Mark Garnett Discusses Volta Trucks

[00:00:20] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt. My name is Bodhi and I am your host and that's not how we do this. Hello everyone Welcome to the Kilowatt podcast to show about electric vehicles, renewable energy and autonomous driving My name is Bodhi and I am your host

[00:00:38] Did I do that right? That's done better than all the other ones. I can't tell if you I don't know if you can tell I feel very self-conscious about this Anyway on today's episode we are going to talk about

[00:00:50] Volta Trucks. We have an interview from a former Volta employee, but before we get to that We don't really talk about Volta all that much on this show So let's go ahead and just give you a quick rundown Volta Trucks was founded in

[00:01:08] 2019 by a Scandinavian entrepreneur Carl Magnus Norton and co-founder Kajil Wayland Wollin Wallen hopefully I said that right anyway Um Volta quickly established itself as a pioneer in the electric truck industry The company has or slash had offices in Stockholm London and other European countries by 2020

[00:01:37] Volta had launched the Volta zero now As far as I can tell these were just pilot fleets with strategic partnerships with a couple of different companies one of those companies was Petit a forester, I hope I'm saying that right and

[00:01:55] They put in a thousand vehicle order making it Europe's largest order of alert electric commercial vehicles throughout 2021 the company expanded its partnership securing suppliers for Critical components like batteries, drivetrains tires refrigerator units all that kind of stuff and by the end of 2021

[00:02:15] They were starting vehicle manufacturing in Austria in 2022 Volta trucks confirmed its North American entry They started with a pilot feat in Los Angeles The first Volta zero vehicle was produced in Austria in 2022 So they started in 2021 production and they produced the first one in 2022

[00:02:37] And they had agreements with Siemens smart infrastructure and that particular partnership was to bolster the charging infrastructure unfortunately despite all of these wonderful things that I just said about the company Volta filed for bankruptcy in Sweden in 2023 October 2023

[00:02:59] Which was a bit of a surprise for a lot of folks So on today's episode we have a former Volta employee and listener of the show Mark Mark is gonna walk us through his role with the company and then just give us his thoughts and overall

[00:03:15] You know mark was laid off like all the other Volta employees were he has no bitterness towards Volta And he still believes in the mission. So this is a really good interview I do need to warn you though, and this is my fault 100%

[00:03:29] there were a lot of technical difficulties recording this episode and We ended up having to use zoom which is not great So the audio quality might not be up to par again. That is my fault the services I was using to record

[00:03:44] Did not did not work that day and then on top of that if that's not as bad as it gets zoom has a 30-minute limit for calls and We definitely went over that 30 minutes and had to start all over again. So hopefully

[00:04:02] This is cobbled together well enough for you to get the full gist of the conversation because it was really good And mark was really informative. So let's go ahead and welcome mark to the show

[00:04:14] Okay, it's great to talk to you and see what you look like after all these years I've listened to you what people aren't gonna know mark is that you are one of the first listeners of this podcast

[00:04:25] I'm pretty sure in the within the first year of this show you and I were emailing back and forth quite possibly Yes, I was once I got my EV. I was so into it

[00:04:35] I was looking around for podcasts and must have come across yours in the early days Yeah, yeah, I've listened to it. Well your new V owner We we were first introduced because he had a really cool EV one talk about that

[00:04:48] Yes, yeah, okay. Yes. I discovered even a thing It was 2015 at a family christening party and One of our relatives is dutch and he was over and he just said two things about a twizy that he'd got

[00:05:04] One was the first mention the word range anxiety and the second was twizy doesn't have doors And he said that in traffic stationary and silent He was amazed how much noise was going on around him and just those two quick mentions of EVs

[00:05:19] That me on my trips away. I was Knowing the EVs were now thing. I thought of researching them The first time I really got into YouTube and quickly used other things like fully charged. Oh, yeah, this is really This is a thing and we were a two-car family

[00:05:37] Watched ours. We would call it MPV you call it mini-bang But that's kind of the family car and I just needed another one or had another one to get to work and back Which was I think 25 miles each way And I figured well any EV will do 50

[00:05:54] Miles and even if that's all it does if it only goes to work That adds up to exactly 12,000 miles a year. Okay So even if it doesn't do anything else apart and get me to work and back about that looks interesting though I

[00:06:08] Am the mission to buy one Not really I've never really bought we only ever bought one new car So I wanted second hand and at that point year old EVs were about half price half lit price And I really quite panicked an eagle I could never get into

[00:06:27] Not really test drive a new one and they were expensive used I got a four-day test drive in Nissan that was Very generous test drive program they had going on the time, but it's looking back. It's too long Because within a few hundred yards you realize oh, yeah

[00:06:47] EVs are for me But having it for four days means you see it in the dark and the headlights sound very good And you see it in damp conditions and the D miss that didn't really do miss

[00:06:58] There's enough to rule out and if that leaves and I even managed But you know the third day in you're gonna need to charge it and they're very keen that you don't charge at home They've no idea what your electric for like so they give you a card

[00:07:11] So I went to I sat out on this. I think it's the Saturday And I had four places where I knew there were charges as I was just going to work through them

[00:07:19] First one was a Nithan dealer a different Nithan dealer not interested wouldn't let me plug in second one was a shop a big chain shop Called Asda which used to be owned by Walmart They had one there's turns out was dead of the dodo

[00:07:35] And the third one was a hotel a few miles away and They didn't know where it was I've had to think found it on their grounds But now I'm ringing up the final one thing. Well, I know you've got a charger and it was another big chain shop

[00:07:50] Can you confirm is working and they said we have no idea? Okay, well, I've got enough charge to get there so I'll go there and I got there and it was also dead of the So at that point it was called out the recovery people from Nithan

[00:08:05] And they just took me to a rapid charger on the motorway network and Away I went to the thing and that didn't put me off in the flight But it was you know telling but yeah The challenge with evie is going to be public charging

[00:08:20] For sure for sure. And what what time frame was this where we looking at? Well, that would have been probably 2016 Okay And by that time we had one in the uk there was one electric company

[00:08:32] Um, because we have different ones for each part of the country kind of thing and one of them Well, they have black bit and one of them and invested in or got some investment money to put a rapid charger at every service station of the motorway network

[00:08:45] our freeway network um And they were a bit hitting me but that was quite remarkable so people could Just about get around on and they we've got the two sort of connector type. Well, I guess three actually type two which is relatively slow

[00:09:03] uh chadamow which we share with you and No, the type two is yeah j17 72 right? Yeah, but with an R equivalent that is just called type two. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes

[00:09:18] Um, and then our ccf is different to your ccf for the same idea. It's that's like too big pin So they they the post managed to charge all every so that was that was how they record me by

[00:09:30] Right bedding me to one of those but of course I was so naive. I plugged in For the first 45 minutes and got it almost full and I said well, no I can't charge it anywhere else that get it fully full and I spent another hour It's fully full

[00:09:45] Because you're not realizing that whole charge curve thing of it drops right off at the end So that was yeah, that was enough to me. Yeah, I definitely want to be and I I don't know how I discovered that the msadie did this d-class

[00:10:00] And I'm not a Mercedes kind of person. I'm more of a Ford or You know go to or whatever go to being the cheap end of the Volkswagen Um, there's something about this Mercedes quick with me, uh, and they'd they've not made very many

[00:10:14] I think they were there's a bunch in California and Maybe scattered throughout Europe and the uk so each dealer would only seen one or two um But you know, it's a beautifully made Mercedes and the and the Attraction for me was the motor

[00:10:29] In front wheel drive was the model s motor And I think it must have derated it because it would obviously be wild on the front Um, and then a bit of maybe a third. I don't know how much of a

[00:10:41] Of the model s battery pack under the back seat so the rear floor was high um But it was all pretty much disguised. You couldn't tell it was an eb Uh, and it was very modest range real world was 87 miles So and worse than that

[00:10:57] It was really once a day because it didn't have any rapid charging capability whatsoever It would I can't remember if it was 11 kilowatts or 22, but either way, that's not brave I think it's probably only 11

[00:11:09] So if you really wanted to go a long way, you had to be very patient There's a multiple hour kind of thing But as I explained is the second half so it didn't matter um So that yeah beautiful blue metallic blue

[00:11:25] Light metallic blue and it had written down the side electric drive in big white graphic Um, which was a standard thing for their launch model and I like that because on the motorway people would read

[00:11:37] Why does it say electric drive on the side of his car? You could see them thinking And I thought yeah, and I just I just loved it. It was And I got it I bought it at 14 000 miles and I ran it until 77 thousand miles

[00:11:51] And it was just a joy going Loves it That's awesome. And you have uh an mg now Yes, yes, I since divorced and it You know, I need if it was my only car already needs to have one that go a bit further

[00:12:07] So it's still quite modest, but the mg which is really part of of the chinese company essay. I see Um launched a model called the zs. It's for us. It's a medium size fvv In your eyes. It's probably a smaller one um

[00:12:22] And it's modest in every respect, but it's it's It's very good value It's got some you know lane keeping it's got adaptive cruise control Got apple carplay Got a massive panoramic roof You know electric heated seats um

[00:12:42] But it was just very modestly price and by modern standards. It's still quite modest range. They they're saying 160 so realistically 130 something like that Um, but he does have I've seen again Not particularly fast, but compared to what I was used to he was much better

[00:13:00] Um, so that's been my car for the last four years and I've got that up there 55 000 so I'm at 115 000 pure electric mile and really please not to bought any Petrol or diesel in all that time. Did you want to see the price on this?

[00:13:17] Yeah, the time they were doing them for 23 and a half thousand pounds Or 25 and a half for the upmarket version and so I went to the upmarket one. Yeah Uh and our

[00:13:29] You know, I'm sure like the rest of the world are sort of base price for a typical EV. It is now 36 You know an average run of the mill PV is that starts about 36 So to be more than 10 grand less

[00:13:42] You know, it's quite quite a good value. I guess it's because they wanted to establish themselves And they've done that really well because not only did that zf sell well, but they've introduced

[00:13:53] Um, and what we would call a fake car you'd call it a wagon I think and that's I think that's pretty much the only EV wagon in the world so that sells well Uh, and they've now brought out a more of a golf side

[00:14:06] And that's selling really really well, you know, it's actually significantly hitting the The monthly charts of of car sales never my dv sell so good for them. I say yeah for sure And I'm looking at the wagon here. It's pretty long. It looks like it's pretty long

[00:14:22] Yeah, you know one of the things that uh, you share with other Folks who listen to the shows you're you're pretty involved with the EV meetups and the EV community where you live Do is there anything you want to talk about there? yeah, yeah, I

[00:14:36] I guess I fell into it big time. So yeah You it really opens your mind to where energies are coming from the price of it And then the pollution related to it In a in a completely different way to paying for petrol

[00:14:52] Or gasoline and I don't really know why but it yes So slowly your mind awakens this and then because I didn't buy it for environmental reasons. I bought it because it was interesting Um, but it has awakened me boy is it now?

[00:15:05] so yeah, I'm completely aware that we're We're polluting ourselves with Particulates we're filling the world with co2 and we've got to stop. So yeah, it's become a passion to To help educate others Um, because and I don't know why I went into it so easily because other people

[00:15:25] You know educated friends still resisting it and giving me all the negative reasons why they can't um Even if they're buying, you know, they've got big budgets and they're buying big prestige cards that their budget is not a problem

[00:15:39] Uh, and if they've got multi-cars well ranges in the problem because You know have an EV if you run about as your first one So yeah, I've got involved with lots of things the fully charged show itself Um, I exhibited the B class just as a private individual

[00:15:56] Just because it was pretty rare and that was pretty good that got attention The most common question was have you converted to bell? No, I'm the vehicle Um, and then yeah more recently there

[00:16:10] We have the we've there's a very traditional old car rally that runs from london to brighton every year Um, and it's it's not the same organizers, but it's the same route They said well, let's do it's actually an electric bus company in brighton on the south coast

[00:16:23] And they said well, let's do a london to brighton EV rally So I've done that I guess three years now for the first two years were just from london to brighton Great publicity and then this last year it was london to brighton and then on to paris

[00:16:38] And that was really interesting In the sense that the the freeways over there Have seemed a bit more consistent everyone had about Eight chargers And they they were a different brand at each service station, but they were all well equipped and they all just seemed to work

[00:16:58] Whereas we've got in the uk now. We've got some really good hub Where there's even 20 chargers But that's pretty rare. Most of them are still Two three You know bit hit and miss Because by time one's broken one's in use, you know getting a bit separate

[00:17:17] Yeah, it's going to ask is the uptime okay there in england in the uk It's getting better. Yeah, the newer ones are much better um The older ones like I mentioned that the company that rolled them out of reach originally there

[00:17:31] Those are getting very tired what they and they've replaced them now, but it's still Not as good as you'd like it. I think it's partly I don't know whether to blame the the charter companies or the car companies, but they don't test

[00:17:45] I'm convinced they don't test on each other's equipment because there's a certain timing Schedule that both ends the the charger will listen for a certain period and the car is listening for a certain period If you managed to mess that up they can Get in a right tangle

[00:18:01] Unless it's just, you know, I've got a funny one, but it can take two or three days to get it charging Once it's charging. Thank god it keeps going solid but it It's not perfect yet Unlike yourself, of course driving a Tesla completely different You just rock up

[00:18:20] Plug in walk away knowing it's going to work and they're hot soft of the medical the whole What are they calling it north american charging standard? Adoption just proved How successful their design was to make it just reliable and and easy to work Yeah, they

[00:18:41] To be clear I've still running into I've still run into so No Stopped working my brain stopped working. I've still run into some issues with charging on tesla chargers Not you it's usually you just move over one stall and you're good to go again

[00:18:59] And I yes, but it's not very often that that happens and Evie go and blink in my area I've run into quite a bit issues on that but that's mostly

[00:19:10] Just trying to get the the charger to activate like trying to figure out how to pay and use the app and tell them which charger you're on That's not a good experience

[00:19:22] But other than that other than that most of the charging is done at home, which is really nice Of course Well that that's a good introduction But we actually came here together to talk about volta trucks And you actually worked for volta trucks

[00:19:37] Do you want to give a little history of that company? Yeah, yeah, so I'm I'm a business analyst specializing in ERP systems. So that's the systems that let you Define your parts and your assemblies and place customer orders purchase orders

[00:19:56] Illuminerials do the accounting is pretty much people probably say it's the back office system So I've been in that industry forever and The company I used to work for Software was used a lot in the what they call the tier one automotive space. They're not the

[00:20:15] OEM like a board or a Or a volt or a tesla, but the next level down of the biggest suppliers a lot of them used to use the software I'm familiar with

[00:20:24] So I sort of got some automotive experience, but I'd never I don't think I can claim real automotive experience Um, but of course I was I'm still following everything on on youtube on fully charged. So I was aware that volta were going for a decent size truck

[00:20:42] And then I discovered they were using the software that I was intimately familiar with But all this this opportunity is just too good to be true. I need to apply to them To see if I can get a job and help them out

[00:20:54] But it just it's joining my my skills and my passion kind of thing Um, and I did I got in january 22 so 22 months ago something like that Um, just as they were ramping up. So we got up to about 800 people worldwide It was a really ambitious

[00:21:15] No, whether you call it startup or a ramp up. I don't know But I liked when I was doing my research beside where the joint I liked a lot of the decisions they'd made that the design was

[00:21:27] Was nice to look at so if I had to to describe this thing it looks like Like a um Motor home or a caravan, you know, what are you from it looks like the front of it looks like that or maybe even possibly public transportation bus

[00:21:44] I'd agree and then into that it it goes into the box So when you say articulating in the u.s. We just have some my trucks with the get towed by our trailers get towed by Tractors, right that that isn't this it's all on one frame

[00:21:59] Yes, it's rigid. Yeah, and it all come it all just kind of smoothly Comes together. It's like a This is not meant to be insulting But it looks like you know that many or that motorhome with a loafe of bread on the back

[00:22:14] But it all comes together nicely Uh, yes. Yeah, it was just the the volta truck itself um while Kind of I don't know the correct terminology but 16 ton stroke 18 ton

[00:22:28] So not as big as what we would call a semi articulated. You would call a semi. It's a rigid body um But much bigger than than a van And and the market we were aiming back was for was

[00:22:43] Big cities like london like paris like Madrid particularly as they're beginning to head towards trying to ban these or emissions in the city So obviously it's 100 electric um, it was a beautiful design um

[00:22:57] You said in the opti earlier it the cab looks was very smooth and almost like a bus type front end but sort of smoothly integrated to the the load box at the back um The driving position was lower than normal and central and gave him a really good

[00:23:16] Visible vigil outlook so he could see what was in front of him because the glass was so low and The glass doors came down to ground level two so he could see the side he or she

[00:23:26] So it was we were aiming at the safety angle of it as well because there's a lot of people A lot of accidents happen in cities like london where buses are turning Well trucks of any sort are turning With a cyclist sort of on the inside

[00:23:39] So particularly in our case it's turning left so the driver can't really see The cyclists get you know caught in the mess and it it's horrible. So it was really trying to

[00:23:49] Pitch the safety angle as well. So not only is it zero emission lower cost to operate, but it'd be a lot safer um And we've gone way beyond prototypes. We've got um Running vehicles on the road in the hand of customers

[00:24:05] Sort of a week long trials actually doing their real route And the pitch was not just to sell a truck and leave them to it But the sell transport or the service so in other words equipped their depot With with charging and even take responsibility for that charging

[00:24:21] So they they would have a working truck in the morning kind of thing For anybody who's trying to picture this it's a little bigger than a rivian on rivion amazon delivery vehicle

[00:24:31] so this would be for like for instance replacing the the semi truck or the semi articulating truck For big loads like if you're going from a warehouse to a hospital for instance, this is to replace that kind of

[00:24:47] Uh delivery not not vehicle not uh business to home type stuff. Exactly. Yes, you're right. Yeah, you wouldn't use it Business home. It's way too big but you would use it to

[00:24:58] Yeah to to resupply your shop in the city center kind of thing. Okay, um, but probably not What you'd use to go between major cities So is it is a it's a cleverly chosen segment because well a no one else is making a truck of that size electric

[00:25:17] Um, and it's not it's not hundreds of miles a day You know, you would be hard pushed to burn through the battery in london in a day just because there would be the traffic And how far you can get so it was

[00:25:29] It was going to be within the capability of a day range kind of thing and then yes you charge up at night Okay, and what was your role? That there at valta. Yeah, I was labeled business analyst Manipaturing

[00:25:44] Um, though it's the look after the auto implement the back office systems that we call arp Enterprise results planning software that's the software that lose all the operations together so sales orders for customers purchase orders the suppliers

[00:26:00] The bill of material and my bit was heavily into the configuration So even though we tried to come up with a fairly standard offering invariably there's lots of of choices Um, you know battery thigh the two different ways Um various aspects of the load box

[00:26:18] So that ends up being a configured product each time So I was I was working on the configurator to churn out a fresh bill of material for each truck um Yeah, and we'd yeah, I guess they're the design was was

[00:26:34] They'd made lots of good choices. Um, the battery was coming from from potera The the motor's coming from arvin miracle who are not inventing anything and the assembly We weren't even going to create our own factory or not start with anyway, but using subcontract from

[00:26:52] Stire automotive in in austria and they Used to do the truck assembly for man truck so they they know how to make a truck So that was a good partnership And we were well in the way under the way of getting production going and I guess it was

[00:27:09] You know a bit behind schedule and there's some some milestones were missed unfortunately the investors Um could no longer back us so very very suddenly Uh kind of a week ago. We heard we were going into administration Which is yes, it's effectively a pause in trading

[00:27:28] Probably the end but you know the responsibility of the administrators is to try and Realize what what value they can have the remaining asset So whether it's selling the company that's going concerned or selling the ip or selling bits of it

[00:27:43] Um, so we we don't know what will happen But for them at the moment most of us are redundant and looking for new jobs but I thought you know we And it's interesting the reaction we're getting from the industry rather than

[00:27:57] You know when the gloating and saying oh you failed It's very much all we were we were rooting for you and it's disappointing you that it's not worked out yet um So it's yeah, it's nice of that that's been the reaction in the industry

[00:28:12] And we had so many good people Um, and we had such a good team spirit. So that's kind of going to be disappointing with that or get broken up But yeah, there's a whole chunk of us now looking for the fresh jobs

[00:28:25] In in similar industries if we can Yeah, and despite being laid off you have you wanted to be 100 clear you have no negative feelings towards this company It was a great idea. It just at the last minute

[00:28:38] Uh, whether it was because of what's going on in the world Or you know, the investors just got spooked for some other reason they just decided we're not gonna Continue putting money into this Yes, I do I have no regret though

[00:28:53] It was definitely the right thing to do and I'd like to think we've moved on We've moved the industry a bit towards going electric Because you know the the volvos of this world are beginning to think about it

[00:29:04] But they're still making a ton of diesel trucks and they need to Move over to electric as fast as possible So hopefully we we've edged that across a bit and yeah, yeah very round of what we've achieved and Yeah, just disappointed it's not gonna continue

[00:29:21] And you don't have to you don't talk about the specifics or the actual names but within that That industry where you're moving goods from warehouses to businesses And and the companies that do that what was their reaction to this product?

[00:29:38] Oh, yeah, so I'm very much on the back office behind the scenes Internal it but but yeah the feedback I was getting is that it was very well received So yeah, it's all the big Supermarket chains were interested and I think sensibly they were all in the mindset

[00:29:53] Well, let's take a few to try it and then obviously if it's successful will will take more so they They can see the cost savings in operation Hopefully higher reliability hopefully higher uptime

[00:30:08] Never mind that the restrictions that's going to come onto them for not emitting so much in in cities So yeah, I think that the product was well received and the the feedback you got from these these trials was You know within a few yards the drivers got it

[00:30:24] You know, it's slightly different being in the central driving position. It's slightly different having the regen effect Um, but just like any of you once you get over that differentness you actually become to really appreciate it and prepare it

[00:30:38] Um, well, we never got around to announcing official consumption figures but I know somebody who was testing and he said it was It was remarkably efficient

[00:30:48] It was going to be a real cost savings in terms of running costs because all these lower here far more tax than it is in the state So it's a significant cost that you're going to save if you can fill up with nighttime electricity instead there is

[00:31:02] A possibility that they find different investors. Is that not the case? It's there. There's they can still pull this out Yes, yes, it's down. I think there are expressions of interest

[00:31:14] Obviously, we're just connected from that process. But yeah, there's a very good chance that something will come from it I'd like to think someone will buy the design if nothing else but yeah

[00:31:23] I guess the best case is that somebody with deep pockets can say yeah, I'm going to finish this off for taking the market And fund it and telling it get some customer sale income coming from it. Yeah, I hope it's not the end

[00:31:37] The Volta folks were pretty close to Hitting production. Do you know what the roadmap was? Were we still talking about alpha trucks or had we moved past that? I think we've moved past that. Yeah, there were trucks on the line

[00:31:53] And just beginning to come off it plenty material and even though there was a hiccup with the battery supply with them going into chapter 11 Our understanding is that that was

[00:32:04] Not going to affect battery supply and we we were assured batteries would come and I think we had sufficient batteries for our initial production But I think that may have been one of the uncertainties

[00:32:18] Like you mentioned that the stock market changed the appetite for my PO's has changed And so it's probably all several little things adding together. It's not really that we've done anything particularly wrong Um, it's just a set of unfortunate combinations Yeah, that must be frustrating that a company

[00:32:37] That was and I'm not throwing any shade at nicola because I don't I've talked to people who work at nicola I don't Trevor Milton who I defended early on was Was was why nicola

[00:32:52] Almost failed right but nicola had a lot of trevor milton was you know, kind of like a carnival barker He made a lot of promises But really wasn't following through on that and then left with billions of dollars and and left people to clean up his mass

[00:33:07] Right. It must be frustrating to have a company that's organized well run And then still fail and a company like nicola, which should have failed it but hasn't You know, they they continue on and they have their factory and you know, they have their struggles for sure but

[00:33:26] The trevor did not set that point team up for success for sure like they've they've had to go through it To get to where they are now and they're always going to have What he started that's always going to hang over that company

[00:33:40] Yes, even though they're yeah, as you say, they're doing good things now. Yeah, and we wish them success because that You know, we need all the electric vehicles of all sizes we can get You know, it's important to the world

[00:33:54] What was the what was the thing that drew you to volta? I know you mentioned that they used the software that you were Very familiar with for the ERP systems

[00:34:05] I guess it was that combination. They were in my country. They were using software I'm familiar with and I knew it could help them And it was electric trucking, you know to me electric cars are done. You know, there's still

[00:34:16] People arguing that they're never going to drive an electric car electric vehicle but You know, someone could be laughing. That's fine. They can be laughed but trucking is is dragging its feet so The opportunity to move the path of moving that forward was like the main attraction. Yeah

[00:34:32] Let's see here. Is there anything we missed mark? No, I don't think so. No, I just felt it was It was a compelling story And you know, not that i'm giving away any secrets or anything but it and I always just wanted to share that we

[00:34:49] Were proud of what we've achieved and disappointed we haven't finished it Um, and I just thought it might be just might be of interest to your audience Yeah, I agree and I'm really looking I'm really hoping That we see like we we actualize

[00:35:07] What the folks at volta did even if they don't come back as a company Hopefully what the hard work that they put in goes into something else and that can be recognized as this was volta's Uh contribution to electric trucking Yeah, yeah, that'd be good now i'm uh

[00:35:28] on Well, I've defined on the unemployment pay as it were but i'm very much hoping that's temporary So i'm yeah, i'm looking for my next opportunity in the similar space really so um As well as the rp. I'm into edi. So that's the electronic trading

[00:35:44] When you're sharing orders or orders invoices whatever with your suppliers or customers Um, so i've got plenty of skills. I just need to find they're not the right opportunity that I can Go and use those skills On another manufacturing company in some form well if somebody's listening or

[00:36:04] Know somebody who is looking for someone who does what you do. How would people get in contact with you? I guess they could contact your good self Um, or you can find me on linkedin. I think i'm the mark garnet

[00:36:18] One of the first people to register mark garnet on linkedin. They find me there All right, so if you are interested or you have questions for mark send me an email

[00:36:26] I'll pass that on to him and if you are interested in him professionally. I'll put the link for linkedin in the show notes Brilliant, thank you, bode. Thank you so much number one. Thank you for your patience today was full of technical difficulties number two

[00:36:44] Thank you for being a patron and a really good friend to the show and me And number three. Thanks for coming on and sharing a little bit about volta. You're very welcome Thank you very much having me on it's been a real honor

[00:36:54] All right, I want to thank mark for agreeing to come on and putting up with all of the technical difficulties He was a real trooper about it if you if you couldn't tell mark is in england And there was quite a time difference between he and I so

[00:37:09] Um He was he was really generous with this time. So mark. Thank you very much for doing that And i'll make sure to put mark's linkedin In the show notes All right, everybody that is it for me this episode. I hope you all have a

[00:37:26] Wonderful weekend or week depending on what this is released and I will talk to you next episode