21 European countries since 2019. That's enormous! The database is continuously maintained, expanded, and made available to our clients. It also informs our numerous consultations on transitioning to electromobility, such as our popular electrification concepts. Specifically for the German market, with its help, we naturally have the enormous advantage of being able to recommend all funding programs at the federal, state, and municipal levels to our clients at the touch of a button and seamlessly incorporate them into our electrification concepts.
So, are there alternatives to federal funding?
Indeed there are. After the collapse of federal funding, transitioning to electromobility is still efficient with the support of some remaining funding programs at the state and municipal levels. The big problem, however, is that the German funding landscape is highly dynamic and complex, often resulting in a lack of knowledge about the relevant programs. Consequently, e-projects are not pursued by companies, and the funds are sometimes left unclaimed.
Since February, we have therefore released two whitepapers to the public. One summarizes all alternative funding programs to the KsNi program in a clear manner, while the other covers all alternatives to federal funding for electric buses. We thus provide options at the state and municipal levels and offer this knowledge free of charge.
Furthermore, we provide our comprehensive funding knowledge through the ‘M3E Fördermittel-Alert’ (Funding Alert) to all companies of any industry and size, delivering all information directly to their inbox. With this unique alert, companies no longer miss out on funding opportunities and can decide which grants to apply for based on information tailored to their search profile.
M3E has a broad scope. How do you navigate in the other M3E areas?
Yes, we do have a broad scope. In terms of consulting, we are increasingly focusing our consulting activities beyond the German market and specializing more and more in advising international fleet operators on fleet conversions. Here, we increasingly advise on the major topic of ESG (Environmental Social Governance) and break down individually what the regulations mean for each company to capture them in strategy consultations for carbon-neutral fleets.
Moreover, we are still active in GHG... but let's please not talk about the state of the GHG quota market too... (laughs).
Lastly, we continue to successfully conduct PR for other companies dealing with e-mobility as well as other sustainable propulsion systems and renewable energies, both nationally and internationally. We develop marketing strategies for these companies and advise them on all relevant processes.
So, to answer the question broadly: We navigate against challenges with our knowledge and with our innovative products and services, which interconnect across all our areas and thereby unleash significant potential. Our goal remains unchanged: to transform the major challenges of the mobility transition for our clients and us as well into opportunities that we collectively seize and from which we collectively benefit.
We wish you every success! What are you particularly proud of regarding M3E?
First and foremost, of course, the great M3E team, without which these five years would never have been achieved. (Grins) The team possesses a primary characteristic that defines M3E entirely: our adaptability! Electromobility is an industry subject to frequent fluctuations and uncertainties, requiring the ability to quickly adapt to new conditions, as mentioned earlier. This is something we excel at, and we repeatedly prove it with our innovation, largely facilitated by the use and development of our digital solutions. When I think back to how quickly we launched and brought M3E THG quotas to the market in early 2022, I still get goosebumps. There are many new product and service ideas awaiting you soon, about which I can't provide precise details here, but which will once again adequately demonstrate our innovation. So, stay tuned!
Looking back to the future
That sounds promising, we wish you the best of luck! If you look back over the last five years, how do you think the next five will look for M3E and electromobility in general?
Firstly, the current situation is understandably distressing, and it may give the impression that electromobility is on a downward trajectory or declining. But in my opinion, despite the difficult times, the opposite is true! Looking back to 2019, the progress is very impressive: back then, there were approximately 100,000 electric cars (BEVs) in Germany; today, there are around 1.4 million. In 2019, there were about 24,000 public and semi-public charging points; today, there are approximately 120,000. The number of available different vehicle models in every segment and class has exploded, and the continuous development of battery technology and its impact on range is leading to ever greater distances that can be covered on a single charge. German and European legislation and regulations provide the framework within which the development is intended to progress until 2035 and beyond. The same can be said for M3E: we started with a major client and today we can count numerous globally operating OEMs and other companies among our clients. We are active in several European countries and have strong connections to North America. Everywhere, we assist companies, institutions, and individuals with our consultancy services and products, facilitating their smooth entry into electromobility or its efficient expansion. Time has truly flown for us since 2019: starting with a sold funding database feels like yesterday. What we have achieved and created since then is incredible – just as incredible as the progress in the industry itself: I never would have thought in 2019!
Looking forward based on this retrospective, it seems crucial for 2030 and 2035 to not only maintain but massively accelerate the previously rapid pace... we at M3E are more than ready for this, even though – or perhaps because – both feet in Germany are currently politically pressing on the brake... Therefore, I strongly recommend expanding (once again) all government funding measures for the fight against climate change massively, reducing bureaucracy – especially in approval procedures for charging infrastructure and grid connections – and of course, presenting a clear and, above all, reliable roadmap that provides companies with security and a clear direction. I do not want to belong to the generation that goes down in history as having only half-heartedly stopped climate change because it refrained from doing everything humanly possible against it.
We sincerely thank you for the conversation and wish M3E all the best and much success for the future!
I must thank you! Finally, I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the entire team, to express our gratitude for the trust placed in us by our clients and for the excellent cooperation! In the coming years, we will continue to strive to advance the mobility transition together with them!
