The theme was developments in the Swedish electric vehicle sector and the perspective was European. Discussion centered around Sweden´s position in relation to other European countries in terms of contributions and efforts in the electric vehicle sector.

What is Sweden doing to stimulate electric vehicle development and how should we focus our research, infrastructure and incentives from now on? Automotive Sweden´s Hans Nyman guided the audience and panel through a comprehensive and concrete discussion. Panelists from Alelion Batteries, Volvo, Saab, Vattenfall, Region Västra Götaland, IF Metall and the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA) expertly illuminated a number of aspects of this intriguing issue. In his concluding summary, Nyman stated that he had never before heard so many confident answers on this complex and dynamic subject.

ONE OF THE most confident answers from a unanimous panel was that the electric vehicle is definitely something we are going to be seeing more of. There is no longer any doubt that the electric vehicle will be an important component of future vehicle fleets. The question at hand now is to determine when it will make its breakthrough and how quickly it will take market shares.

ANOTHER CONFIDENT answer was that Sweden has excellent prerequisites for remaining far out on the leading edge of development and taking a pole position in the European electric vehicle race. The most emphasized success factor was Sweden´s aptitude for effective three-party collaboration between researchers, the automotive industry and the public sector. Aided by classic Swedish cooperation, we can compensate for our small size and the fact that we don´t have the resources to invest enormous sums of money like countries such as France have.

THE PANEL ALSO unanimously agreed that the main problem just now is battery development. For the electric vehicle to become an option even for the common man, the batteries must be lighter, cheaper and have longer service lives. The curves are definitely pointing in the right direction, but there is still at least a year - and maybe several years - of development ahead of us before the batteries are as good as they need to be for a large-scale electric vehicle launch.

LUDVIGSSON WAS VERY satisfied with the evening. "This was both an interesting and a beneficial analysis of an extremely important current issue. If the Swedish automotive industry is to maintain its competitive edge, it is essential that we begin an active dialog on how we will handle the green transition. We must be in the front lines of the effort to make motorism sustainable and in that effort, the electric vehicle obviously has great potential."