Ex-Tesla manager wants to put the energy transition into practice with his startup

• Tesla to corporate, middle management for Schröder a nightmare
• Schröder relies on a decentralized power grid with 1Komma5
• Practically implement the energy transition with electricians

Philipp Schröder, the ex-Tesla manager for Germany, left the group in 2015 after just two years and then returned to Sonnen GmbH, an energy start-up that he had co-founded. The reason given by the manager, who set up and was responsible for six locations, 150 new hires and 50 superchargers for Tesla in Germany: Tesla had become “too corporate” for him, he said in an interview with the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. Elon Musk had initially recruited Schröder personally, then the Germany manager should no longer report directly to Musk – 90 hour weeks in “middle management” and group structures, the entrepreneur had not imagined his job at Tesla and went back to Sonnen GmbH. Since Sonnen was sold to Shell by Schröder’s co-founders and he was banned from working in the field of renewable energy for 18 months, Schröder founded the fintech CAPinside, an online portal for comparing investment funds, which he resold to Universal Investment in 2020.

With 1Komma5 your home should become climate-neutral

His current startup was launched in July 2021 with a capital of 100 million euros, Porsche is one of the investors. The name 1Komma5 goes back to the climate target of 1.5 degrees and, according to Zeit, is driven by the motivation to decentralize the power grid for private households. This is about the very practical implementation of the energy transition: craftsmen, i.e. electricians, have to lay the foundations for implementation, which means installing photovoltaic systems, energy storage, heat pumps and charging stations, among other things.
And this is where Schröder describes his starting point in the Zeit interview: The immense requirements, just for the connection of 22.5 million charging stations for electric cars, are faced by an estimated just 4,000 companies, 6.67 percent of all electricians, who have a corresponding certification and are able to implement climate-relevant conversions. In the heat sector there is also a massive lack of electricians to connect heat pumps for using geothermal energy. A classic heating engineer usually does not have the required skills.
With its Hamburg showroom, the company not only wants to attract end customers, but also craftsmen. According to media reports, a drawing of Greta Thunberg together with a craftsman with a cordless screwdriver can be seen on the still covered shop windows under the slogan “Energy revolution – just do it”. The supposed contradiction should be resolved.
In a first step, 1Komma5 buys electrical companies and equips them with capital and know-how, especially in the IT area. In a second step, craftsmen are to be further qualified. The company’s offer on its website: solar systems and solar storage systems are installed in the houses by electricians on site and, above all, individually and intelligently controlled.
Schröder describes his vision for 1Komma5 as the “quintessence” of his ambitions and not only wants to lead the company to success and sell it, he wants to stay. Because “living CO₂-neutral will be cool,” he told the Handelsblatt.

Editorial office finanzen.net

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