0:06

Hello and welcome to Are We There Yet,

0:08

the podcast looking at the innovations emerging

0:10

from the workshops, labs, and secret

0:12

test tracks of Hyundai. Across

0:16

the series, we've heard about technology

0:18

which is changing our world. Whether

0:20

we've been talking about electric racing cars,

0:22

hydrogen power, or sustainable

0:24

materials, each episode has

0:27

been a step on the road to cleaner motoring.

0:31

This edition is taking us even

0:33

deeper. Today's

0:36

guest has probably gone further than anyone

0:38

else, quite literally, to promote

0:40

clean mobility. I'm

0:43

Suzi Perry and this podcast comes to you from

0:45

Hyundai Motor. I

0:50

was thinking, what is a sense of adventure?

0:53

Is it to push yourself beyond your own

0:55

limit? Because something you may consider

0:57

to be adventurous others may

0:59

be like, " Nah." How relative

1:02

is it? as a child, I

1:04

built a raft with three of my girlfriends and we raced

1:06

it down the river Severn over rapids,

1:08

over the odd competitor to hunt

1:11

for victory, and I absolutely

1:13

loved the buzz of it. And I've

1:15

always thought that I'm pretty spirited in

1:17

that sense. I love to try anything once.

1:20

I ride horses, motorbikes, anything really

1:22

with an engine. I've jumped from bridges,

1:24

flown in fast jets, sailed freezing waters

1:27

all in the pursuit of a thrill or

1:29

to compete for glory. And that's sort

1:31

of been my level, really. The odd

1:33

random world record in a group with

1:36

my TV show that I used to work on

1:38

years ago, but it's really very relative.

1:41

And I say that because my guest

1:43

today made history for being the first

1:45

person to travel nonstop

1:47

around the world in a balloon, and

1:49

then circumnavigate the globe in a solar

1:52

powered airplane. He's

1:54

almost out of this world. He's an

1:56

explorer, a psychiatrist,

1:58

and an ambassador for clean technologies,

2:01

Bertrand Piccard. Thank you so much

2:03

for coming to the podcast. It's great to have you with us.

2:05

With great pleasure.

2:08

Bertrand, you spent your entire

2:10

life pushing boundaries. You've done

2:12

some remarkable things, recorded

2:14

some historic achievements, and

2:16

I've mentioned a couple of them in the introduction.

2:19

I'd like to know, where did your pioneering

2:22

spirit and now your passion for

2:24

clean technologies come from?

2:26

I think I was really inspired

2:28

in my childhood by all

2:30

the explorers I met. Of course

2:32

there was my grandfather who was the first in the stratosphere.

2:36

There was my father who was the first to touch

2:38

the deepest spot in the ocean with his bathyscaphe,

2:41

deep sea submarine in the Mariana Trench,

2:43

11 kilometers down. But they were

2:45

also all the astronauts,

2:48

explorers, mountaineers, divers,

2:50

environmentalist that my father

2:53

knew and was inviting at home.

2:55

So I had the opportunity to meet Charles

2:58

Lindbergh, to meet the early astronauts of

3:00

the American space program, to witness

3:02

lift off of six Apollo rockets.

3:05

And I remember very well, it was in July,

3:08

1969 in

3:10

the same week my father started

3:12

the dive in the Gulf Stream

3:14

for one month with one of these submarines

3:17

and I was invited to witness

3:19

the liftoff of Apollo 11. And in

3:22

that week I knew I

3:24

was going to be an explorer.

3:26

That was the type of life I wanted

3:28

to have.

3:29

It must have been incredible

3:31

to have been surrounded by

3:33

that kind of company and that kind of essence,

3:36

really of humanity. What

3:39

was it about adventuring,

3:41

then, that really struck

3:44

with you? Was it a human

3:46

pushing themselves to the limit or

3:48

was it discovery? Was it a combination

3:50

of all of these things?

3:51

It was the fact that I was reading all

3:54

these stories of exploration in

3:56

newspapers, in books, I was

3:58

looking at that on TV, and

4:00

the following days I was meeting

4:02

the people, I was talking

4:04

to them, and I saw

4:07

that they were not Superman.

4:09

They were just passionate people

4:11

who had a dream, who dedicated

4:13

their life to achieve their dream, who

4:16

put all the efforts and

4:18

did not have any fear to fail.

4:21

And that was so unbelievable

4:24

to see these people who are writing

4:27

history and they were taking the

4:29

time to speak to me. Probably

4:31

what happened in my mind in this moment is

4:33

that this experience

4:37

destroyed completely the gap

4:39

between the dream and the reality.

4:42

There was no gap anymore. So of

4:44

course it's maybe

4:46

a bit of a naive vision, but

4:49

nevertheless, it gives me the impression that

4:51

nothing was impossible anymore.

4:53

I guess meeting these people was

4:56

extraordinary, but how did you start? Was it the

4:59

hang gliding that you started

5:01

with?

5:02

Well I started not so well

5:04

because I was dreaming

5:06

of exploration, but

5:08

I had the impression that everything had

5:10

been achieved. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin

5:12

put their feet on the moon, I

5:15

was thinking there's nothing left for

5:17

me. And any way I was

5:19

dreaming of being an explorer and I was

5:21

afraid to climb in a tree. So

5:24

it was not a good start for me.

5:27

And what's happened is that I

5:29

started to develop in my heart like

5:32

a compass with a needle

5:34

that was not showing the north, but

5:36

showing the unknown, showing

5:38

what had not yet been accomplished,

5:41

what was still to be explored. And

5:44

each time there was something new, I

5:46

was thinking, " I have to try that."

5:48

And the thirst time I saw

5:51

a hang glider flying in the

5:53

sky in Switzerland when I was 16 years

5:55

old, I thought, " I have to that,

5:57

and it will maybe cure me from

5:59

my fear of Heights." And it's exactly

6:02

what's happened. In a few years I

6:04

went from the boy was afraid

6:06

to climb in the tree to the European

6:08

champion of aerobatic

6:10

hang- gliding. And this is actually

6:12

what brought me to become a psychiatrist,

6:15

a psychotherapist, hypnotherapist,

6:17

to help people to

6:20

cultivate their inner skills.

6:22

It's brought me to the

6:25

exploration of the inner world

6:27

as much as the outer world. And

6:29

basically I was curious, I wanted

6:31

to understand everything. I wanted to do everything,

6:34

and every opportunity in life I think

6:36

I took it to explore it and try

6:38

to do something with it.

6:39

Can I ask you about the balloon

6:42

flight in 1999?

6:44

I think most people, when they were watching

6:47

that story unfold, would have had

6:49

the same thought about the fear of dropping out

6:51

of the sky. Now, I interview

6:53

a lot of drivers and riders

6:55

in Formula One and MotoGP, and

6:58

they don't think about that until they start

7:00

to get a little older and they see the walls

7:02

coming in and they always say, " When

7:04

you feel and see the fear, it's time

7:06

to retire." So

7:09

in terms of the fear factor for

7:11

you doing that flight

7:13

in the balloon, was there any, or

7:16

did you feel as though you calculated

7:18

everything that could happen and you managed it

7:20

in that sense? How did you approach

7:23

that?

7:23

So of course before the flight I

7:26

had the fear of failing. I was thinking, " It's

7:28

my dream. I hope

7:30

it will work." Yeah, I

7:33

had real big butterflies in the

7:35

stomach when I arrived on the launch

7:37

field and I saw the balloon ready to take

7:39

off and I just had to climb in the gondola

7:42

and go, " Yes." That was very impressive.

7:45

But once you are really in

7:47

this situation, you are just doing what you

7:49

have to do with it, the

7:52

fear almost disappears. So

7:55

of course it remains

7:57

a feeling of respect

8:00

for what you're doing. You have to be careful,

8:02

you have to do it well, you have to concentrate,

8:04

you need to focus on the right

8:07

things. But

8:09

fear in itself is

8:12

like the signal

8:14

that you are not connected to yourself.

8:17

Almost 20 days with

8:19

the balloon, a lot of planning, pre-

8:22

planning before that.

8:24

When you actually achieved that

8:26

dream, that goal, what

8:28

were you feeling?

8:29

I was relieved, because the balloon

8:31

flight around the world was six years of

8:33

my life with two previous

8:36

failures, and the first one was

8:38

a miserable failure. I

8:40

announced that I would fly around

8:42

the world in the jet streams, a

8:44

flight of three weeks, breaking

8:47

all the world records, and after

8:49

six hours, I was

8:51

down in the water in the Mediterranean Sea

8:54

with a technical problem. And

8:56

that was for me like a vaccination

8:59

against stupidity. From

9:01

that moment on I didn't care so

9:04

much about what other people

9:06

would think. So it was an

9:08

interesting expense. It was not fun. My

9:11

daughter, my eldest daughter, she was

9:13

afraid of going to school. She said, " Daddy,

9:15

my friends are going to make fun of me

9:17

because you failed so dramatically." And

9:20

I told her, " it's normal

9:23

to fail if you try something

9:25

new, never anybody had done it

9:27

before, so you have to try. Don't be afraid

9:30

of failing." And she was reassured,

9:32

she went to school and everything went well. The

9:35

only thing when you fail is you have to try

9:38

again, but in another way.

9:40

You each time you need to find another

9:43

technology, another strategy, another

9:46

solution.

9:47

And Bertrand, you completed the first

9:49

global circumnavigation in a solar

9:51

powered plane in 2016.

9:54

Did this idea come

9:57

after the balloon adventure?

9:59

You know what happened is that

10:01

at the landing of the Breitling Orbiter 3

10:03

balloon, there was

10:05

40 kilos of propane

10:08

left out of the 3. 7 tons

10:11

I had when I took off. It

10:13

was really tight. I succeeded,

10:15

but no margin. And at

10:18

this moment, I thought it's not

10:20

the sky that is the limit, it's the

10:22

fuel that is the limit. And

10:24

I thought in order to do better, I

10:27

need to get rid of the fuel. And

10:29

this is when I started to dream about a solar

10:31

powered airplane that would fly with no fuel

10:33

at all around the world. But of course from

10:36

the dream to the success, it

10:38

took 15 years. It

10:41

was twice the time

10:43

that I was thinking it would take.

10:46

it was at least four times more expensive.

10:49

But if

10:52

you take easy goals, you

10:55

just... Well, everybody

10:57

will say, " Okay, great, we'll help you, but

11:00

it has no value." If you take impossible goals,

11:03

then you find

11:05

people to support you who are pioneers,

11:07

who are very creative, who have a lot of

11:10

imagination, and the team

11:13

that came around Solar Impulse

11:15

was an absolutely fantastic team, and this

11:17

is why we succeeded.

11:18

Was that the point that you became

11:20

very interested in clean technologies?

11:23

Was that when that really clicked for you at

11:25

the end of the balloon flight?

11:27

I was born and raised in

11:29

a family that was aiming at

11:31

protecting the environment. When

11:33

my grandfather went in the stratosphere,

11:35

one of his goals was to show that it was possible

11:38

to fly at very high altitude in thinner

11:40

air, above the bad weather, where

11:42

the fuel consumption of the airplanes would be lower.

11:45

So his purpose was already

11:48

ecological. When my father went

11:50

to the Mariana Trench, his goal was to see

11:53

if there was life in the

11:55

deepest trenches in the time where

11:57

all the governments wanted to drop their

11:59

radioactive waste and toxical

12:01

waste in the bottom of the oceans. And

12:03

I always understood that scientific

12:06

exploration has to serve quality of

12:08

life.

12:09

And you've been nominated as the UN

12:12

Goodwill Ambassador for the environment, that was in 2015, and

12:15

now appointed a special advisor to the European

12:17

Commission last year to

12:19

search for new solutions

12:21

as part of the Foresight project, which

12:24

is a green recovery program. Your partnership

12:27

with Hyundai began back in 2017,

12:30

didn't it? There's a lot of companies that are investigating

12:32

clean technologies. What was it, would

12:34

you say, that particularly inspired

12:37

you to work and come on board with Hyundai?

12:40

For me, after flying around the world in

12:42

an electric solar

12:44

powered airplane, I

12:46

could only drive a car that was

12:48

full electric. And

12:50

for me, Hyundai had the best

12:53

example of an electric car because

12:56

it is affordable so everybody

12:58

can buy it. It's very

13:00

performant, you have a good range,

13:03

and it's a nice looking car. So

13:05

for me, it was really the thing to promote. If

13:07

you promote a electric car that is really

13:10

expensive, you give the impression that being

13:13

ecological is only for the rich

13:16

people. I wanted to show that it is

13:18

for everybody. So I start to do

13:20

with the IONIQ electric

13:23

Hyundai, IONIQ, and then as soon

13:25

as the KONA arrived on the market,

13:27

I switched to the KONA, which is for me an absolute

13:30

perfect car for everyone.

13:33

I really want to ask you about the Hyundai NEXO,

13:35

because in 2019, you again played

13:37

your part in promoting clean mobility,

13:39

breaking a world distance record driving

13:42

that car. Tell us a bit about that

13:44

and your impressions of this next generation

13:47

hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

13:48

The Hyundai NEXO, it's

13:51

a electric hydrogen car. You

13:53

don't have the battery, but you have a fuel cell

13:56

and you have six kilos of hydrogen

13:58

in your tank. And this

14:00

is something that will

14:03

boom on the market

14:05

as soon as you will have enough fuel stations

14:07

with hydrogen. And I

14:10

thought I have to show that

14:13

world records can also

14:16

be made by normal

14:18

cars, not only prototypes.

14:20

So I took the and

14:23

drove the world record for distance

14:26

on one single tank

14:28

of hydrogen. That was through France.

14:31

And it was really fun because

14:33

I was taking politicians, I

14:36

was taking heads of states, Prince

14:38

Albert came with me, a

14:40

journalist came with me, and

14:43

I drove there almost 800 kilometers

14:46

on the single tank. And that was

14:48

the world record. And it

14:50

shows that the hydrogen technology

14:53

is ready. And now we absolutely

14:55

need to put enough hydrogen

14:58

fuel stations everywhere

15:00

in order to give the wish to people

15:03

to buy these hydrogen cars.

15:05

It's quite extraordinary to think that you also had 49

15:07

kilometers left on the range at the end of that

15:10

778 kilometer

15:12

journey across France. So still

15:14

more to come.

15:15

Absolutely. And you know what is

15:18

extraordinary is that there are some countries

15:21

that are going faster

15:23

than others in term of hydrogen. In

15:25

a lot of countries of Europe, everybody's

15:27

waiting for the government to take action,

15:30

but in Switzerland, it started

15:32

in a private endeavor,

15:35

and now the first hydrogen trucks have already

15:38

arrived on the Swiss market. You can

15:40

see them driving. And this will

15:42

really open completely the market

15:45

of hydrogen mobility in Switzerland. And there

15:48

are no need for subsidies. You

15:50

see what is interesting is that people

15:53

always think the hydrogen is only

15:55

for the future, electric mobility is

15:57

for the future, batteries are for the future.

15:59

No, no. It's now. You

16:01

can have full electric cars

16:03

now. You can have hydrogen

16:05

cars now with distribution of hydrogen.

16:08

You can have hydrogen trucks.

16:10

Everything is available. So now it's not

16:12

the technology that has to improve,

16:16

it's the mindset of the people. And

16:18

this is why pioneering spirit

16:20

is so important, not only

16:22

to fly around the world, but in every day's life,

16:24

in every choice of consumption.

16:26

You launched the hydrogen mobility in Switzerland

16:29

in June this year. We talked

16:31

about it on this podcast previously

16:33

and how hydrogen will work

16:36

alongside EVs. But how

16:38

significant do you feel the development

16:40

of the hydrogen fuel cell is?

16:43

What is really important to understand with hydrogen

16:45

and fuel cells is the fact

16:47

that it will allow heavy

16:50

electric vehicles to

16:52

work. In the battery, it's

16:55

quite fine for light

16:58

vehicles. When I drive with a KONA, it's

17:01

perfect, fully efficient. With

17:03

trucks, with boats, trains,

17:06

maybe even airplanes, the hydrogen

17:08

technology is better because you don't have the

17:10

weight of the batteries.

17:13

You just have the fuel cell. And what

17:15

I like with hydrogen technology

17:17

is that it allows to

17:20

store solar

17:22

and wind energy, which are intermittent

17:25

sources. It allows

17:27

more energy independence

17:29

and autonomy. And it also

17:31

allows to federate all the actors

17:34

of the market. It allows

17:36

the oil companies to participate

17:39

into this new business opportunity, because

17:41

oil producers are people

17:44

who can also produce hydrogen, they

17:46

can transport hydrogen, they can sell

17:48

hydrogen, so can be associated

17:50

to the energy transition. And

17:52

this is something very, very good because you

17:54

make friends in the industry

17:57

with hydrogen, instead of scaring

17:59

everyone who is not able to participate

18:01

in it.

18:02

Let's just jump back a little to

18:04

the IONIQ 5 now. We've been

18:06

focusing on this incredible car quite a bit

18:09

during this series, whether

18:11

it's the groundbreaking design or

18:13

the use of sustainable materials, or

18:15

indeed the battery. And of course, it's

18:17

the first vehicle from Hyundai's dedicated

18:19

battery electric vehicle lineup brand,

18:21

and you were the first person to drive it.

18:24

So what was that initial experience

18:26

like?

18:28

Well, it was a fantastic experience to

18:30

get in the car and to drive

18:32

it, and it was a terribly bad experience

18:35

to give the car back to Hyundai and not

18:37

being able to keep it. Because

18:40

I can tell you, this car is like

18:42

a spacecraft. The

18:45

shape, you have

18:47

the impression to be in Star Trek, which

18:50

for Piccard is quite normal, maybe.

18:52

I was going to say, you've got the right name, haven't you?

18:55

It's like a spacecraft. It's absolutely

18:57

beautiful shape. And the

18:59

performance is incredible. All

19:02

the options you have inside are incredible.

19:05

It's a car with which you

19:07

can charge other things.

19:10

From your car you can charge a electric

19:12

bike, you can charge some

19:15

lights when you go for a picnic,

19:17

when you go camping. It's

19:19

a car that is not only driving, it's also

19:21

giving back electricity to

19:23

other items.

19:24

Yeah, it's like taking your house with you almost, isn't

19:27

it? It's quite an incredible change

19:29

to how we normally perceive a car

19:31

to be. You helped showcase

19:33

IONIQ 5 at EVER Monaco, in

19:35

2021 this year, in May.

19:37

What was the reaction like from

19:39

the guests? Did they see it as groundbreaking?

19:42

Did they get it?

19:43

Absolutely. I presented

19:46

it to Prince Albert, who is a really good friend

19:48

of mine, and we had a good time

19:51

looking at it, sitting in it.

19:54

Monaco is a good place to show new cars,

19:57

because Monaco is like

19:59

the temple of automobile

20:01

racing and demonstrations

20:03

and industry, and showing

20:06

the IONIQ 5 there was

20:09

really nice for me. And not

20:11

only this, in Monaco a few

20:13

weeks before I tested

20:16

the ETCR Hyundai

20:18

car, it's a racing car

20:20

on battery, fully

20:22

electric, and I could drive it.

20:25

I was driving it in the streets of Monaco.

20:28

We were lucky enough to have some pieces

20:30

of the Monaco Formula

20:32

One racing track that were reserved

20:35

for us. And I could really

20:37

drive fast, and I tell you, it's impressive, when

20:39

you get into the tunnel and around

20:41

the swimming pool, exactly like a Formula

20:43

One, and I was driving by myself

20:45

with these electric Hyundai

20:47

racing car, I thought, " Well,

20:50

this is really changing the

20:52

automobile racing tradition. "

20:56

You can do it without fumes. You can

20:58

do it without noise. You

21:00

had the impression to participate

21:02

in a turning point

21:05

in racing sport.

21:07

Augusto took you out, didn't he? I watched a little

21:09

film that you'd made.

21:10

Before taking Prince Albert with

21:12

me in the car, I had to learn how to drive the

21:14

car, and it was Augusto who taught

21:17

me. So I started with the real

21:19

racing driver with me, and then

21:21

I could drive myself. But

21:24

the car is absolutely amazing.

21:26

And it's a car that

21:28

is similar to the one that people

21:30

can buy. It's not a

21:32

prototype like a Formula

21:35

One that is completely different. It's

21:37

the same shell. Of

21:40

course it's faster. Of course you have more batteries.

21:43

But it shows that now the performance

21:46

is not just coming out

21:48

of an prototype that is

21:51

incredible, but the performance

21:53

comes because it's electric.

21:55

And his royal highness Prince

21:57

Albert obviously has great green

21:59

credentials and is always looking at

22:01

ways, isn't he, to try to help

22:04

the environment to improve. And also

22:06

at EVER this year, you spoke about

22:09

the Solar Impulse Foundation's 1,

22:11

000 solution challenge. Now,

22:13

can you tell us what that is, and what do you

22:15

hope to achieve with this?

22:18

Yes. I noticed

22:20

that most of the environmentalist

22:24

presents the protection of the environment

22:26

as something expensive, something

22:29

that requires a lot of sacrifice

22:31

from people, reducing mobility,

22:33

reducing comfort, reducing growth and

22:35

consumption, and it doesn't give

22:37

a very attractive vision

22:40

of ecology. I wanted

22:42

to give a positive image of ecology.

22:45

I wanted to show that it is possible

22:47

to be financially profitable when

22:49

you protect the environment, to create jobs,

22:52

to have better business

22:54

opportunities for the industry. Basically

22:57

I wanted to make it attractive for

22:59

the key decision makers. And the best

23:01

way to prove that was to show examples.

23:04

So I launched the challenge of the 1,

23:06

000 solutions at the Solar Impulse Foundation,

23:09

just after landing in Abu

23:11

Dhabi with Solar Impulse. And

23:13

the goal was to identify 1, 000

23:16

technologies, systems,

23:18

products, material, devices

23:21

that would protect the environment,

23:24

but also create jobs and generate profits.

23:27

And in four years we have

23:29

announced the 1, 000 solutions

23:32

identified, but much more than

23:34

that. Because since last April, we

23:36

had 200 more solutions. So now

23:38

we are at 1, 200 and

23:41

they are examples and proofs that

23:44

the protection of the environment is more

23:46

profitable than the destruction of

23:48

the environment. And now

23:50

I have a lot of support

23:52

from big corporations, even from

23:55

countries or regions, from the

23:57

political world, in order to

23:59

bring these solutions to everyone.

24:02

Because very often they are prisoners

24:04

of research labs, of startups.

24:07

They don't make it to the market because no one

24:09

knows about them. And my goal is really

24:12

to promote them, to be able to bring

24:14

investors to fund these startups

24:16

and develop, and we

24:18

are really on a good track for that.

24:22

So are you continuing now... You're currently

24:24

traveling the globe to present governments

24:26

and large companies with the tools that

24:28

they need, then, to be more

24:32

ambitious in terms of environmental

24:35

policies.

24:36

Yes, because to be

24:38

honest, you see a lot of governments

24:40

who are setting goals

24:43

to be carbon neutral in 2050,

24:45

but they don't really know how to reach these goals.

24:48

So what I want to do is to bring them all these

24:50

1, 200 solutions

24:53

as tools to reach their

24:56

goals.

24:57

Bertrand, when you look back, I don't know whether you have

24:59

time, I can't imagine that you possibly do, but

25:01

when you look back at what you've achieved in your

25:04

life so far, what

25:06

are the things that make you feel most proud, I'm wondering.

25:11

To have dared to try new things and

25:13

to have had the perseverance

25:16

to go through all the setbacks

25:18

and all the problems and finally succeeded,

25:21

because I tell you there were moments

25:23

that were not easy. With Solar Impulse it

25:25

was 15 years that were really difficult.

25:28

The success, of course the success is fantastic,

25:31

but the success is the consequence of

25:33

something that has been done correctly.

25:36

It seems very apparent when I'm talking to you

25:38

that because of the things that you have tried

25:41

and the things that you have achieved and

25:43

the sense that you make and the knowledge

25:45

that you have, you do seem to

25:48

be the perfect ambassador to

25:50

try to help this globe come together

25:52

and find better solutions for

25:54

the situation that we find ourselves in.

25:58

This podcast is called Are We

26:00

There Yet, and in the context

26:02

of clean mobility, how much progress

26:05

has the world made so far and

26:07

how much further do you feel it

26:09

has to go?

26:11

It has to go much further.

26:13

We should never stop. We

26:15

should continue to

26:18

promote clean cars, clean mobility.

26:21

We have to continue to promote

26:24

clean technologies, renewable energies.

26:27

There is so much

26:29

solutions that we are not using

26:31

enough. So of course for me, I

26:34

feel great because I have solar panels at

26:36

home, I have a fully insulated

26:38

house, I have heat pumps, and

26:40

I drive an electric car, the Hyundai

26:43

KONA. So it's great, but now

26:46

you need everybody to be able

26:48

to live in a clean way like that.

26:49

Are there any major milestones

26:51

that we can look out for on

26:54

the path to clean mobility that

26:56

are coming quite soon, do you think?

26:58

What is encouraging is the fact

27:01

that the European community has

27:03

understood that hydrogen is now a new market

27:06

for Europe. This is very

27:08

promising. They can produce hydrogen,

27:10

hydrolyzers, solar

27:12

energy to produce the hydrogen. They

27:14

can do it in Europe. So the

27:19

green deal is something

27:21

this new climate and economic

27:23

election from the European community,

27:26

this is something that is showing the

27:28

good way forward, and this should

27:30

be an example for the world.

27:32

And what has Hyundai accomplished

27:35

since you first came on board as

27:37

a brand ambassador? Do you see

27:39

specific things that have happened?

27:41

What has been achieved is the price

27:44

reduction of the electric cars.

27:47

It's cheaper and cheaper,

27:49

that means more affordable

27:52

for everyone. This is

27:54

good because electric cars shouldn't be

27:56

only cars that are reserved for rich

27:58

people. Must be available for everyone.

28:01

You have the technology that is improving

28:03

with hydrogen. You can have

28:06

very long range with hydrogen. There start

28:08

to be hydrogen stations in Switzerland.

28:11

In France, you have hydrogen

28:13

stations for taxis in

28:15

Paris. You have several hundred

28:17

taxis, most of them are Hyundai,

28:20

that are driving passengers around the

28:22

city with hydrogen. Everybody

28:25

speaks of hydrogen. Everybody speaks

28:27

of electric mobility. Things are moving.

28:30

Now they have to move fast, they have

28:32

to move with courage, and they need to

28:34

move everywhere. And this is why

28:36

I am an ambassador for Hyundai,

28:38

I'm an ambassador for clean technologies,

28:41

I'm an ambassador for renewable energies.

28:43

I would like, like this,

28:45

to motivate as many people as possible

28:48

to see that the future is already

28:50

now. The future is not

28:53

something that has to come in

28:55

the following years. The future is already

28:57

here. This is what allows these new

28:59

technologies. It's

29:03

a fantastic impression when

29:05

you sit in a completely new

29:07

type of mobility and

29:09

you start to drive

29:12

with no noise, with no vibration,

29:14

with no fuel, with no pollution, and

29:17

you have much more performance.

29:18

Bertrand Piccard,

29:21

thank you so much for your time. It's been

29:23

so fascinating to talk to you. Good

29:26

luck with this adventure.

29:27

Thank you very much. Thank you.

29:31

If you're excited by the ways that Hyundai

29:33

are developing clean mobility, you can find out more

29:35

at hyundai. com. Don't

29:37

forget to subscribe to the Are We There Yet

29:39

podcast from your usual podcast provider.

29:42

It means that you'll never miss an episode. Thank

29:45

you so much for listening. Goodbye.