Volta Truck's Electrifying Comeback to EV Business

[Transcript]

[00:00:00] Jan Griffiths: This is the Auto Supply Chain Prophets podcast, where you'll hear from experts of all facets of supply chain in the auto industry to help you prepare for the future. I'm Jan Griffiths, your co-host and producer.

[00:00:17] Terry Onica: I'm Terry Onica, your podcast co-host. Let's dive in.

[00:00:23] Jan Griffiths: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Auto Supply Chain Prophets podcast. Let's check in with my co-host, Terry Onica. Terry, I know you had a surprise in the mail today. Tell us about it.

[00:00:33] Terry Onica: Yeah, so I went out for my three-mile run last night. That was kind of on my schedule. I got home, and I checked the mail, and I had this box. I'm like, 'What is this? What did I order?' I don't remember or anything like that. So, I opened it up, and it was an award, my age group award for running the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon US. There's an international side, and there's a US side, and I just did the US-only side. So, I was really thrilled. It's a beautiful plaque. I've never had such an award like that, and it's really special.

[00:01:00] Jan Griffiths: That's a huge accomplishment, but just like anything else, Terry, it's trial and error, right? You try and fail and try and fail. I'm sure you just didn't wake up one morning and go, 'Yeah, I'm going to run a marathon and make it happen, right?' It's a process. It's a journey.

[00:01:14] Terry Onica: Absolutely.

[00:01:15] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. And I know that now, being an entrepreneur, you think that the path is easy; it's straightforward, and you just launch the business, and off you go, but it is not. It is fraught with twists and turns, and it truly is a rollercoaster ride. And that is so true in our industry today in the EV world, particularly startups. We see startups coming into the automotive landscape. We see them disappearing. But today we are thrilled to have on the show Shiv Tailor, who is the VP of Enterprise Technology for Volta Trucks. And Volta is back. Oh, they are back in the game. Shiv, what happened?

[00:01:59] Shiv Tailor: We are back indeed. Thank you for the introduction.

We are back as Volta Commercial Vehicles, and you should be pleased to know that you'll be seeing Volta trucks in and around the streets of Paris and London by the end of the year. A bit delayed than we were in 2023, but pleased to say that we got bought out after what was quite a difficult Q3, Q4 period for all the employees. But very happy to say that there is a path forward for us and, ultimately, our product, which is superb, and a level of people within the organization. As you said, not necessarily the same with all EV companies, unfortunately, in this kind of startup space. And I am grateful that we've got that second chance, and we're not going to blow it this time, that's for sure.

[00:02:48] Terry Onica: Well, that is awesome. And we're really glad you're back. So, can you share with us lessons learned? Maybe a little bit of insight as to what happened, and what are you going to do differently going forward?

[00:02:57] Shiv Tailor: I think with any startup, as you look out across the patch, try and do too many things at the same time. And I think, you know, we're all guilty of that, including in our personal lives, trying to juggle three or four things simultaneously. But I think what one of my lessons learned, especially on the technology side, is really focus in on what the end customer and the end user wants. So, drive your activities based on what they want. We're focused, but were we focused on the right areas? And that's something that we're addressing with what we call Volta Version Two, but I think that's probably what went wrong. And therefore, you know, unfortunately, we had issues with our supply chain as we were going through a fundraise, which is never good, and it's well documented that Proterra had kind of filed for Chapter 11 through that process, which obviously didn't help matters either. So, I think it was a house of cards that ultimately fell down, unfortunately, at exactly the wrong time. Do less, which is not really how we're configured, right? I think we're configured, and you have to do everything at the same time, especially in this day and age. But actually, doing less is sometimes more valuable than doing 20 percent of everything. Do 80 percent of a couple of things. And also, figure out where the value is in the business. Is it the truck? Is it the service? Is it technology? Etc. Really focusing on what the value chain is and what their value proposition is.

[00:04:27] Terry Onica: A lot of companies struggle as they go into mass production. And to your point, what advice would you give to other startups in going to mass production? You said you really need to focus. In your opinion, what should you really be focusing on?

[00:04:42] Shiv Tailor: It's hard work. We've all been in the automotive industry; we know it. Launching a product that's been designed from scratch in what was going to be two and a half years, it's a monumental effort. Never underestimate the amount of loops and cycles that you need from the supply base in terms of maturity of tooling, maturity of parts, maturity of the product before it even kind of enters the customer’s hands. And never underestimate the amount of capital that's needed.

We're in a very capital-intensive industry; in terms of the focus elements, I think we were fortunate enough to use a contract manufacturer. So, unlike a traditional OEM setting up their own plant, we didn't have any of those complexities. And that was very deliberate from the start because we didn't have time, but even then, focusing on the relationships, focusing on the process, the business process of how those two bodies interact, and whether that is efficient or not is something that we've carried forward, right? So, our current position is very different to what it was in six months ago because we realized it was suboptimal. The other thing is if you're manufacturing in a different country, don't underestimate the people effort and hardship that the guys and girls go through to make sure that the production line is running, to make sure that the parts are fitted correctly. For us, it's still a very manual process and really kind of focusing on the people and understand how they're feeling and try and help them as much as possible. Because we often forget about the people side, right? It's all very, well this part is either late or it's not late. But, ultimately, it's the people, it's the will of the people that get that part from the goods into fitting it onto the truck, and it's quite, there's a lot of processes, etc., that go into it. So, I think, yeah, focusing on people is just because it's the latter of the points doesn't mean it's the least important. In fact, I'd probably say it's foremost importance.

[00:06:52] Terry Onica: So, when you're starting up, how important is IT in that ramp-up? A lot of companies underestimate, I think that in using tools and technology. So, how important is it to have a strong IT strategy as you're ramping up for production?

[00:07:07] Shiv Tailor: It's really important. It's not only a technology strategy that's needed, but also a data strategy and understand how you can use that data. I think what we've also learned is that we didn't pay enough attention to the supplier experience. And by that, I mean how we interact with them, how we bring them on board. How do we send the schedules? How do we do X, Y, Z? It was all very, well, we've got this portal to do this thing, and this portal to do this thing, and you kind of lose the emphasis of, right, actually, what's that more holistic supplier experience coming into Volta? You know, we should be a delight to work with was the aim. And I'm sure you hear this elsewhere: it's like three clicks; you should be able to do anything in three clicks. And we lost that, right? We didn't have that kind of overlaying strategy on top of that. So, it is important to have strategies in place. It's also important to digitize as much as possible. We work in an old industry, especially on the commercial vehicle side. It's pretty old school. It's still very hand led. There's not many robotics in, etc. And people still use paper drawings. There's still literally a paper pack going around with the truck that it's a passport. But bringing people along that journey, along that strategy, is also super important because you can't, as an IT leader, I can't just say, 'Well, digitize that.' Because the first thing you'll get is why, why do I need to do it? We've been doing this for 30 years. I can just use this piece of paper and sign off on this piece of paper, and then someone scans it at the end of the day, and then that's it. So, I think it is super important that you have these strategies, but it's also very important that I bring my counterparts along with that strategy. So, whether it be the operations, whether it be the supply chain, whether it be the quality, PPAP, SQA, whoever it might be, that it's a combined business technology strategy that sees us through SOP ramp-up, etc. The other bit is it always takes longer than you think. And even if you think it's going to take long, it takes longer than that. So, have some fat in the plan that allows you to do the loops, right? Do, you know, just like supplier will do their loops of tooling and PPAP and part maturity, you also need to do that with technology. It's not a flick of a switch, and everything works magically. These things take testing loops, they take UAT, they take engagement, and that's something that gets underestimated quite a lot. I underestimated it in the first time around as well.

[00:09:37] Jan Griffiths: The term you use, supplier experience, I don't know if I have ever heard anybody use that term in automotive. What I like about it is that it's a mindset shift. You're looking at the business from the view and perspective of the supplier. And I have to tell you, having spent decades in purchasing and supply chain in the auto industry, and now that I'm an entrepreneur with my own business and I'm on the receiving end of all of those awful purchasing systems that I may or may not have had input in over the years, and it is horrible. I mean, a lot of these systems are just terrible. Clearly, nobody did any testing, and you know, this is me. I am at fault here in my old job, but we've got to think about business today from the viewpoint of all the different stakeholders; it's no longer, 'I'm the buyer; I'm going to tell you what to do. Shut up. Here's the releases. Let me get a good ERP system in place so that I can tell you what I need and have a nice life goodbye.' That doesn't cut it anymore. So, my question to you, Shiv, is this: what are you doing over and above the technology? Your background is both automotive. You've worked for McLaren Automotive and IT, so you know automotive, and you know IT, but what are you doing to supplement the IT systems to make sure the suppliers know what's coming up, making sure that they're together as a tight-knit ecosystem, a community supporting Volta. Talk about that, please.

[00:11:20] Shiv Tailor: Yeah, sure. I think to your point earlier, it's still a very relationship-led interaction, right? So, the buyers will have a very, very good relationship with the suppliers. And because we're so small, or we're growing, but we're still, you know, 900 people, it's still a fairly small OEM, right? We still have to harvest those relationships. So, unlike the big players, where it becomes very transactional, there was still that kind of relationship between the suppliers and Volta. But what we're trying to do in Volta version 2 is have supplier communities, whether it be indirect or direct. Create a community of suppliers that can ask each other questions, right? If they're having difficulties or whatever it might be, it's definitely on our roadmap for Q3, Q4, is that kind of creation of that supplier community kind of forum where people can ask us questions or ask other suppliers questions that are contracted and NDAs, etc. There's all types of legalities and other elements that go into that. But I think that's really key for us to harvest those relationships and, ultimately, you know, what that will lead to is some focus groups, right? So, using that supplier experience, what do you expect from Volta? How can we make your lives better, Mr. or Mrs. Supplier? Is it sending schedules earlier? Is it a different format? Is it do we need to put EDI in place, or do we just need to erase this button on this form or, you know, add a button, like what would you need and start to build that muscle memory up? And the more we do that in hand with our finance colleagues, because for me, supply chain and finance go hand in hand. It's not just a supply chain. Unfortunately, finance always deals with the downstream impacts of whatever experience or lack of experience the suppliers are getting. And so, for me, supply chain and finance go so kind of closely hand in hand together. That's the kind of strategic view that we need with our supply base as well.

[00:13:26] Terry Onica: Going back to what you said about the people and how important the people are, I know we work together with Volta Truck to bring the IT department together to talk about quality and supply chain. And I know you had brought people in from other OEMs you had; as a startup, you're going to have people from all over, right? From the industry, not from in the industry, to level set everybody. And it was based on our 24 Essential Supply Chain Processes, which we talk a lot about on this show. Can you tell us how that helped your organization, your IT, in bringing them together?

[00:13:59] Shiv Tailor: Yeah, it was really important for us. I had a deliberate hiring strategy of not recruiting everyone from an OEM background because I wanted diversity. So, it was a very deliberate move for me to encourage that diversity and get people in from, whether it be ex-military, whether it be biochem, etc., Not even necessarily manufacturing backgrounds. So, doing that training course with my then team of BAs and some of my platform owners was critical because it brought everyone up to the same level of understanding of what supply chain and quality processes actually mean for an OEM. And also, it went into our dictionary, right? So, this is what we mean when we say this, it was very specific. There was no ambiguity from there on in once we used those terms. Everyone was aligned, and everyone knew. So, therefore, the learning curve kind of accelerated that ramp-up for the people not from the industry.

[00:14:56] Terry Onica: I thought it was really good, even experiencing as leading those efforts with Cathy Fisher. It was just great to see the collaboration, and everybody was on the same page, and kind of knew what the goal was and learned about automotive best practices for those that weren't familiar with it. So, I thought that was a really good learning and something really great that you did for the team to level something. I could tell they liked it, too, that they can all be on the same page at the same time.

[00:15:22] Shiv Tailor: It's always good when your team members go, 'Can we have that again? Can we do that again?' Those are very clear, you know, a pull from the team saying, 'Can we do more of that type of training?' I was like, 'Guys, I'm not too sure whether that type of training exists for everything, right?' So, we're very lucky to have Terry and Cathy, who can do that and deliver that training. But it doesn't exist for other types of processes and in the automotive sector.

[00:15:43] Terry Onica: One other question I wanted to ask you, too: we've talked about supply chain, but as a startup, can you tell us about the importance of quality? I mean that I got. I mean, obviously, it's really key, but just share some thoughts around quality and what you're doing in that area as well, too.

[00:15:58] Shiv Tailor: Yeah. Quality's historically always been something that gets shoehorned in on the side as an afterthought. I can see everyone smiling around the table. What we actually very deliberately did is trying to front-end it, right? So, whether it be our supply quality development, SQD, or SQA functions, really get ahead of what could be coming out of the suppliers and also making sure the suppliers feel responsible for the quality coming out. I think that was another key kind of mind shift change that we made. And ultimately, we're using tier one, tier two suppliers, mainly tier two. And again, that collaboration with them in terms of quality standard development, what does good gap flush mean? What does a good A surface, you know, working with them meant that we got much better results than working against them, if that makes sense. It's similar to what Jan was saying regarding the transactional state of buyers versus suppliers. It's similar on the quality side, going, 'No, you haven't delivered on this quality part,' but there's no real relationship building, and there's no real conversation. It's a computer says, 'No, try again.' And we couldn't afford to do that as a startup. So, it was, again, a very relationship-led kind of working with suppliers, much more partnership rather than a typical OEM supplier-type engagement.

[00:17:26] Jan Griffiths: Oh, you mean you were actually practicing partnership instead of just talking about it and put it on a Powerpoint. Did I say that?

[00:17:34] Shiv Tailor: In most cases, I won't profess to say we got it 100 percent right, but in most cases, I feel like we've got really good partnerships across Volta, and a testament to that is they're still with us, right? Most of our suppliers are still with us today.

[00:17:45] Jan Griffiths: That is huge.

[00:17:47] Shiv Tailor: Even though we've gone through bankruptcy, even though we're at the other end, yes, payment terms might have changed a bit, right? But ultimately, they're still willing to work with us and believe in the product and the business, which is, you know, a true testament to that kind of partnership mentality that we have.

[00:18:04] Terry Onica: Something that comes to mind, Shiv, you talk a lot about collaboration, communication, and how important is technology to managing all that supplier collaboration. It seems like it's got to be really important because you can't do it on spreadsheets. Everybody's got to see where everything's happening. So, what are your thoughts on that?

[00:18:24] Shiv Tailor: I one hundred percent agree with you. The first, we've all been there. The default for any organization is let's get an Excel out, right? Let's make a spreadsheet, right? A default for everyone. The rate at which technology is developing, especially when you look into Gen AI and whether you believe it's hype in the supply chain or not hype, it's probably a whole separate two-hour podcast that we could do, but I think, generally speaking, we default back to spreadsheet and emails, right? So, for me, technology is a real key enabler to make sure that people are singing off the same hymn sheet. Now, you know, there are so many different ways that you can spin up portals, websites, etc., all at a relatively low cost. But I think what's stopping or what's the blocker is kind of historic architecture, right? So, you know, historic systems that don't necessarily allow that level of transparency or permissions or even that level of access that we now have is a real kind of blocker for what my personal view is that it's a real blocker for people who aren't cloud-based, who aren't kind of forward-thinking, who aren't using the latest technology. It's really inhibiting that kind of transparency and that single pane of glass for purchasing, quality, finance, whoever it might be in the organization and the suppliers looking in.

[00:19:44] Terry Onica: So, you said those magic two letters: AI. So, as an executive in IT, what do you think about it? Where are you looking to apply it?

[00:19:53] Shiv Tailor: Oh, well, it's interesting because I'm just writing a bit of a white paper on how Volta will apply Gen AI. So, it's good timing. There's so many use cases, so many kind of niche use cases within automotive that you could apply Gen AI to. What I haven't seen yet is a cohesive strategy of how someone is going to execute from an OEM perspective Gen AI in a supply chain quality, product development, et cetera., across the whole platform, but also how it matters to our customers, right? I'm worried about end users. How can AI help our customers? How can it help fleet managers? How can it help, ultimately, these logistics companies deliver quicker? Even if it's one more parcel drop a day, that's a huge revenue impact for them, right? As they scale up their fleet. So, I think for me, I'll always take the customer view in of how it can help and, you know, we're developing those use cases now. The blocker or the inhibitor that we have currently is we don't necessarily have the data set around us to then even start looking at, well actually, let's get some really clever data scientists on board, let's start them having a look, let's build some algorithms, let's build some LLM and go from there. So, we're really starting with the foundations of do we have a data dictionary. Do we have standard data terms? So, for us, it's much more of a crawl, walk, run than a full sprint. We definitely see value in it. It's just kind of when rather than if for us.

[00:21:23] Jan Griffiths: And as you said, in the very beginning, it's about focusing on the right things at the right time, not focusing on everything all at once. So, that makes perfect sense. And that's right in alignment with what you're all about now at Volta, which is focusing on exactly what you need to do. Shiv, as you look back on this journey with Volta and where you're at today, if you had to impart one piece of advice for those in our audience who may be in a startup or maybe in a more traditional OEM but in the EV part of the business, many of the OEMs are trying to create their own startup ecosystem within the mothership. What would you say to them? What would it be?

[00:22:14] Shiv Tailor: I think it goes back to focus. Focus on what actually is valuable for the business. It's as simple as that. Just focus on what's valuable for the business.

[00:22:26] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. Love it. Okay, Shiv Tailor, thank you so much for joining us today.

[00:22:31] Terry Onica: Thank you.

[00:22:32] Shiv Tailor: Thank you.

[00:22:36] Jan Griffiths: Are you ready to find the money in your supply chain? Visit www.autosupplychainprophets.com to learn how, or click the link in the show notes below.