City unveils electric bid to power up 40,000 jobs

 

© Evening Times Originally published: 24/11/2009

SCOTLAND can spark a technology revolution that could create almost 40,000 new jobs and billions of pounds of extra revenue, it has been claimed.

Planes and a new generation of cars all powered by electricity were unveiled in Glasgow and will be the central plank of a new strategy aimed at boosting the economy and shaping our future.

Allied Vehicles, based in Possilpark, is already helping to lead the way with its fleet of electric-powered taxis.

The firm unveiled its E7 taxi last summer, which is powered solely by lithium-ion batteries.

It has a top speed of 60mph and can travel 100 miles between battery charges.

But a special demonstration at the Concert Square car park in Glasgow revealed a concept car by Freescale, the micro-chips company.

An unmanned electric plane and another flying machine that can be used for surveillance were also demonstrated by BAE Systems, one of the world's biggest defence contractors, which owns shipyards at Govan and Scotstoun.

The all-electric show was organised for the launch of a strategy designed to boost what is known as "enabling technologies" in the hi-tech sectors of advanced engineering, communications and networks and computing, as well as devices and systems.

Scotland's Technology Advisory Group - an industry- driven organisation involving the public and private sectors - says the country has global expertise in sensors, modelling and simulation and information processing.

It wants other companies to link with the specialists and use futuristic applications to boost business.

Leaders believe better collaboration aided by university boffins could grow Scotland's economy by almost 9% to £33.2billion and help create an extra 38,500 jobs.

More than 900 technology-led companies based in Scotland have been identified as having world-class competence and growth potential.

The group is chaired by David Lockwood, who is managing director of Thales Optronics, which has a manufacturing site in Govan.

He said: "This strategy aims to encourage the technology to be used and, more importantly, re-used across multiple key sectors.

"Embracing this enabling technologies strategy will help pave the way to future economic prosperity."

Terry Hurley, senior director of Digital Media and Enabling Technologies at jobs agency Scottish Enterprise, said: "By building on Scotland's world-class science base and 900 technology-led companies, we can achieve significant growth for the economy."