It is a special pleasure and honour for me to address you here today on behalf of the automotive industry and, in particular, on behalf of the BMW Group at the17th World Petroleum Congress in Rio de Janeiro. So I thank you very much for the invitation and wish you a very good morning.

Figure 1: Rio de Janeiro Mobility is indispensable in our modern world. It is one of the assets in life you only really appreciate when you experience limits to your mobility. And who knows, perhaps you have already experienced such restrictions yourselves, maybe even on your journey to this Congress.

Figure 2: Ancient Man - - Mobility BLOCK 1 - -

PLENARIES 67 CLEAN ENERGY - - OUR CHALLENGE!

Mobility has always been one of the driving forces throughout the history of mankind. Just look at this impressive picture of ancient man slowly straightening up in the course of time: He is not standing, he is walking! Figure 3: Mobility is indispensable Today mobility is one of the cornerstones of our free society.

The crucial point, therefore, is that mobility of people and goods is not the result of, but rather the reason for, our prosperity.

Mr. Vettier already made this quite clear in one of his charts: Figure 4: GNP versus road mileage It is easy to see and appreciate the connection between the mileage we cover on the road - - that is mobility - - and our gross national product, as we see here, taking Germany as an example. 68 BLOCK 1 - -

PLENARIES CLEAN ENERGY - - OUR CHALLENGE!

Of course this applies not only to my country, but rather to all countries all over the world, where - - within certain limits - - we see a clear connection between the mileage covered and the standard of prosperity.

Although I assume most of you came here by plane, I believe that nearly all of you covered at least part of your journey by car. Clearly, this makes me happy as a man responsible for the development of cars, even if only some of you used a BMW in the process! Figure 5: The automobile - individual mobility This clearly shows that the automobile is the most important means of individual mobility.

Nothing will change this situation in the foreseeable future. The only development we will see is a certain evolution of general conditions and, accordingly, of the automobile itself.

Demand for individual mobility is growing also in the threshold countries. Individual transport is increasing, as we see from the consistently growing number of cars over the years.

That does not necessarily mean, however, that the automobile market will have to develop in the same way as it did in recent years in Europe or the USA. Just take this country, Brazil, as an example, where ethanol has been an additive for gasoline-powered vehicles ever since the 1973 oil price crisis. In fact, more than 3 million vehicles in Brazil run on ethanol alone, such combustion of ethano

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