Electric Vehicles International Experts meeting

Good morning. Thank you for coming. It is good to see so many practical, pragmatic people here in this room working together to move us toward finding the practical, pragmatic answers we will need for the future.

Many of you have made a special effort to be here from all corners of the globe and it is great to see such a tremendous international response to what is, after all, an issue that affects everyone.

This event takes place against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world – and not just in the financial markets.

Climate change is a threat that almost everyone now recognises we must take seriously.

Meanwhile, energy security and oil supplies are once again front page news as price volatility hits both the economy and the driver at the petrol pump.

At a time of great uncertainty, the public is looking for cheap, reliable transport solutions…

Governments are searching for efficient and clean transport networks that can rely on secure energy supplies…

And businesses are looking to remain profitable and competitive in an era when the economy is under strain and environmental concerns are becoming ever more pressing.

It follows that the government and industry must act together – and that is exactly what we are doing both here in the UK and in conjunction with our many international partners.

I am equally confident that today’s International Experts Meeting will contribute greatly to finding the long-term solutions we need in terms of both transport and energy.

Cars and light vehicles account for some 16% of the UK’s CO2 emissions and around 12% for the EU as a whole.

So if our discussions today can go even a small way toward inspiring more people to develop and use electric vehicles, it will greatly help to cut global emission figures.

Getting there means putting more people and more companies on the path toward a lower carbon future – but as we all know, we aren’t going to get there overnight.

For electric vehicles, we know many of the hurdles we have to overcome. Primarily, the cost of batteries; but also their range; the development of recharging infrastructure; and the upfront development and retail costs of new models.

All of these issues will have to be addressed.

The good news is that there are a great many positives working in our favour.

In the first place, rising fuel prices mean there’s a growing recognition of the need to adapt – not just among environmental campaigners or the political elite, but right across the country, including people like my own constituents.

We can take advantage of that. For instance, here in the UK we now have more families with two cars than no cars. What if we can persuade them to make their ‘runabout’ their green car?

Of course, there’s still the issue of upfront cost for electric cars. But we already know that electric vehicles can be run at a fraction of the price of regular petrol models and the servicing costs are lower as well.

It’s not only public perceptions that are changing rapidly though.

Practically every major car maker is pushing ahead with new concepts, unleashing a wealth of creativity, innovation and investment in this area.

That concentration of effort is already delivering tangible results.

In fact, it’s hard to avoid stories in the newspapers or international trade press trumpeting the latest developments in electric vans or plug-in powered sports cars.

I’ve seen the results for myself and I have to say I’ve been really impressed.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of trying out an electric van that is already in use at Tesco and Center Parcs for example.

And as I said, I thoroughly enjoyed my drive in the latest Tesla this morning.

Now, I’m not saying for one moment that Geoff Hoon in an electric car is the key endorsement you’ve all been waiting for to transform the fortunes of the industry.

However, as the Secretary of State for Transportin the UK, I can add my support to the cause of electric vehicles in certain practical ways.

That’s why today I am very happy to announce a package of measures that I believe will help drive the technology forward and provide the impetus for sustained progress in the future.

The first of these is a new Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstration Programme.

Under this scheme, we will aim to fund two or three electric demo projects across the UK in 2009/2010.

The plan here is to have up to 100 innovative vehicles on the road next year with tailpipe emissions of 50 grams of CO2/km or less and a significant electric-only range.

This will allow us to test how the latest all-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles operate in the real world and understand when and how consumers re-charge them.

The second announcement is the launch of up to £20 million in funding for UK R&D competitions.

This programme will be aimed at improving the performance and costs of electric, hybrid and other low-carbon cars.

The competition will be managed by the Technology Strategy Board. This is part of a major 5-year programme that the Prime Minister announced in July and you’ll be able to hear more about it at the National Low Carbon Vehicle event at Millbrook tomorrow.

The final announcement of the day concerns the DfT’s Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Programme.

Our thinking here is that since the public sector is a major customer for all sorts of things, we can also use it to help bring greener vans to the commercial market.

This programme is being managed for us by Cenex and is aimed squarely at maximising the power of green procurement to support the development of new vehicle technologies.

We are aiming to get greener vans on the streets from next year and to help us we’ve also expanded the number of new partners taking part.

Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, and Newcastle City Councils are all signing up to the programme, along with the Coventry Low Carbon Fleet Partnership. As such, they join the Royal Mail, TfL, the Metropolitan Police, the Environment Agency, the Government Car and Dispatch Agency and HMRC on the list of partners.

We’ve also shortlisted 10 companies who will be competing to supply lower carbon and all-electric vans under the scheme.

For Low Carbon Vans:

Ford
Mercedes-Benz
Citroen
Ashwoods
and Land Rover.

And for All-Electric Vans:

Modec
Smiths Electric Vehicles
LDV
Nissan
and Allied Vehicles.

Overall, these announcements represent a commitment of more than £100 million by the Government.

More than that, though, these initiatives highlight the huge support that investments in this area enjoy right across Government, up to and including, the Prime Minister himself.

I’m sure that this level of interest is shared by other leaders around the globe and that can only be a positive thing for the future of electric vehicles.

From an environmental perspective, we believe supporting the low carbon car market is the right thing to do.

Low carbon and electric vehicles will help to improve air quality in urban areas and I want this country to provide global leadership in terms of demonstrating what we can achieve.

But we are not being entirely altruistic about this. Low carbon vehicles represent the future and I want the UK to play a key role in developing the technology that will come with making these vehicles a success.

I also want to make sure that we help inspire innovation around the world, while forging the right international standards to avoid unnecessary delays in getting these cars and vans to market.

There are many areas where the public sector can help, but you all know as well as I do that electric vehicles will only succeed if we get the economics right in the commercial world.

For some users, the numbers may already make sense. But for many drivers – especially among the general public – the figures still do not add up.

Events like this one today can help change that.

Our job is to get to the crossover point as quickly as possible and the best way to do that is to work together, reinforce our collaboration wherever possible, and offer help with targeted funding where that makes sense.

Before I conclude, I’d like to mention what I hope is an obvious point, but an important one – the UK is just one country. This is a global industry looking for global solutions to a global challenge. We will all need to work together to make that happen.

What I can tell you is that we share the same vision… I know we’re on the same path toward a low carbon future… and I can certainly promise you that we are ready to take any lessons learned today on to the G8 summit in Japan in November.

It is a journey, but I hope today will stand out as a notable landmark on the road to the future.

Again, I’m very grateful for your attendance, and for your attention, and now I’d like to invite Dan Sperling on to the stage.

Thank you.

(This speech represented existing departmental policy but the words may not have been the same as those used by the Minister.)