Rune Haaland of the Electric Vehicle Union @ The National Electric Vehicles Summit in Ireland

Watch Rune Haaland Keynote adress at the The National Electric Vehicles Summit in Ireland 26.01.2011

Rush Transcript:

Good morning, My name is Rune Haaland, I´m the president of the Electric Vehicle Union and thank you very much for having us here today.

Every once in a while a revolutionary tool comes a long that completely changes how we view the world around us. It changes the way we think, how we behave and how we live. It changes our whole society in such a profound way that future generations have no problem in identifying that perticular tool as a tipping point in history.

The electric car is such a tool and together we we are going to use it to create a new society faster than anyone could ever dream of, only a few years ago.

Different countries around the world are starting to recognize this and different incentives have been put into place to try to stimmulate the market for EVs. Many of us have been talking about the Chicken-&-Egg dillema for 2 years now. Some have acted upon getting the infrastructure in place first like here in Ireland and some have subsidized the purchase of the car itself like in the U.S. In Norway, we are very fortunate, over a time period of 20 years now, ever since the movement for electrifaction got started, there has not been any political controversy against the EV. There have only been political supporters.

This has given us world-class incentives like, free parking for all of the country´s 5000 Electric Vehicles, it has given us 3500 charging stations, access to the bus lanes, free toll on every road, tunnel and ferry crossing across the country. The list of social benefits an EV driver can enjoy in Norway is long and it is often cited and the main reason for the Norwegain EV-Success, but they are wrong..

Of course it helps to have these benfits, it helps alot. But it wouldnt be much to brag about if it wasnt for the fact that we have a very strong addherence to the principle of Polluter Pays, embedded into the norwegain taxation system. Polluter Pays is a well known princible and if you where to make a single illustration as to how that translates for Norway, it woul look something like this: Two separate societies you could say, You have the freedom to choose whichever you want to take part in but for one of them, the polluting, dark society to the left, you have to pay to join. The other one to the right, the bright renewable society to the right, is free. It´s that simple. You just tax the hell out of this and you dont tax this.

Now some people have told me that you can´t do that in my country since we dont have a tradition for thinking like that, etc. well that depends how you look at it. The whole world already have this prinsible working in their laws. For what is pollution really all about? It about your health right? So if I where to punch you in the face in front of a police officer, I´m pretty shure that I would have gotten a hefty fine, maybe even jail. Thats is true for Norway, it is true for Ireland and it is true for the rest of world as well. I would have had to pay a fine or went to jail, because of me causing pain to somebody else, to have caused harm to someones heath. Now this, is obviosly not healthy.. In fact it causes all kinds of resptory illnesses to people living is cities around the world, especially children. Just think about it, some places in the world it is actually recomended to wear a facemask because of the amount of pollution in the air. So, it should not be allowed for this to go on as a free, unhindered activity. Now, I´m not calling for jailtime for these guys but one thing is for sure, It must cost something, and this should not. Now what does that translate to in real numbers? Something like this:

So, in Norway a VW Golf actually costs a little more than a Leaf because of the taxation system. By taxing the polluter and releaving the non-polluting alternative of taxes, the playingfield has been leveled.

But we as the rest of the world are conservative when it comes to cars. Cars are a cultural item and people wont switch simply because the alternative is green. We would like to believe its different but its not. Not for the majority. Now that doesnt mean that a person who switches from gasolnie to electric doesnt become more enviromentally oriented once they get their EV, infact the EV has proven to be a massive accellerator for peoples environmental thinking, and behaivior, once people actually starts driving their EV´s. So all they need is a little bump, a little nudge, and thats where the social benefits comes in. If you build a lot of infrastructure, make the parking of an EV free and place that parking on atractive locations, people might get tempted. This is from Aker Brygge in Oslo, its 50 spots and they are packed every day, infact we had to make a new station right next to it with 20 spots soon after opening it. So yes, people might get temped. If you grant the EV access to the Buss lane people might get temped. If a picture says more than a thousand word how about a video? Yes people might get tempted. Same goes for the toll-roads etc etc.

So how do you get the benefits? You organise, you front your case, and you do it in a positive way. In Norway we have had an EV assosiation for many years. They are the most enthusiastic crowd you can imagine and every time there is a politician with a great idea for a social benefit for the electric car, the assosiations members has been there to support it, creating attention by doing axtranvagant parades together with the Police Orchestra like here and we have also had one with the riding police as well. Here we have the Mayor of Oslo riding in front in the latest parade for supporting the EV benfits. The beaty of it all is that every politcal party has ownership to at least one of the incentives. You see, over the years politicians has almost competed over who can think of the best way to support user adoption of EV´s and they do so because it a non-controversial subject, nobody can argue against the EV, it gets good media and its one of the few handfast and really visible environmental causes that is there, right in your face as a proof of progress.

So, Tax the ones that pollutes the air, Reward those who help clean it. Organise and stay positive, dont knock down doors that are probably open already.

If you do these things, get them in place you will be ready for the next phase. The phase in which the new generation of drivers never could imagine driving anything else than electric. We believe that the key to success here is the generation that is young when change like the EV is introduced. You need the abillity to make a clear cut between what once was and what is considered to be the future. You see It did not matter that the generation before us did not see the value in computers, because we did, and we made shure its potential got unlocked in such a way that society will never be the same again. We have become citizens in a whole new form of society in which the young among us are considered to be “Digital Natives” a culture term used to describe

“ a person who understands the value of digital technology and uses this to seek out opportunities for implementing it with a view to make an impact” – Wikipedia

The same is already happening when it comes to electric cars, and to illustrate that I would like to tell you a little story.

This is a picture of my daughter when she was 5 and here she is togheter with my father. One day when she was 5 she was sitting in the backseat of my fathers car and after a while driving she asked: “ Grandpa, Do I have dipers on?” Yes my father replied. Then she waited for a while before she asked: “Do you have enough electricity on the car grandpa?” My father was driving a gasoline car, but my daughter had been so used driving around in this thing that she didnt know what gasoline was. That is what we want, A whole generation of EV Natives that sees electric cars as the normal and combustion cars as the odd. The young has a much greater capacity for taking in new paradigmes, they learn faster, they are more hungry for change than our generation are. So lets give them the tools. I have head people say that we should just ban this all together, that you wont be allowed to drive a combustion car anymore. We dont believe in that, but we do believe in positive stimulation, So does the Norwegain politicians. That is Why they are now talking about implementing a 0-emission drivers licence. It will be just like a normal drivers licence only you could only use it to drive 0-emission cars. In return for making that “sacrifice” the state will pay for the students drivings lessons and mandatory courses with a cap at for example € 2500. If the person who gets the 0-emission license want to convert the license to a “normal class B” license he or she would have to pay the state back what they was given in the first place. It a great example of smart policy that will keep on giving back to society for years and years. It will create a whole generation of EV Natives, much faster than we could have done following the regular path of conversion.

We will then infact have a generation who think of this as a fuel instead of this. A generation that looks upon the car as a interconnected part of your home, your neighborhood, your society, your life. Something that is clean and something that accellerates the construction of renewable energy.

Now how is that? That the EV accellerates the contruction of renewable energy? Well for starters, once a person start using an EV, they become more concious about where their energy comes from. They will even be more likely to put solar panels on their roofs and wind-turbines on their lawn if they have one. This has been proven to be true for many years and no its just not only for the enthusiast, this happens to all kinds of drivers. I believe its in the human nature to be self-reliant if you can. Now you cant have an oil-well or a refinery for that matter, in your back yard but you can put solar and wind on your roof. You can also install a heatpump to offsett your consumption. But lets say everybody lives in the city and cant do any of these things, its true for many people for sure. They dont make new renewables do they? Yes they do. At least if you have smart mecanisms in place. In Europe we have a system called the Guarantee of Origin system for getting certificates to those who want to buy renewable energy and it makes it so that those who produce renewable energy makes more of their electricity than those who produce non-renewables. That mean if you want to make a difference, you can purchase a Guarantee of Origin certificate for the electricity consumed by your EV and thus stimulate to more renewable energy getting build. In Norway, every EV that is sold comes with a welcome package from the EV Assosiation and first year membership fee is sponsored by the car company that sell you the car. Now, Inside that package there is many things but the most important thing i believe is a Guarantee of Origin certificate from Ecohz for the amount of energy an EV consumes driving 20.000 km

So with the law on your side, and by the share fact of how the revenue is streamed; You can say that not only does every EV in Norway run on renewable energy, they stimulate the creation of more renewable energy.

Its when you put all these pieces together, and we have´nt even talked about smart grid yet… its when you do this, that the EV becomes truly beatiful. When you build mobility and housing around renewable energy and connect them all seamingly togheter, its when you do this, that what we need to do becomes obvious, exiting and inspirational, all at the same time. Thats the message we want to talk about. and that is want we want to make shure happen.

So lets get off our addiction, Oil means pollution. Oil means conflict. Even if we we where to save a few gallons here and there by creating more efficient enginges for our gasoline-cars. It will still be pollution. It will still be conflict. Why try to reduce pollution when you have the oportunity to remove it. Why try to ease a dependence when you have the opportunity to be free of it. You all know the answer. Its because it wouldnt be worth it. Life is short and if you get the chance to work on things that are truly great, you should jump at the opportunity, and don´t settle for mediocracy.

Lets turn a page on a polluting past and look towards the clean future that is ours to create. Lets turn a page.. Lets throw away the facemask and let us once more feel the livegiving quality of the fresh air.

Lets save this guy, and lets do it together.

At last I would like to say that,

People used to say that this was just a computer that was small. They where wrong. And the world is a better place because of them being wrong.

People say that this is just a car that´s electric. They are wrong, and the world will be a better place because of us being right

Thank you for your attention,

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