Motivation

In 2019, Thailand, my home country, was ranked as the 28th most polluted country out of the 98 countries evaluated in IQAir's 2019 World Air Quality Report. PM2.5 pollution is consistently at unhealthy levels here and in numerous other countries, acts as a serious health hazard, and escalates allergies and organ disfunction of millions. Growing up with PM2.5 levels intensifying in Thailand and realizing the risk pollution poses to human beings and other life forms on the planet, I felt guilty for not doing anything about it.

The transportation sector alone accounted for 27% of the global GHG emissions in 2019 responsible for climate change.

The impact?

Africa’s severe droughts (2011, 2017, 2019), South Asian floods in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh (2017), Australia’s apocalyptic fire season (2019), Texas’ power grid failure (2021). Communities destroyed, livestock wiped out, famine, homelessness, and poverty due to those events. Irreversible and material impact on the planet — all due to climate change.

Who is responsible? All of us.

An excellent way to reduce these GHG emissions is by powering vehicles through hybrid technology, complete electrification, or through alternate sources (such as hydrogen). The transition to a cleaner environment needs to be accelerated, and designing vehicles of the future to fight global warming inspires and fascinates me.

Vision

xEV development in Thailand is still in its early stages, and it would be empowering to have the opportunity to tap into this industry in its developing years and begin innovating to grow it. As someone that is driven by the ability to impact and scale, I aspire to play a crucial role in the electrification of transportation in this country. With a desire to continually learn and specialize in this arena, it would give me immense joy to work towards this rEVolution.

Although the transportation sector accounts for a significant portion of global GHG emissions, transitioning to xEVs is only part of the solution. The way xEVs are powered today must undergo substantial improvements before they can be considered “clean”. Lithium-ion battery mining and processing are extremely polluting, and majority of the electricity and hydrogen used to power these xEVs are produced through non-renewable sources as well.

Therefore, my wider aspirations also include making power generation (40% of the global GHG emissions in 2019) greener, for use in electrification of the transportation sector and to bring a sustainable change.