Hello.
My name is Azizi Tucker.
And welcome to TEDxTaipei 2013, living together.
I am not such a good environmentalist.
I don't know what is recycle
when I at home.
I never unplug my electronic devices like I should.
I raced cars to the Mexican desert for fun.
And I used to build spaceships which punch
a hole in ozone layer with every launch.
I were few redeeming environment or qualities.
I don't own a car,
but that makes me just like
most people here in Taipei City.
Sometimes, when I go to MOS Burger,
I can figure out where paper,
plastic waste goes.
My carbon footprint is approximately
3 times that average American
at 80 tons of CO2 per year.
Much higher than the average Taiwanese also.
In short, I am not an environmentalist.
I am actually very far from there.
However, I do care about the environment
and want it to be better.
I think in many ways
and like many of you here
I want things to be better,
but my actions don't neccessarily
live up with my words.
Why am I here?
I was born in Oakland California.
And grew up there and mountain bike was
just being developed in San Francisco Bay.
I began mountain biking when
I was just 8 years old,
and before the term was even common pace.
In my teens,
I began to race mountain bikes down hill
and did very well in high speed races.
While growing up and riding bicycles
I've always had a love of cars
and dreamed racing car in the future.
My love of cars led me away from the
San Francisco Bay area.
Once I finished high school and to Detroit Michigan,
the motor city,
I studied engineering at University of Michigan,
and hope to work in the car industry.
I was lucky enough to get a job
at a large auto motor supplier,
in auto motor industry.
My company manufacturer complete the engine
and engine parts for Ford, GM and Chrysler.
At the time,
we produced over a thousand gas gasoline,
VA engines every day.
These engines were made for very large SUVs
that were popular in 1990s and early 2000s.
While working in Detroit,
I began to race cars.
I was finally fulfilling one of my dreams.
I raced almost every weekend,
and me with my friends will drive all
over the US to attend races.
Well, working in motor industries,
I worked on many innovative projects
that made through testing,
a little bit development
but will cancel before production started.
That were several high efficiency diesel engine
that were perfect for large SUVs of the time
that were canceled due to lack of customer demand.
The project that intrigued me the most
was the Chrysler Patriot.
It was a natural gas, electric hybrid race car
which was designed, partially tested
before it was canceled in 1990s.
At the time I was very suprised
and very interested.
I have no idea something powered
by electricity, an electric car
could reach speed 300 kilometer per hour.
The project was eventually canceled by
Chrysler management in 1996.
One year later, 1997
Toyota unveiled the first production hybrid car,
the Toyota Prius.
I saw the approach of the decline of the
American auto industry and
became frustrated with the lack of innovation.
I moved from auto motor industry
to the aerospace industry
to get a chance to work with the very
best and learn from the very best.
Working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
I was exposed to some of the very best
cutting edge technology.
However, the pace of the development was
just far too slow for my taste.
I was bored.
I moved back to the San Francisco Bay area
after 3 years at NASA Goddard.
My love of cars let me become one of
the early employee at Tesla Motors.
When I moved back to San Francisco Bay area,
there are only two choices to work
in auto motor industries.
I could work for Tesla Motors,
a small start-up, fewer than 100 employees,
or I can go work for NUMMI.
It was a huge GM and Toyota joint venture
with more than 6000 employees.
The cars that Tesla Motors were fast;
the cars from GM and Toyota were slow and bored.
My decision was made.
My parents were a bit worry,
but the job at Telsa turned out to be
a wonderful accident.
The work that I'd loved all my life
have finally begun to help,
instead of hurting environment.
A flip had happened for myself.
I was able to do more racing and also
some long distance racing in the desert.
Early in my racing career,
I began to produce my own parts.
This allowed me to keep up with
more wealthy competitors.
That more wealthy competitors...
Through racing, I've honed my
engineering skills with real life successes
and many many failures.
TED, stands for Technology and
Entertainment, and Design.
Technologist build the building blocks
for the things in our world.
Entertainers bring ideas and products
to the masses.
Designers make the products that
we love and not always
because of how they function.
My answer here it is,
don't be an environmentalist because
it's good for the planet.
Be an environmentalist because
it can make you rich.
Be an environmentalist because
it is more fun.
Be an environmentalist because
it is convenient.
Be a environmentalist because
it simply looks good.
And finally,
Be an environmentalist just because
it is what everyone else was doing.
Accidental Environmentalism
Money, you can make money
from selling green products.
When I started at Tesla Motors,
in 2006, they were less than 100 employees.
They are not successful US car company
in previously 81 years.
That company by the way was
Chrysler, which was been build out by
US government twice
and once declared bankruptcy.
There were 780 failed car companies in
the United States.
That was certainly against our team Tesla.
During the time I was in the company,
we grew over 3000 employees.
We designed and built our first car,
the Tesla Roadster in just 3 years
and sold out production of 2500 cars.
The cost of each car was more than
100 thousand US dollars.
The Tesla Roadster was the fastest,
longest range electric vehicle ever made.
Top speed was 210 kilometer per hour
with range of 350 kilometer.
We follow this up which launched
a little over year ago,
was awarded several the year award
as its launch.
The factory currently is running
4 production and has produce
more than 15 thousand cars.
Company stock was initially 17 US dollars,
and it's now trading around
180 US dollar per share.
Simply you can make money
building green products.
In addition,
that's what I did in the past.
The question is,
what will I do next?
For me, the thing that excites me
about products is products that are fun.
As a long-time bike rider and racer,
I consider building my own electric bike
when I worked at Tesla Motors.
Me and my colleagues would have casual
lunch time conversation about taking
the Tesla technology and combining it with
the electric bicycle to make
a really nice high speed electric bicycle.
By so many lunch time conversations that
was just all chatter and nothing came from it.
6 months after I left Tesla to
start my engineering consulting company
here in Taipei,
my friends here in Taiwan encouraged me
to build my own electric bicycle.
My electric bicycles have a top speed at
70 kilometer per hour,
and a range of 100 kilometer on one battery.
They are good for the environment,
and offer reduce pollution transportation.
Well, these bicycles are friendly for the environment
that is not my focus at all.
It is all about fun and fast fun.
My initial goal was to build the kind
of bicycle or motorcycle that I want
it power by the electricity.
I quickly realized that I have a product
that will appeal to the gasoline motorcycle
owners here in Taiwan and around the world.
Several big bike, motorcycle riders have
test ridden my bike and
they all immediately love it and
plan to buy them soon.
Not once have any of them said,
"I like this product.
This is good for the environment
so I will buy one."
For them,
like you and like me,
we buy the products based on the way
they look, feel or cost.
My newest project is LMD Racing.
You can see some of our cars are over here
at the right of the stage.
I met my partners at LMD Racing,
Daniel and Tsung-Hsien, about 2 years ago,
while shopping for the racing car to
drive here in Taiwan.
As we got to know each other,
Daniel mentioned to me
that he had a dream of building his own
series of racing cars here in Taiwan.
I've done several car design but
they never develop to brought any of them
to production.
As we research and interview drivers about
what kind of race car would sell well
in Asian market.
We refined the concept
and we quickly settle on the
gasoline VA engine as an ideal engine
for a race car.
Big power, low cost, reliable.
During my time at Tesla,
me and my colleagues have pushed the idea
of building an electric race car.
But it simply was not the time,
budget or manpower to devote
to a project like that.
With the design of the LMD race car
we are underway,
I mention casually to our team
that I design the car for both
gasoline and battery electric power.
For normal people they would
have been many questions.
How much does it cost?
Where can it race?
How long can it go?
How long does it take to recharge?
All of these are valid questions
and they do deserve answers.
For true race car drivers like
Daniel and Tsung-Hsien however,
there is only one question.
How fast will it go?
My answer 300 kilometer per hour was
all that needed.
We immediately updated our plans and
started with two prototypes
one gasoline, one electric.
Racing is an expensive sport
with people spending typically 50 percent
of the purchase cost of the car
every year just on maintenance.
By building and selling electric cars,
we will appeal to the fun and convenience
for our customers.
More time racing,
less time doing repairing.
But I know you are wondering
what are the environmental benefits
having an electric racing car?
The immediate effect is small,
no pollution,
drastically less noise pollution in addition.
However, race cars and their drivers are
large numbers of fans worldwide.
Race car fans, street-car purchases
are heavily influence by the race cars
and racing that they love.
This means electric race cars will
drive and lead the sell of the electric cars.
Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.
It's an old saying that about winning
a race on Sunday, will lead to
sell the dealership on Monday.
In addition, the demanding world of racing
has produced many innovations
which have led to major improvements
in road cars.
ABS brakes, Traction control,
disk brakes, and even the rear view mirror.
Not everyone can develop their own
green products,
but you can still do many things to
accidental environmentalism which will
help the environment.
One of the other things we do
both for LMD Racing and
for my electric bikes
is local sourcing.
We practice very local sourcing.
Local sourcing means buying all the
products from local source and
suppliers that you can.
I understand you can get everything locally,
but you want to try your best to do so.
While this is occasionally more expensive
than sourcing parts from overseas,
it's far more convenient.
You can easily visit your supplier,
you speak the same language and
same time zone.
However, local sourcing also brings the benefit
of reduce CO2 production in your supply chain.
Here's an example of our supply chain for
the LDM Race team.
We have just 6 suppliers outside of Taiwan.
One in the US for the engine,
one in France for the tires,
and several small suppliers throughout Europe.
When you look at our supply chain in Taiwan,
you know this will heavily center around Taipei
County with couples suppliers in the Taichung area.
As you zoom in even more,
you can see it was based at Taishan,
and vast majority of our suppliers
are located just 5 kilometers
from our factory.
Many manufacturing products in Taiwan
makes it very convenient to practice
local sourcing because island is so small.
With LMD and electric bikes,
our initial goal was not to
reduce our CO2 output,
but simply to have a convenient and
manageable supply chain.
While we realized our initial goal,
We were also...
While we realized our initial goal,
our constant trips back and forth to
suppliers much shorter and much easier
than have them base at other countries.
Once we began production,
the transportation of our parts and components
will produce far less CO2 than
if we use many off shore,
low cost supplier.
As TED,
TED, we must design, develop and promote
environmentally friendly products and services.
However, for success in the general market,
beyond environmentalist,
we must offer true competitive advatages
for all of our environmentally friendly products.
We must make environmentally friendly products
that are profitable.
The reason our environmentally friendly products
must be profitable is that brings competition.
As we encourage competition,
we bring more environmentally friendly
products to the market
and improve the quality of those products.
We must make environmentally friendly
products that are fun.
So many people's purchasing decision
are not necessarily driven by hard core logic,
but look, feel and entertainment.
We must make environmentally friendly products
that have amazing design.
As we apply an amazing design to our
environmentally friendly products,
the extra cost of the products can be
hidden and people love just
the appearance and using the products.
In short, this will lead to mainstream
acceptance and normalization of
environmentally friendly products.
Thank you very much.