18: Lunch with Leon episode 18 - Greg Harris

Greg Harris is right at front end of the latest developments on the road to net-zero. As Global Electrification Services Leader at HORIBA MIRA, his role includes developing strategy around electrification.Best known as the UK industry’s first vehicle test track  - called the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) opened in 1949 on a former airfield in Leicestershire -  Greg chats over lunch with Leon Daniels about its development into a private company, now owned by HORIBA, and how today it is much more than test track, with 46 different test facilities on the site.They chat about HORIBA MIRA’s role in engineering consultancy – across the whole of automotive engineering – and the potential for re-engineering commercial vehicles as we move to net-zero.They discuss whether we’ve reached the ‘tipping point’ for electric vehicles to become commercial propositions, before moving onto subsidies, trade tariffs and how the government could replace the £28bn it raises each year from fuel duty.They also chew over what tactics the government could use to boost the take-up of zero-emission vehicles.Thanks to his role, Greg is part of the wider engineering ‘family’ that links up around the world, and the conversation moves on to the hydrogen fuel cell v. battery-electric debate, reminiscent of the Betamax v VHS ‘battle’ of the 1980s.They also chat about job opportunities for young people in engineering as a result of the push to develop technology in the UK, and HORIBA MIRA’s links with education.