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from a speech of Nicolas Hayek on September 5, 2008

Nicolas Hayek, who was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1928, will turn 81 on February 19th. He is a well-known Swiss businessman and a visionary entrepreneur. He co-founded the Swatch Group - currently the world’s biggest watch maker - in the 1980s after successfully restructuring two bankrupt Swiss watch makers which were outflanked and outsold by Japanese competitors. Hayek, however, was convinced that there were a way for the Swiss watch industry to become competitive again. He introduced new styling and design: Swatch’s typical bright-colored plastic watches are well-known in Europe and elsewhere. The famous Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi has become the Swiss watchmaker’s new brand ambassador.

In the 1990s,  Nicolas Hayek proved again to be a man with a vision and great longsightedness. He was aiming for an innovative electric-powered small car which should have an attractive design and an affordable price. He teamed up with Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, to develop the “Swatchmobile” or Smart car. Unfortunately, the auto industry managers didn’t share his vision of affordable, emissions-free personal mobility and ruined his brilliant concept by equipping the car with a combustion engine. Since the two-seater has been sold at an overly high price for a small car, the vehicle didn’t gain a considerable market share and caused multi-billion euro losses for the German automotive giant. It took more than ten years until the microcar’s sales took off in 2008 as a result of record high gasoline prices and growing concerns about global warming.

Now Daimler is preparing the mass-production of an electric version of the Smart. There is a pilot project in London where the vehicle is being leased to drivers in order to gain experience using the technology. Next to the testing fleet in London, Daimler and German power utility RWE are cooperating on a project to bring a fleet of 100 battery-electric cars on the streets in Berlin and to build an infrastructure of fast-charging stations. Currently, the electric Smart versions uses sodium-nickel chloride Zebra batteries. Future generations using lithium-ion batteries for power will have a larger driving range and a more competitive price. Although Daimler is on the right track now - after having lagged behind for more than a decade - the car maker could have had an early lead if it had sticked to Mr. Hayek’s plan.

Nicolas Hayek himself is again working on a green vehicle. The almost 81-year-old businessman is looking for partners to develop a fuel cell engine for an affordable non-polluting car. Fuel cells produce electricity from hydrogen and oxygen, making it a cutting-edge battery, to power an electric motor.  Though I am convinced that we’ll see many electric cars on the streets in the not-too-distant future, the majority of these EVs will have a lithium-ion battery to store the electricity. The bottom line is that electric cars will dominate the future automobile market while the energy storage media is likely to change as different technologies advance. (hydrogen fuel cells, compressed air, etc.) Once fuel cells which are unfortunately still overly expensive are advanced enough for use in mass market electric vehicles, the driving range issue will be solved.

To finish, another quote from Mr. Hayek’s speech: “In fact, the only obstacles which cannot be overcome or avoided are death and taxes!”

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/B-TOGO07_20090206-212015/200404/

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 3:17 PM and is filed under Electric Cars & Auto Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.