The future drives electric – the question is when. We are however taking further steps towards the electrification of vehicles. Last week I participated in the E-Mobility day in Gothenburg as we are getting closer to the launch of the new “Vattenfall car”. I learned a lot about the joint venture with Volvo and the benefits of this close cooperation, and we were also able to test drive the new V60 PHEV!

I have previous working experience from the German E-mobility program in Berlin where Vattenfall and BMW jointly were running a project called Mini E, which used fifty electric BMW Mini Coopers, hence the name of the proj­ect.

Although the technical development is going well, the big challenge remains – the commercialisation of the cars and its charging infrastructure.

It’s important to increas­e public acceptance for electric vehicles and to find the right market incentives, above sustainable, it needs to be simple, fun and flexible to a reasonably price.

However, you don’t need a drastic change in order to live in a more sustainable manner. Yesterday I was participating at DI Gasell, which is an event formed by the Swedish Newspaper DI, aiming to support entrepreneurial companies. Vattenfall is one of the sponsors and was presenting the One Tonne Life project. The aim of the project is to demonstrate how to reduce your CO2 footprint, from 7 tonne/person/year to 1 tonne/person/ year – and the solution is very much about having the right preconditions and attitude. During six month a normal Swedish family has lived in a climate-smart house featuring solar cells on the roof, driving an electric car and trying to live in a more sustainable way – and after six month they succeeded achieving the one tonne target!

Tomorrow I’m heading towards Amsterdam for a visit of a SOLAR car! I’ll keep you posted!