The Next Challenge… Transportation Development in China!

I have been thinking a great deal about China, as have many in the automotive industry. China is the number one truck market in the world and the fastest growing car market. One thousand vehicle registrations are filed in Beijing each day. China’s appetite for raw materials – steel, natural rubber, petroleum and more – grows at a rampant pace. And more miles of highway are built in China each year than exist in all of France.

China is at a crossroads, with many choices to make with regard to the type of technology chosen for transportation, the type of energy to use, and the kind of infrastructure to support it. Will China lead the way in relying on alternatives to petroleum? Will it decide to build electric or hydrogen recharging stations instead of traditional gas stations? Will biofuels be significantly developed? What about coal-based fuels? Will new advanced technology vehicles leapfrog the traditional path of development? I wonder what decisions the Chinese people will make for themselves. But no doubt they will go a different route than we did and their choices will impact all economies.

The unique opportunities facing China are just a few of the reasons why Shanghai was selected as the location for our sixth Challenge Bibendum, scheduled for October 12-14, 2004. Many may already know about Challenge Bibendum. What began in 1998 to celebrate the 100th birthday of Bibendum – known to my American friends as the Michelin Man – has now grown to become one of the most respected environmental vehicle events in the world.

Together with our many partners – vehicle manufacturers, energy suppliers, technology developers, government officials from Asia, Europe, and North America, and worldwide institutions – we seek to enable decision makers to understand clearly, impartially, and credibly how the current state of science and technology can pave the way toward the development of mobility. How? By demonstrating, in real world conditions, the most significant progress in our journey together toward sustainable mobility.

Our goal is not to tell anyone what to think or what to do, but to help sort out the facts. What is merely wishful thinking, what is dogma, and what is worth pursuing? These issues are of paramount importance: health, safety, energy supply, living conditions, freedom of movement.

Yes, mobility is freedom, perhaps one of the most basic freedoms in any country. I remember the taste of freedom that comes from having your driver’s license for the first time. This is our passport to mobility! To encourage mobility, to support the growth of infrastructure and ease of travel, is to encourage freedom itself. And with freedom comes responsibility – to travel safely, to conserve limited resources, and to co-exist with the natural world.

As the world comes together, we realize how truly interdependent we are. How do the choices of China affect us? CO2 emissions affect the whole atmosphere. Toxic emissions, often supposed to be local, can travel over the oceans. Energy supply is of critical importance for all countries. And so it goes around the world, each of us affecting the air, the water, the land of our neighbors. Each of us dependent on our neighbors for the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink.

We are each increasingly responsible to the other and we are all responsible to future generations. We know the condition of the world we inherited, but our children will judge us on what we leave behind.

Edouard Michelin is Chief Executive Officer of Groupe Michelin.