Magneti Marelli has participated in the Michelin Challenge Bibendum 2007 in Shanghai this week as Associate Sponsor of the event, in order to confirm the commitment and contribution in the area of technologies for sustainable mobility.

The CEO of Magneti Marelli Powertrain, Piero Toselli, illustrate such commitment during the course of the main session “Policy Tribune” during the opening day. Magneti Marelli representatives participated in the roundtable on the topic of “Urban Traffic and public health”. In addition, Magneti Marelli has been present with a stand at the SAEC's Technological Exhibition Center in Anting (stand K5), and was included in the demo sessions programme with three cars (two Chery QQ 1.1 and one Panda 1.2), all equipped with AMT (Automated Manual Transmission).

One of the major global challenges of the 21st century will be the capacity of emerging economies to address the issues of sustainable road mobility. China has witnessed spectacular economic growth and increased prosperity, both mirrored by growing demands for mobility. The Chinese context is unique. With a population of 1.3 billion, exponential motorisation and rapid urbanisation China is now a country where sustainability concerns are emerging in the public opinion and are appearing high on the political agenda.

This feverish rate of motorization brings great benefits but also huge challenges. The catalogue of negative impacts is long: rising energy consumption engendering energy security issues, increased pollution impacting human health, growing congestion and gridlock in urban areas stifling efficient economic growth and causing a high rate of road fatalities and injuries.

For China there is still a window of opportunity to tackle the complexity of this array of issues by embracing sustainability principles, finely tuned to the country’s own specific needs and which will take advantage of all the emerging and new technologies but also of new standards, pioneering programs and policy measures. In short China has the opportunity to leapfrog the highly-carbon generating technologies which are still dominating vehicle fleets in most developed countries and adopt directly the latest energy efficient and low carbon technologies and curb down the ever growing CO2 emissions curve. 

When considering these facts the choice of Shanghai as the venue for the 9th Challenge Bibendum seems a natural one. A return to China is one way for Michelin and its partners to chart the way forward to a more fuel-efficient, cleaner, safer and less congested road mobility which is respectful of both people and the environment. 

The now-annual event, now in its ninth year, gathers relevant players from across the board – from research institutes to energy suppliers, policy makers to vehicle manufacturers – for four days of debate and discussion. What distinguishes Challenge Bibendum from other forums, however, is the on-the-road action that is involved. In addition to plenary sessions and exhibitions, Challenge Bibendum sees the engineers developing tomorrow’s technologies gathering to pit their labours of love against one another in real-world conditions. In addition to issues surrounding alternative energies, however – a red-hot topic for both laboratory scientists and venture capitalists – less glamourous mobility-related issues such as road safety and traffic congestion are also tackled through thematic roundtables with leading world experts.

The first day of the event saw no fewer than 10 topical roundtables – each nine hours in length – take place. Thought leaders from the world over – the former International Energy Agency Director General Claude Mandil and Indian Development Finance Corporation representative Om Prakash Agarwal among them – weighed in on issues from accelerating the implementation of the lowest carbon scenarios to the political stakes involved in managing urban traffic.