President of Iceland Assumes Patronage of Driving Sustainability '08 - Focus This Year: The Coming Electric Vehicle Revolution

REYKJAVÍK - August 12,2008: The President of Iceland, Mr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, will inaugurate Driving Sustainability '08, an exclusive international platform for sustainable energy solutions for transport, at Hilton Reykjavík Nordica, Iceland, on September 18 & 19, 2008.

Invited as special speaker, the world famous aeronaut and psychiatrist Dr. Bertrand Piccard will deliver a keynote on his global vision for sustainable mobility embodied in his Solar Impulse (www.solarimpulse.com) project of flying around the world in a solar powered airplane.

This revolutionary project is a leading symbol for the entire transportation sector and beyond of the means of renewable energy use, new high technologies, ultra-lightweight materials, and advanced energy storage and efficiency.

Toyota, Ford, and Mitsubishi will present different paths towards sustainable mobility. Better Place, Dong Energy Denmark, and Vattenfall Energy Sweden will share their vision for green energy in transport, and their immediate plans for charging infrastructure for plug-in and electric cars in co-operation with Volvo, Saab and Renault. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will talk on the role of vehicles in the sustainable energy infrastructure.

"Increasing the share of clean energy globally and making personal mobility more sustainable are two tremendous challenges we face today," says Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland and Patron of Driving Sustainability.

"This will benefit not only our environment but also the economy. The Icelanders who will buy electric cars in the coming years can reload them during the night for a few dollars. Compared to the cost of filling up your cars at the petroleum station today, these will involve enormous savings for ordinary people and the entire nation. I am therefore pleased to be able to give my support to initiatives focusing on energy solutions such as the Driving Sustainability conference," says Mr. Grímsson.

Yet-Ming Chiang, co-founder of A123 Systems and Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at MIT will brief participants of the Reykjavík conference on the most recent developments in automotive batteries and the coming electric vehicle revolution. Joel Swisher, Senior Fellow at the Rocky Mountain Institute gives the audience an insight into the next generation utility: renewable generation, energy efficiency and plug-in cars.

Bill Dubé, creator of Killacycle, (http://www.killacycle.com) the most powerful electric motorcycle in the world, will present the design and potential of high performance electric vehicles, and Chris Paine, director of the documentary film Who Killed The Electric Car will tell the story of the death and resurrection of the electric car. Chinese carmaker JiaYuan Electric Vehicles will talk about the present status and prospects of EV's in China.

Several electric vehicles; cars, motorcycles and bicycles and Iceland's first plug-in hybrid will be on display at the venue.

One hundred percent of Iceland's electricity generation comes from renewable energy and the country is the world's leading nation in utilizing renewable energy with 80% of its total energy consumption from hydro- and geothermal sources. The remainder, mostly fossil fuels, is consumed by the transport and fishing sectors; the next target for system change towards a 100% sustainable energy society.

The City of Reykjavík, Landsbanki and Icelandair host Driving Sustainability '08. Government sponsors are the National Energy Fund, and the Ministries of Industry, Communications, and Environment. Industry sponsors are Toyota, Reykjavík Energy, Mitsubishi and N1, the largest fuel distributor in Iceland, which has just announced its plan for a nationwide network of refueling stations offering biogas, ethanol and electric charging in addition to diesel and gasoline. The Embassy of Sweden in Iceland is a seed sponsor of this event.

FTO Sustainable Solutions / Framtíarorka ehf organizes Driving Sustainability, a platform for visionaries, policy makers and leading companies to confer on the present and future trends in sustainable mobility. FTO is a consulting based business that takes an active role in the implementation of solutions that lead to sustainability.

Driving Sustainability takes place in Reykjavík, Iceland on September 18&19, 2008.