Highlights from the Evening Standard’s Plug It In event
👉 Thanks to the Evening Standard for a great Plug It In event at the Design Museum.
💡 Here are our top five takeaways.
Future city.
Paul Priestman delivered an inspiring opening speech sharing his Vision for Cities of The Future & How Design and Transport intersect. It's a fascinating challenge where ownership, demographics, transport and many factors collide. Also, check out his fantastic design work, future-proofing London's tubes!
Future car.
Polestar is killing it with their beautiful cars. In their mission of an electrified future, they have reconsidered everything from automotive retail, using blockchain to see the ledger of materials and minerals used and their moonshot to produce in a climate-neutral way without having to offset any carbon. They cite the direct link between infrastructure and adoption. Come on, politicians, we need better legislation— A recurring theme which spanned the day!
🙌 Thanks to Jonathan Goodman and Fredrika Klarén (Polestar)
Future company.
Adden Energy, a battery company from Harvard, is creating the best battery. Think the smallest and most durable. Bellwether Industries Urban Aircraft blew everyone's mind with their flying car. Think Blade Runner, and it's set to launch in 2028. Shotgun! Kaity Fisher shared Wayve's incredible work using machine learning to build an autonomous vehicle company. They're going for a fleet-first approach, starting with grocery delivery. Book that Ocado slot ASAP.
🙌 Thanks to lucy Siegle (Evening Standard), Kaity Fischer (Wayve) and KT (Kai-Tse) Lin (Bellwether Industries)
Destination Net-Zero.
What if Santa Claus flew over London and transformed all our cars into EVs? With 2.8 million vehicles and 52% of UK citizens nervous about converting, we might need Santa. On the plus side, National Grid has been creating more power from Green technologies since 2016. Evening Standard is actively championing air quality. Here's to a future without having to offset carbon.
🙌 Thanks to Graeme Cooper BSc MBA (National Grid), Helena Bennett (Green Alliance), Ade Thomas, Christina Calderato (Transport for London) and David Marsland (Chair)
The Electric age.
'The lights are changing, and they're certainly going green', said London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Cities are responsible for 70% of emissions. He announced that 25 TFL sites will be converted to rapid charging points and is determined for London to lead the green way. Another learning: if you want to convince people to change their behaviour. Don't start the conversation with climate change but with the practical benefits of today.
