An epic 100,000 km electric car road trip undertaken by Dutch EV activist and explorer Wiebe Wakker came to an end last month – and in October he will be in South Africa for the Smarter Mobility Africa Conference, yet Paul van Gass is unconvinced the country is ready for EVs …
A Dutch sustainability advocate and EV explorer completed the longest ever journey in an electric vehicle in New Zealand last month after a three-year drive that took him through more than 30 countries. According to a Reuters report Wiebe Wakker set off from the Netherlands in March 2016 in his “Blue Bandit” – an EV adapted VW Golf station wagon – to showcase the potential of sustainable transport, funded by donations from those following his trip.
Wakker said he wanted to do his best to promote EV technology and “show that sustainability is a viable way of transport”. “I wanted to do something real that speaks to the imagination, so I drove an electric car from Amsterdam to the other side of the world to show that it can be done.”
The 101,000 km trip took Wakker through Eastern Europe, Iran, India, Southeast Asia, before travelling around much of Australia and across to New Zealand. Wakker gave regular updates on his Plug-Me-In project blog and social media throughout the journey, detailing visiting the biggest car manufacturer in Tehran, Iran, a breakdown on the Indonesian island of Java, visits to the Australian outback, and world-famous Uluru.
The drive relied on the support of strangers across the globe who offered the traveller food, a place to stay, and the essential means to charge his car along the way. According to Wakker the entire trip has not cost him a single cent, but it saved a lot – in money and CO2 emissions.
About 18-megawatt-hours of electricity were used on his trip (costing around R60,000); 6,800 litres of petrol would have been used if the Golf was not converted (a cost of R95,000), and based on a Golf emitting about 128 g/km, over 12 tonnes of CO2 were saved.
But things did not always go according to plan, and in Australia, his beat-up blue wagon needed to be towed. Four times. The Blue Bandit ran out of charge outside of Nanutarra and Northampton in Western Australia, and in Yulara, close to Uluru in the Northern Territory. Wakker achieved 235 km on a single charge but it still was not enough to cover the vast distances in South Australia – and he was again stranded, about 20 km outside Coober Pedy.
After his record-breaking run, Wakker is now coming to South Africa as a guest speaker at the Smarter Mobility Africa Conference taking place at the Kyalami Convention Centre in October in support of Transport Month. It will also serve as the starting point for the first Electric Vehicle Road Trip Africa (EVRT Africa) event.
This event, according to the organisers, is an epic adventure to showcase the capabilities of electric cars through challenging environments and over large distances to prove the infrastructure is in place for worry-free electric travel. Yet the question remains: with the limited charging infrastructure in South Africa (as in Australia), will the electric cars be able to make it?
Text: Paul van Gass/Reuters/7News.com.au | Images: Wiebe Wakker
