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Transcript

Good morning and thank you for inviting me to speak today.

I am sorry not be able to be with you in person.

It would have been the ideal opportunity to drop into Gaydon鈥檚 Heritage Motor Centre and find out more about the 1912 Wolseley Gyrocar.

One those curious innovative cul-de-sacs, the Gyrocar briefly bestrode the roads on 2 wheels before disappearing without a trace.

Sadly, I understand that the museum鈥檚 pi猫ce de r茅sistance the ROVER-BRM experimental gas turbine car isn鈥檛 currently available for viewing.

That鈥檚 probably just as well. When racing driver Graham Hill first tested it he remarked:

You鈥檙e sitting in this thing that you might call a motor car and the next minute it sounds as if you鈥檝e got a 707 just behind you, about to suck you up and devour you like an enormous monster.

Of course, in Britain, for every eccentric experiment you鈥檒l find a piece of great engineering that鈥檚 stood the test of time - from the Great Eastern, Brunel鈥檚 SS Great Britain, to the Forth Railway Bridge. And behind every great piece of engineering there are great engineers and great scientists.

That鈥檚 where you come in.

People who have the appetite and the potential to deliver comparable game-changing advances.

Why does this matter?

It鈥檚 not simply because we want to enhance our prestige in the eyes of the world, although we do. But because we need to reduce our carbon emissions across the economy by 50% by the mid-2020s. And 80% by 2050.

If we鈥檙e to meet these challenging targets we know we鈥檙e going to have to do something substantial about road emissions.

Twenty-two per cent of UK domestic carbon emissions are from transport - of which over 90% is on the road. And passenger cars account for over half of the total UK鈥檚 domestic transport carbon emissions.

So investment in the development and promotion of low carbon vehicles is a must.

Now we鈥檝e earmarked 拢400 million to support growth of the market for ultra low emission vehicles. This is to do a number of things.

It is helping consumers reduce the upfront costs of buying an electric car. It is supporting the provision of recharging infrastructure in the UK.

And it is supporting research and development. We need to nurture the talent capable of realising that low carbon future.

And we can鈥檛 rely on chance or serendipity to bring those great inventors and innovators to the fore.

So, with this event, the Technology Strategy Board is taking a leaf out of the Dragon鈥檚 Den school of entrepreneurship 鈥� and marrying it with an interesting variant of speed dating.

As government, we are putting 拢25 million towards supporting this low carbon vehicle competition.

It鈥檚 notable that it鈥檚 not aimed just at the automotive sector - but also at other businesses who have technical knowledge and expertise to contribute.

It鈥檚 good that there is such a wide spread of talent here today.

Now, in a minute Andrew Everett, Head of Transport, at the Technology Strategy Board will give you the detail on how the day is going to run. I am going to finish on this note.

There are 2 opportunities for you here today. Of course, there鈥檚 the competition itself but there鈥檚 also the chance for you to grab a piece of that low carbon market.

The UK is among the front-runners in the global market for ultra low carbon vehicles and there are huge commercial opportunities to exploit in manufacturing and the associated supply chain.

Engineering in the words of Gordon Brown 鈥� that鈥檚 not our ex-Prime Minister but the ex-Dean of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) - is 鈥減racticing the art of the organised forcing of technological change鈥�.

Achieve that and you can be certain not just to reap financial rewards but to stand alongside the technological titans of times gone by as leaders of a new low carbon revolution.

I look forward to keeping in touch with how this competition progresses and seeing what comes out of it. Thank you for your interest. I hope you have a very successful and productive day.