This year's guest speaker was The Rt.Hon Lord Drayson, a British businessman,
amateur racing driver and politician.
The title of his lecture was “Racing to Save the Planet: How a revolution in
motorsport will electrify our future environment”.
Transport is the largest and fastest growing sector source of man made green house
gases and one might not think motor sports could be the saviour of our future
environment. One of the major obstacles to reducing transport sector is the
acceptability of electric powered vehicles to consumers. Lord Drayson’s rationale for
his lecture is that he believes that UK motorsports is at the top of the technology chain
and can be at the cutting edge of high performance green technology. He set a picture
where motorsports could define what is aspirational and attractive to a mass car buying
market, and small motorsports companies in conjunction with engineering research
institutes could develop new efficient technologies, which can then be sold to volume
car makers. He felt that volume car manufacturers have not really met the challenge of
alternative fuel supplies and there were lessons to be learnt from the pharmaceuticals
and IT industries on bringing new innovations to a mass market. He felt that public
attitudes will only change if electric powered vehicles are affordable, practical and
attractive.
In his lecture he posed three challenges to the audience:
 Where do you stand on the highly politicised debate on climate change and areyou
prepared to pay for the economic costs of climate change?
 Does sound really matter in Formula 1 car racing?
 Will Formula E championship racing in cities accelerate the public appetite for
electric cars?
He stated that public attitudes will only change if electric powered vehicles are
affordable, practical and attractive. How far motorsports has come forward in
embracing electric and hybrid cars and its influence on mass car production is up for
further debate. The first Formula E championship has been announced for 2014 and
Drayson Racing has been the first to enter its team with its electric racing car. We can
only wait and see how many others will follow and the impact it will have on low carbon
innovation.
We’d welcome your views in response to his three challenges through social media. If
you have any particular questions to put to Lord Drayson, please do email us with them
and we’ll put them forward.
A film and copy of his presentation will be available shortly.
Paul Drayson trained as an engineer in the West Midlands car industry before studying
for a PhD in robotics at Aston University, which sparked his interest in business and his
lifelong career as a science entrepreneur. He has developed successful businesses in
food manufacturing, bioscience and motorsport engineering.
He has been involved in science and innovation policy since the 1990s, initially in his
role as Chairman of the BioIndustry Association and then as a member of the House of
Lords and as a minister in the Blair and Brown governments. From October 2008 to May
2010 he was Minister for Science and Innovation.
Paul is an experienced racing driver who has pioneered “green racing R&D” since 2007
and has achieved a number of “green firsts” including winning the first international Le
Mans race running on bio-ethanol fuel. He recently set a new world electric land speed
record of 204.185mph driving an all-electric racing car developed by his current
business, Drayson Racing Technologies, based in Oxford.