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About the Guest(s):Hugo SpowersHugo Spowers is a pioneer in sustainable auto technology and the founder of Riversimple, a company dedicated to developing hydrogen fuel cell cars. With a background in mechanical engineering and a deep interest in environmental sustainability, he left a career in motor racing to focus on creating a new kind of vehicle that could revolutionize personal mobility. Riversimple aims to create highly efficient, eco-friendly cars through innovative design and business models, setting new standards for the automotive industry.Episode Summary:In this episode of "Shape the System," host Vincent Turner interviews Hugo Spowers, founder of Riversimple, a groundbreaking company focusing on hydrogen fuel cell cars. This enlightening conversation covers Hugo's journey from a career in motor racing to becoming a leader in sustainable transportation. They delve deep into technical and systemic issues plaguing current automotive models and explore the revolutionary changes Riversimple is bringing to the industry, starting from the business model and extending to the manufacturing process.Hugo Spowers discusses the need for a complete redesign of how cars are built and sold to make them truly sustainable. He explains the drawbacks of current vehicles, from massive CO2 emissions to the hazardous particulates released from tyres, and how the auto industry's existing business models exacerbate these issues. Riversimple, by contrast, never sells cars outright but offers them as a service package that includes fuel and maintenance, thus aligning the company's profitability with sustainability goals.Key Takeaways:Innovative Business Model: Riversimple offers cars as a service rather than selling them outright, internalizing all costs to focus on longevity and efficiency.Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology: Hydrogen fuel cells are a highly efficient and sustainable alternative to traditional internal combustion engines and even some electric batteries.Systemic Change Over Incremental Change: Transitioning to sustainable vehicles requires a complete overhaul of current systems rather than small, iterative changes.Weight and Efficiency: Reducing the weight of vehicles dramatically improves their efficiency and reduces negative impacts, such as tyre particulate emissions and resource consumption.Collaborative Ecosystems: Building a sustainable transportation system involves aligning the interests of multiple stakeholders, including local authorities, manufacturers, and consumers.Notable Quotes:Hugo Spowers: “We will never sell a car; we'll only sell a service. That's how we align our interests with sustainability.”Hugo Spowers: “Our cars do feel significantly different to your average modern car, very direct and engaging.”Hugo Spowers: “We save more money on the fuel for the car over the life of the car than the premium we pay for the carbon fiber.”Hugo Spowers: “There's no way to do this incrementally. It's a step change opportunity at a systems level.”Hugo Spowers: “It's not just about improving technology; it's about changing the business model that makes sustainability profitable.”Resources:Riversimple Website"Natural Capitalism" by Paul Hawken and Amory LovinsDame La truck CEO's comments on charging electric trucksHisata's efficiency claims for their electrolyzerListen to the full episode to discover how Riversimple is poised to transform the landscape of personal mobility through innovative, sustainable design and business models. Stay tuned for more insights and stories on "Shape the System." Shape the System is an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures More about KPMG High Growth VenturesScale up for success. We're here for that.We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone. From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we'll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights. Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.Links:Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/Contacts: highgrowthventures@kpmg.com.au
Shaping the Future of Mobility: Innovative Solutions for Sustainable TransportationA conversation with Riversimple's CEO Hugo Spowers and philosopher Andrea Hiott which presents a holistic view on transforming mobility and car usage, centered around sustainable and innovative approaches. Featuring insights from Hugo Spowers leadership in creating hydrogen cars, it delves into the company's groundbreaking hydrogen fuel cell car technology and the Future Guardians business model, which seeks to realign the car industry's focus toward sustainability, reducing environmental impact, and community wellness by selling mobility as a service. Additionally, it addresses the broader challenges of urban mobility, highlighting the issues of car overpopulation and issues of weight, and advocating for reduced vehicle numbers through improved mass transport and shared car systems in cities. The discussion is framed around the need for a shift in societal attitudes, politics, and overcoming system inertia to truly reinvent how we think about and use cars, aiming for a future where transportation is efficient, sustainable, less congested, and still human.00:00 Embracing the Aikido Approach in Business and Engineering00:40 Introducing Forever Motoring and Riversimple's Unique Business Model01:01 Rethinking Business Goals: Profit vs. Ecological Health01:33 The Future Guardian Model: A New Paradigm for Business03:02 The Service Model: A Revolutionary Approach to Car Ownership05:04 The Journey from Racing to Sustainable Transport21:05 The Philosophical Shift: From Reductionism to Systems Thinking24:52 Aligning Business with Ecosystem Laws for Sustainable Success38:28 Rethinking Profit and Capitalism in Business38:47 Designing for Financial, Environmental, and Social Returns40:52 The Three Levels of Design: Product, System, and Purpose44:19 Resilience and Profitability: Aligning Interests for a Sustainable Future47:04 The Future Guardian Governance Model: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach01:01:53 The Role of Hydrogen and Electric Vehicles in Sustainable Transportation01:10:41 Corporate Governance & Infrastructure: Paving Sustainable Ways01:15:19 Envisioning the Future of Motoring: Fewer Cars, Better SystemsRiversimpleBuilding Tomorrow by Paddy LeFlufyRiversimple's 'Future Guardian' business model could change the worldInstagram, Twitter, Newsletter
Electric cars are the future of motoring, or so we are told, but today's Cunningcast guests don't agree. In fact, Hugo Spowers of Riversimple thinks hydrogen is the future and he's designing hydrogen powered cars to prove it. Together with experienced car broadcaster Richard Sutton, they give Tony the low down on the past, present and their vision for the future of car engineering and sustainability. Hosted by Si Tony RobinsonX | InstagramWithHugo Spowers Chief engineer and founder of Riversimple, who are pioneering the next generation of zero emission vehicles. They use hydrogen, not batteries and emit nothing but water. Hugo is responsible for all technical aspects of the cars and for the architecture of the business itself. He is considered something of a thought leader on the Circular Economy and has been invited to give talks on entrepreneurship at Imperial College, London and Cranfield University among others. At the Real Innovation Awards in October 2019 hosted by the London Business School, Hugo was awarded the George Bernard Shaw Unreasonable Person Award “for someone who has shown enormous tenacity and stubbornness in pursuing an idea despite the difficulties encountered along the way”. https://www.riversimple.com/project/hugo-spowers/ IG @RiversimplemovementX @Riversimple Richard Sutton Richard presented ‘Deals on Wheels' on Channel 4 and he also worked at Goodwood, he's been immersed in cars for many years. Credits: Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville Cover Art: The Brightside A Zinc Media Group production Follow: X @cunningcastpod Instagram @cunningcastpod YouTube @Cunningcast If you enjoy my podcast, please follow us and leave us a rating or review. Thank you, Love Tony x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Our guest this week is Hugo Spowers, Company Architect of Riversimple, whose purpose is 'To pursue, systematically, the elimination of the environmental impact of personal transport.' Modernity demands that we have personal transport and the thought of giving it up is one of the many sticking points when people try to imagine a way through to a regenerative future: nobody wants to be limited to their immediate vicinity for work, leisure or social connection. At the same time, we're becoming increasingly aware of the limitations of electric vehicles - Simon Michaux has explained in detail the logistical limitations to rare earth batteries, and the environmental catastrophe created by their miningWhich is what makes the Riversimple's hydrogen fuel cell car so transformative. They've gone right back to the basics of what makes a car in the first place and then how could it be made better - not just lighter and more efficient and fuelled by something that doesn't create greenhouse gases - but how could it be made so that the aims of the manufacturer and the customer are aligned - and both are aiming for a habitable planet. On its own, this would be inspiring - but Riversimple doesn't stop there. The company is structured with the innovative - and I genuinely believe transformative - 'Future Guardian Governance model' - Hugo describes this in near the end of the podcast so I won't go into it here, but it seems to me that if every company in the world shifted to this model tomorrow, by the day after, we'd be on our way to healing many aspects of the meta-crisis. So with this in mind, sit back and prepared for a fundamental shift in how we see our role in the world and how we could move towards the future we need, with Hugo Spowers of Riversimple. Riversimple https://www.riversimple.com/RIversimple Subscription model https://www.riversimple.com/subscription/Riversimple Future Guardian governance model https://www.riversimple.com/governance/Invest in Riversimple here https://www.riversimple.com/investment/Paul Hawken 'The Ecology of Commerce' https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-ecology-of-commerce-revised-edition-a-declaration-of-sustainability-paul-hawken/883510?ean=9780061252792
This week on the Podcast, John Marcar and Miles Lacey explore a question that car and driving enthusiasts have been pondering for the past ~20 years... "What about Hydrogen?"In this ever-changing automotive world, as we head towards the 2030 and 2035 I.C.E. ending deadlines, are we, as humanity, being foolish by putting all our eggs into one big electric basket?For this week's conversation, we're joined by Hugo Spowers, the man behind Riversimple Movement LTD - a company that produces and runs cars powered exclusively by hydrogen. John and Miles, on the day of their visit, had the opportunity to learn more about the organisation, get up close and personal with the cars - and - have a drive themselves.To learn more about Riversimple, check out www.riversimple.com/The Driven Chat podcast is brought to you by Paramex Digital. It is available to stream on all the usual podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon, Audible and more. For more information on Driven, visit www.driven.siteContact the show via email: podcast@drivenchat.comGet involved;WATCH >> Driven on YouTubeFOLLOW >> Driven on InstagramDISCUSS >> Driven on FacebookONLINE >> Driven.Site Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Solving the climate emergency will need a host of innovative ideas and new business models. In this special episode recorded at COP @TheGreenAmanda meets up with Hugo Spowers - entrepreneur, former motor racer and MD of Riversimple, producers of affordable, hassle free, fun-to-drive hydrogen powered eco cars and Earthshot prize winner Vaitea Cowan, co-founder of Enapter, manufacturers of the first scalable electrolyser that replaces fossil fuels with green hydrogen. Together they discuss how they are breaking mould and reshaping our thinking on sustainable personal and larger scale transport. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
It is time to rethink our relationship with cars - 30% of the time your car sits unused outside your house. We need a systems change around transport. Our guests understand the changes needed in business models, culture, planning and government policies to set us on the right road. @TheGreenAmanda is joined by Professor Greg Marsden from the University of Leeds' Institute of Transport Studies, Hugo Spowers, reformed racing driver and founder of River Simple and Joe Ravetz from the Manchester Urban Institute at the University of Manchester. The step changes needed cannot be achieved by incremental measures. It's time for big bold thinking. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
#409 Welsh Wheels. Celebrating St David’s Day Gareth and Welsh motoring journalist Alex Grant examine the state of car manufacturing and motorsport in Wales. Hugo Spowers gives an update on Riversimple. Plus music from The Supra Fiery Cannonballs.
This podcast interview focuses on how to architect a tech-company that delivers sustainable transformative impact to its customers, society and the business at large. My guest is Hugo Spowers, Chief engineer and founder of Riversimple.Hugo is an Oxford University trained engineer and entrepreneur. His first business was in motorsport, designing and building racing cars and restoring historic racing cars. He left motorsport for environmental reasons and set up OScar Automotive in 2001 (which became Riversimple in 2007) on the basis that a step change in automotive technology is both essential and possible.Hugo is responsible for all technical aspects of the cars and for the architecture of the business itself. He is considered a thought leader on the Circular Economy. At the Real Innovation Awards in October 2019 hosted by the London Business School, Hugo was awarded the George Bernard Shaw Unreasonable Person Award “for someone who has shown enormous tenacity and stubbornness in pursuing an idea despite the difficulties encountered along the way”.This inspired me, and hence I invited Hugo to my podcast. We explore what it takes to drive remarkable transformation in a market through technology and how it is possible to design a business that delivers environmental, social as well as financial returns without it being in conflict. Here are some of his quotes:“I'm interested in the big picture because that's where I think the real breakthroughs lie.I set the company up to really make a step change in the environmental impact of personal transport. I assumed that the future for environmentally sustainable cars was better batteries, and that requires big budgets, big labs, basic science, not my sort of field at all. And after about six months, I found out about hydrogen fuel cells. And I realized that the breakthrough is hydrogen fuel cells was not through making better fuel cells. The breakthrough is in building a different sort of car. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Why are cool concept cars important? Well in this Fully Charged Live talk at a packed out Giga Theatre at Silverstone, we found out why with a little help from Tessie Hartjes from Lightyear, Steve Wass from Peugeot, yes thats right Peugeot and Hugo Spowers from Riversimple. Fully Charged Podcast listeners can get 10% off at www.oscarandhamish.com with discount code: FULLYCHARGED You can also see the Oscar and Hamish collection at Fully Charged Live USA in Austin Texas on 1st and 2nd February – Inspired by heroes, made by legends and born to be driven. Sponsors: Fully Charged Podcast listeners can get 10% off at oscarandhamish.com with discount code: FULLYCHARGED If you want to contact us podcast@fullychargedshow.co.uk Articles New Porsches: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-porsche-taycan-4s-unveiled-%C2%A383000-price Recharge time: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/electric-cars-battery-recharge-time-a9177781.html Airbus: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-13/airbus-may-make-the-next-version-of-its-top-selling-jet-a-hybrid Patreon Links: https://www.patreon.com/FullyChargedShow DON'T FORGET - Please subscribe to The Fully Charged Show Podcast on whatever format you use. Most popular Podcast links: Apple Podcast App: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-fully-charged-show-podcast/id1449137711?mt=2 Google Play: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL2Z1bGx5Y2hhcmdlZHNob3cubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Y2gu0zZYruYTTqq3J4l7y?si=xkmJ_GVsQK6helTcUtJcaQ Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-fully-charged-show-podcast Pocket Casts https://pca.st/podcast/f4cb4da0-fc71-0136-324e-08b04944ede4
Welcome to a very special episode of the Auto Futures Podcast, following our Future of Fuel event held earlier this week at Thompson Reuters HQ in London.The show brought together journalists, leading brands and industry professionals, including an inspiring panel - including Riversimple’s Hugo Spowers, Groupe PSA’s Helen Lees, Imperial College Professor Ricardo Martinez-Botas and ClientEarth’s Dominic Phinn.The discussion and Q&A session featured a thought-provoking discussion, including policy-making, the air quality crisis, infrastructure and, of course, which fuel will rule as we move into a new decade.Our Editor Alex Kreetzer revisits some of the best moments from the event.In association with Boston Consulting Group
Hugo Spowers founder of Riversimple talks about multiple innovations that are being applied to developing a cutting edge eco-auto. A passion for racing cars and sustainability aren't usual bedfellows. Hugo Spowers is not an usual entrepreneur though, and the business he has created, Riversimple, isn't a business-as-usual company, as represented by its purpose: “To pursue, systematically, the elimination of the environmental impact of personal transport”. The headline innovation of Riversimple is they are bringing to market a hydrogen fuel cell car: the Rasa. Whilst this is impressive, it is actually only one of the cutting edge circular economy innovations at the core of this company. As Andrew Davis, CEO of the Environmental Transport Association, observes: "It’s important to think outside the box. I think some people at Riversimple don't know where the box is”. For a summary of this fascinating interview, go to: www.inspiring-sustainability.com/blog/out-of-the-box-circular-innovation See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
#278 Riversimple Rasa Pt2. Gareth’s visit to the Welsh headquarters of radical car start-up Riversimple continues as Gareth goes for a ride in hydrogen fuel-cell Rasa with company founder Hugo Spowers.
#277 Riversimple Rasa Pt1. Gareth visits the Welsh headquarters of radical car start-up Riversimple. Company founder Hugo Spowers explains how their open-source ultra-lightweight fuel cell car and the company that makes it works.
"Crazy is being stubborn enough to ignore advise - but smart enough to know when to listen." Hugo Spowers is Company Architect as Riversimple Engineering. Their purpose is to pursue, systematically, the elimination of the environmental impact of personal transport. Previously Hugo was Owner of OsCar Automotive Ltd which developed a business strategy to bring hydrogen fuel cell cars to market and Owner of Prowess Racing Ltd which designed and manufactured single seat racing cars, restored historic racing cars and and fielded racing teams.
2:23AM, the podcast, Season #1, Episode #9 - Hugo Spowers, Riversimple - redesigning cars, redesigning business Wow, wow, wow...Riversimple is not just about redesigning cars and redesigning business...what Hugo and his team have done over the last 15 years is turn how we engage in business on its head. As a follow on to the last episode with Frederic Laloux, Hugo is building a business in a very traditional area (car manufacturing) but turning it completely on its head. No tinkering here. This is a new model. It is quite breathtaking. I want one of his cars, now. Enjoy this episode. To listen on