Interview with Michael Dutheil Eriksen, Watt & Well Country Manager, Nordic Region
Michael joined the company in January 2025, tasked with building up a local team in Oslo to develop sales and services in the Nordic region, covering Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. With extensive experience as key account manager at Exide Technologies, an international leader in lead acid batteries and battery energy storage system, Michael brings valuable sales expertise and local market knowledge, essential for driving the next phase of growth.
Let’s start by asking what attracted you to Watt & Well?
Watt & Well is an innovative and growing enterprise, serving a booming market with strong demand from renewables and e-mobility sectors. Its presence across diverse sectors also sparked my interest- especially in Space, which adds a unique, high-tech dimension to the company’s profile.
Benoit, our CEO, and the management team have identified the significant market growth potential of the region. They’ve laid the foundations, leveraging the French international internship program (VIE) to set up an office in Stavanger and working with the French-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce (CCFN). Now, as part of a strategic move, the Stavanger office is being replaced by our new Oslo office, which will serve as the regional HQ for the Nordic region. This investment will further strengthen our presence and enable us to serve the local market effectively. This role presents an excellent opportunity to make a substantial impact by building a team from the ground up and growing the regional presence of the company. It is very exciting from both a business development and career advancement perspective.
What is your role and what does a typical day involve?
There’s no such thing as a typical day! These first months have involved setting up the new office here in the heart of Oslo, travelling to France for technical training on the products and services, and getting to know the team and organization. We’ve recently hired a Field Application Engineer (FAE) who will join me in Oslo as we establish a local team. The energy and motivation of everyone that I’ve met are really stimulating.
Now my job is to get out there and raise the visibility of the company, to leverage my business development know-how, to build on the excellent work done by the VIE and establish contacts with existing and potential clients across the region. I’ll be attending the Nordic EV Summit in Oslo in April, where we will have an exhibition stand. In June we’ll be participating at the EVS 38 in Gothenburg, Sweden, with a Watt & Well exhibition stand. It will be a great opportunity to showcase our solutions and meet with players across the industry.
What opportunities do you see for Watt & Well in the Nordic Region?
E-mobility is clearly one of the fastest growing markets, with Norway leading the way in EV ownership. In 2024, 89% of the country’s new car sales were fully electric, setting a global precedent for the transition away from fossil fuels. The country is on track for 100% EV sales by the end of 2025, with fully electric cars now outnumbering pure petrol cars on the roads. Denmark also has a growing share of EVs, reaching 64% of new car sales in January 2025.
To support this growing demand for e-mobility, the EV charging infrastructure in Norway has been expanding rapidly, and to date, there are more than 9,500 fast charging stations (>60kW) across the country, up 50% over the last two years. Watt & Well’s 30 kW modular power units (MPU-R2) and electric vehicle interface (EVI), offer all the resources required for fast charger integration, guaranteeing the interoperability of charge points, and helping to overcome one of the main customer pain points.
Another important sector driving demand for charging is in the construction market. The city of Oslo requires all municipal construction and infrastructure projects to be 100% emission-free. Consequently, all construction site machinery must be emission-free., Electrically powered solutions are the most practical and widely adopted approach, driving strong demand for battery energy storage systems (BESS). These BESS require both unidirectional and bi-directional power units to connect the construction vehicles. As a leading manufacturer of high-power conversion and communication modules, Watt & Well has the solutions and expertise needed to support Norway’s decarbonization .
The development of smart grids coupled with energy storage is another exciting area of opportunity. High performance bi-directional charging modules can control the flow of energy to and from the grid to deliver the widest range of energy services efficiently and cost effectively.
And what about the market challenges?
I would say that there are three key challenges.. The first is established players already hold substantial market share with their fully integrated charging solutions, while Chinese competitors exert pricing pressure at the lower end of the market. Navigating this dynamic requires us to clearly differentiate our solutions on quality, interoperability, local support, and reliability.
A second challenge arises from the current geopolitical climate, which has sparked economic uncertainty and caused some markets to postpone aspects of their energy transition plans. As a result, the adoption of renewable energy and electric vehicles has, in certain instances, been slower than anticipated. We’ve already seen in 2024 a decline in EV sales in Sweden, which is the region’s largest market, as well as in Finland.
While these challenges are real, the potential in the region far outweighs them, presenting significant opportunities for Watt & Well. As a European manufacturer, with local technical sales, able to install our products and support customers with unmatched efficiency, reliability, and service. Which brings me to the third challenge, which is notoriety. And that is my objective, to grow Watt & Well’s presence in the market as the “go-to” partner of choice for E-mobility and renewables solutions. Driven by continuous innovation and unwavering excellence, I’m confident that the Nordic region will generate strong revenue growth in the months and years ahead – as we continue converting power into confidence.
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