Opel Ampera electric car

Today at work suddenly an Opel Ampera electric car appeared, and it was available for short test drives. Of course I didn’t need to be told twice and I was allowed to make the first test drive with this interesting car.

The Opel Ampera is the first electric car by Opel. According to the factory specifications it should be able to travel 80 km in full-electric mode on its 16kWh lithium-ion battery. By comparison: the Nissan Leaf (which I was allowed to test for a  week last year) can travel 160km on its 24kWh battery. Many people suffer from ‘range anxiety’ and the Ampera could cure this with a so-called ‘range extender’. This is a 1,4 litre petrol engine which, when the battery gets depleted below a certain point, starts up and keeps the battery charged. The petrol engine is not connected to the wheels, it’s purely a generator. This makes it possible to make short journeys (e.g. commuting) on electricity, while longer distances can be travelled on the petrol engine. The Ampera can be charged from any wall socket or at a charging pole which have been shooting up out of the ground everywhere for the past year.

Design

Design?

I have no feeling for the design of cars. According to many people my view on cars is ‘weird’ because I consider it machines that can take you from A to B when public transport can’t easily do so – and nothing more than that.

Many of my colleagues, however, were distinctly positive about the Ampera’s design. Of course, I can tell Opel made something special here. A much-heard remark today was “finally an electric car which doesn’t look as dull as the Prius”.

When looking at the photo above here the car might seem somewhat short and squat but in reality it’s quite a large car with its 450cm length. It’s also no lightweight at a 1700kg curb weight – as much as a Volkswagen Transporter T4.

Behind the wheel

Behind the wheel

Sitting behind the wheel the two displays stand out. The display behind the wheel shows shows information about the range on battery and petrol tank, the current energy consumption of the car, the odometer, the position of the gear lever, etc. The centre console display (which is a touch screen) operates the air conditioning, the radio/CD-player and the satnav system. When reversing this display shows the image from the backup camera. The keys on the centre console are all touch keys without a tangible switch moment. I don’t really like that because that means you have to look at the keys whilst driving and that is distracting. The same applies to the touch screen. The operation is quite intuitive, but the amount of information on both screens can be overwhelming at first. Of course the car is an automatic drive, so aside from switching between forward and reverse drive, no shifting is not necessary.

The seat is comfortable, with a typically German firmness. The seat can be moved forward and backwards over quite a large distance, so people of nearly any size should find a comfortable position in this car.

In the back seat

Not much leg space...

Things aren’t so rosy on the second row. The photo to the left shows the front seat very close to its middle position (it can move forward and backwards quite a bit from this position) and I was actually stuck between the back of the back seat and the front seat. My legs aren’t particularly long so tall people will be very cramped in the back.

This situation will also make it difficult to install a child seat which has the child facing backwards without moving the front seat forwards.

...and not much head space either.

If the leg room in the back seat is nothing to write home about, neither is the head room. The roof line slopes towards the rear quite severely and people in the rear seats of anything more than average length will not be comfortable. With my 1m88 I had to bend my head forward or to the side – absolutely not comfortable for anything but a short journey.

Fortunately only two people at a time can be subjected to this torture because the back seat seats only two. The battery is Tshaped and positioned under the centre console and the rear seat, making the centre position unavailable to sit on.

Getting in and out of the rear seat is not very comfortable, too, owing to the sloped roof line. All this makes the rear seat suitable for children and small people.

Driving

Let’s get back behind the steering wheel then, it’s much more fun there. The car key can stay in your pocket and the Ampera starts with a button. The car’s startup music and animation are just bit less exaggerated than the Leaf’s but I still don’t like it. I remember from my week with the Leaf that you get used to it quickly but I still wonder why manufacturers things these kinds of things are necessary.

As is usual with electric cars it remains silent after the annoying start-up music has died down, except maybe for the soft hum of the ventilation system. After having put the car in ‘D’ and after having released the brake the car creeps forward. As soon as the accelerator  is pressed the car hums away silently on its electric motor. The acceleration is brisk because the electric motor has much torque at low rpm. According to the factory specifications the Ampera should be able to do 0-100km/h in just over nine seconds. I didn’t get to test that in the short test drive I made but I believe it.

I didn’t drive for much more than a kilometre, and only at relatively low speeds. That means I can’t say much about how the car drives but from what I’ve seen there’s not much wrong with it. Because the battery is positioned very low in the car the car is very stable in corners.

I hope to be able to make a longer test drive in the Ampera at a later point in time, which will allow me to make better founded comments on several aspects of the car. For now I think this is a very nice car, technically very advanced, the first of its kind and it’s a car that might make electric cars acceptable for more people. That would make it a nice intermediate step between a purely fossil car and a purely electric car.

It was a great experience getting to know the car.

Or can you?

De Leaf aan de snellader

A Dutch family from The Hague did what most people would consider ‘impossible’; they rented a Nissan Leaf in the summer of 2011 and just drove it to Italy and back. on their very readable (Dutch) website they describe exactly how they did it and by the looks of things they had an awesome holiday.

By making smart use of fast chargers along the route, but also by charging during the night at hotels and campings they drove from the Netherlands to Italy in a few days. The (Dutch) daily reports paint a picture of a very interesting journey with lots of nice human contacts along the route.

The statistics paint their own unique picture of this holiday in numbers.

The conclusion is very clear, contrary to what most people think (people who, for the most part, will have never driven an electric car) it’s perfectly possible to go on a foreign holiday with an electric car – without having to give up any holiday pleasure. Quite contrary, even, judging by the photos. Of course, it’s different – if you’re used to racing from the Netherlands to Italy in two days time then this different pace of travel may not appeal to you. But if you’re some one who lets your holiday start right after closing the front door behind you, and not right after you’ve arrived at your destination, crazy from travel stress, then this seems a relaxed and fun way to travel.

The website made me very enthousiastic. I hope to do something like this someday.

Besides the World Solar Challenge coming up in October we have the Dutch Open Solar Boat Challenge 2011 in the Netherlands! It’s a race for solar-powered boats, held by the end of next month.

The race has nine stages and four classes, and is held in the province of Zeeland, in the south of the Netherlands. The finish is on Saturday, June 2nd in Vlissingen. If I don’t have anything else and the weather isn’t too bad I might go and take a look. it’s not around the corner from where I live, Hilversum, it’s a train journey of nearly three hours.

130 km/h, a good idea?

One of the spearheads of our current cabinet is the item that on a certain numer of Dutch motorways the maximum speed will be raised to 130 km/h. The media is alive with the pros and cons, but the question is: is it a good idea?

Proponents of the plan claim it will have big advantages like time savings and they ignore disadvantages like reduced road safety, noise pollution, a higher fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions.

Opponents fear reduced road safety, a higher fuel consumption, more noise pollution and a higher CO₂ emission, while that group usually considers the time savings minimal.

Who is right? I don’t know, and as a layman in this area I don’t have the illusion of finding out, but I can still think about it.

To start with the time savings: are big are these anyway? Take for instance a journey of 50 km (quite a large distance in the Netherlands) which would take 25 minutes at 120 km/h. Driving that same stretch at 130 km/h would take…. 23 minutes. (Moreover: driving the same stretch at 100 km/h, as I always do, would take a theoretical 30 minuts. That’s not very much slower.).

Notice that I use the word ‘theoretical’ deliberately, especially during the busy times it’s certainly not a given that you can drive at the posted maximum speed. Sometimes it’s busy, sometimes there is congestion, lorries fall over, lanes get closed, there can be fog, rain or snow, you name it. So not only will you gain two minutes at best, in many cases you won’t even be able to gain that much.

Now, that’s only a time gain over the stretch where you’re allowed to drive 130 km/h, usually a car journey of any length has some city traffic at the beginning at the end, and sometimes some secondary roads. This makes the relative time gain even smaller.

So the main advantage, time gain, is at best not very big and in many cases not present at all.

And then there are the disadvantages.

Fuel consumption and CO₂-emissions are coupled and both rise with increasing car speed. The resistance a car has to overcome to move forward is the sum of the rolling resistance of the tyres and the air resistance. The rolling resistance increases linearly with increasing speed while the air resistance increases with the square of the speed. This means that, when driving at a speed of 130 km/h instead of 120 km/h (an increase of 8,3 %), the rolling resistance increases with that same 8,3%. The air resistance, on the other hand, increases with 8,3 % cubed, which is 17,4 %. Because at speeds above 100 km/h the air resistance is by far the larger component of the total resistance we can say that the total resistance increases with more than 17 %. Because the car is going 10 km/h faster however, that higher resistance can exert its influence for a shorter time, so the extra energy needed to keep the car moving increases with more than 8 %.

This increase in energy needed of 8 % could be translated into an increase in fuel consumption of  8 %, but a car engine’s efficiency varies throughout its power range. Because car engines are designed to deliver high torque for quick acceleration they are relatively inefficient at higher constant speeds. (Most modern cars need approximately 20-40hp to maintain an speed of 120 km/h.) The faster the car is driven, the less efficient the engine becomes. This decrease in efficiency comes on top of the extra 8 % which is caused by the increased air resistance. How much the total extra fuel consumption will be I have no idea, as the engine-component will vary between car models anyway, but I expect the total to be above 10 %.

In short this means that a short reduction in travel time, a few minutes at best for a relatively long journey, increases fuel consumption by more than a tenth. Is that worth it? Opinions will no doubt vary, but I think it isn’t. Petrol, diesel and LPG are made from petroleum, a non-renewable fossil fuel and I think we should conserve that as much as possible.

(All remarks and percentages about fuel consumption are also valid for CO₂-emissions.)

**** This article is being translated ****

Behalve het hogere brandstofverbruik heeft het verhogen van de maximumsnelheid nog een nadeel: de veiligheid op de snelweg. Op zich gebeuren er op de snelweg relatief weinig ongevallen doordat iedereen dezelfde kant op rijdt en de wegindeling ruim is opgezet. Ook mengt het autoverkeer daar niet met kwetsbare (maar duurzame) verkeersdeelnemers als voetgangers en fietsers. Als er dan toch ongelukken op de snelweg gebeuren zijn die vaak wel ernstig door de hoge snelheden, helemaal als er zware voertuigen als vrachtwagens bij betrokken zijn.

Het lijkt mij waarschijnlijk dat een verhoging van de maximumsnelheid zal zorgen voor meer ongelukken omdat mensen minder tijd hebben om gevaarlijke situaties aan te zien komen, maar ook voor zwaardere ongelukken omdat een snel bewegend object nu eenmaal meer energie herbergt dan een langzamer bewegend object. Ook neemt het snelheidsverschil tussen langzame en snelle voertuigen toe, waarvan ik me ook voor kan stellen dat dit tot meer en zwaardere ongelukken leidt. Metingen in Denemarken op een traject waar de maximumsnelheid is verhoogd lijken dit te bevestigen. Is – hooguit – een paar minuten tijdwinst meer verkeersleed waard? Ik vind van niet.

Naast een hoger brandstofverbruik levert een hogere snelheid ook nog een hoger geluidsniveau op. Bij moderne auto’s zal het grootste deel van het geproduceerde geluid bij snelwegsnelheden van het bandengeruis komen, dus te verwachten valt dat het geluid evenredig met de snelheid toe zal nemen. Nu rijden niet alle voertuigen op een gegeven snelweg de maximumsnelheid, dus het geluidsniveau van het traject als geheel zal niet helemaal evenredig stijgen als de snelheid. Met in het achterhoofd de wetenschap dat verkeerslawaai (spoor- en wegverkeer samen) jaarlijks 50000 doden in Europa veroorzaakt, is het dan aanvaardbaar om een hoger geluidsniveau te accepteren? Ik vind van niet, vooral omdat de automobilist zijn of haar – minuscule – tijdwinst afwentelt op de gezondheid van anderen.

Naast deze effecten zullen er vast nog allerlei kleinere effecten van een verhoging van de maximumsnelheid zijn, zoals extra slijtage aan wegdek, banden, remmen en smeermiddelen. Opgeteld bij bovenstaande argumenten zijn dit allemaal redenen om simpelweg niet zo hard te rijden. Helaas zullen alle nadelen nog versterkt worden doordat veel mensen calculerend te hard rijden, en dat kan bij een maximumsnelheid van 130 km/u tot wel 137 km/u zonder risico op een boete. Ook wordt wel eens gesteld dat een verhoging van de maximumsnelheid op sommige trajecten tot meer files zal leiden, omdat mensen meer en harder moeten remmen bij een verstoring, maar daar kan ik op het internet niet veel informatie over vinden.

Als laatste is er wellicht nog een ander ‘sluipend’ nadeel. Bij een hoge maximumsnelheid zullen mensen waarschijnlijk relatief vaker (misschien onbewust) voor een ‘veilige’ auto kiezen, en omdat deze auto’s over het algemeen zwaarder en groter zijn vormen ze daardoor in de stad een groter gevaar voor voetgangers en fietsers. Als maar voldoende mensen dergelijke auto’s kopen zullen fabrikanten nog ‘veiliger’ auto’s gaan maken en zo kan het wagenpark steeds zwaarder worden. Deze trend zal ook de doorbraak van lichte en écht zuinige (elektrische) voertuigen tegenhouden, omdat die door veel mensen als te onveilig gezien zal worden. Een model als bv. de Tazzari Zero is door een verhoging van de maximumsnelheid dubbel in het nadeel: niet alleen wordt een dergelijke lichte auto relatief onveilig gemaakt door het grote snelheidsverschil met degenen die de maximumsnelheid rijden, maar ook zal een bestuurder zich misschien vaker gedwongen voelen hard te rijden waardoor de actieradius afneemt.

In Spanje ziet men de zaken naar mijn idee scherper: daar verlaagt men als reactie op de hoge aardolieprijzen de maximumsnelheid naar 110 km/h. Tegelijk wordt het openbaar vervoer goedkoper gemaakt. Een duurzame beslissing. Ik vind het zo jammer dat in Nederland een verhoging van de maximumsnelheid kennelijk zeer belangrijk gevonden wordt, terwijl het maar zo weinig voordelen en zoveel nadelen heeft. Ook lijken mij er veel belangrijker zaken aan de orde zoals het grondig verduurzamen van de samenleving. Helaas lijkt de tijd daarvoor nog niet rijp.

Wellicht is de tijd dat we moeten echter niet ver weg: het rommelt al een tijdje in Saudi-Arabië, het land wat momenteel ruim 20% van de wereldaardolieproductie voor haar rekening neemt. Ik durf er eigenlijk niet goed aan te denken wat er gebeurt als de aardolieproductie van dat land stokt.

Nissan Leaf

On December 16th, 2010 The New Motion () organised a test-drive day, and they offered me the opportunity to make a short test drive in a Nissan Leaf (), which has been chosen as car of the year () 2011. I was of course very interested in driving this special car, the first car from a major manufacturer to be designed from the ground up as an electric car and not a conversion or adaptation of a fossil car..

The day was divided into slots of about half an hour in which the car could be driven. A these things go on days like this, they were running a bit late by the time it was my turn but that was all right. The weather was very bad that day, it was cold and it rained hard continuously. Unfortunately the weather kept me from taking pictures; I didn’t fancy exposing my camera to the rain for exterior shots and most photos of the interior turned out way too dark. That’s why this article will feature only a few photographs. At about 11:00 it was my turn and together with an employee from The New Motion and an employee from Nissan I braved the rain to run to the car.

Interior

Gear selector

After sitting down behind the steering wheel a dashboard which was both conventional and high-tech stared me in the face. The dashboard is of a very light colur which was nice on this gloomy day but I wonder how comfortable this is on a sunny day. The instruments are grouped in four groups. Above the steering wheel is the digital speedometer (of which I am not a fan, I prefer a dial) together with a clock and an image of a tree. This tree grows and shrinks, depending on the driving style. When the car is driven economically, the tree grows and when the car is driven inefficiently the tree shrinks. A fun gimmick but I wonder how effective it is.

Behind the steering wheel is a larger digital panel which displays the remaining energy in the battery (incl. remaining kilometres), the battery temperature, the selected gear, the odometer, etc. This panel also shows the power meter which shows how much energy the car is using at any given time. When the accelerator is released, it shows energy flowing back into the battery.

Grouped high above the middle console are the controls for the heater, ventilation, air conditioning and the sat nav system. The sat nav system knows the location of charging poles and I was informed that, when the battery is nearly empty, the system points the driver  to the nearest charging pole. The system should update itself with the locations of new charging poles.

At the middle console itself is the gear selector, which in this car is a multifunction switch, allowing the driver to select several driving modes (like forward, reverse and park). The button can be moved to the left and to the front and back. This button also controls the eco-mode which limits the car’s power. This enables a larger range.

Of course the normal control like those for lighting etc. are in the normal places you’d expect. Even if you’ve never driven an electric car everyone with a driver’s license will have no trouble just driving off.

The test drive was a bit short to make any definitive statements, but the seat seemed to be comfortable yet sturdy enough for good support. It was adjustable enough for someone of my size.

Exterior

De achterzijde van de Nissan Leaf

How people think a car looks depends completely upon taste. I think the front of the car is quite conventional and not really exciting. A flap behind the Nissan logo hides the charging connector. The front lights are quite big an protrude from the car, Nissan did this so they ‘throw’ the air flowing past the car around the wing mirrors, reducing wind noise in the cabin. I find the rear of the car to be more characteristic, although I don’t like the look of the sunk boot lid between the narrow rear lights. But again: that’s just taste

Whilst driving around I didn’t have the impression that people were straining to see what it was that just rolled past – but that might have had something to do with the bad weather, too.

This car certainly is no eyesore but it’s no fashion-statement either.

Driving

The car is started with a start/stop button, the key doesn’t have to be inserted in a classic ignition. The key can remain in a coat pocket or be stored in the middle console – the location is unimportant as long as its in the cabin. After pressing the start/stop button the cars ‘boots up’ (almost like a computer) with a few gentle beeps after which the car remains silent. After the car is put in ‘D’ with the gear selector a light press on the accelerator is enough to move the car forward.

It’s immediately obvious that this car is snappy. Okay, it’s no Roadster () but the Leaf feels quicker than most comparable fossil cars with an internal combustion engine of average size. As in most electric vehicles I’ve driven nearly full torque is available from a standstill, and provides a feeling of quick acceleration – especially at low speeds. Because of the very low noise level in the cabin, especially at low speeds, the ride is a bit unreal for the first couple of hundred metres. The test drive didn’t last very long and we didn’t leave the city it’s clear to me that at least at city speeds the Leaf’s power leaves very little to be desired. Although the accelerator is ‘softer’ in the eco-mode you still don’t get in anyone’s way. I’m curious how the Leaf will behave on secondary roads and motorways, but I will have to find that out during a next, longer and more thorough test drive.

The Leaf is quite heavy with a curb weight of 1525 kg and loyal visitors of this website know that I like cars to be lighter rather than heavier. The battery is located centrally at the lowest point in the car, under the front seats. Because this location of the heaviest component the Leaf feels quite nimble. I took a few corners at higher speeds than I’d do normally, but the car tracks like it’s on rails.

Conclusion

The test drive was to short to allow me to do a complete review, but I think it’s clear that Nissan produced a very nice car which will appeal to a lot of people. There must me a reason that in the Netherlands alone several dozen of this model have been sold already – unseen!

The conclusion – like the test drive – is short for now: it seems a very nice car, and I would like to get to know it better during a longer test drive. I asked people from both The New Motion and Nissan is longer test drive would be possible at a later time, and both expected this to be possible at a later point in time when there are more Leafs in the Netherlands. As soon as I’ve driven it again I will, of course, write a ‘full-size’ review article.

Nissan Leaf

Tomorrow, December 16th, I’ll test drive a Nissan Leaf. The New Motion, who also provided our wedding car, kindly offers me this opportunity. A comprehensive report will follow!

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Not really nice weather for a drive

The Good Car Company () kindly let me drive their Tazzari Zero (). Because we started from Amsterdam we did not really take part in the eleven cities tour, but we went directly to the meeting point. That was an adventure on it’s own, because the TGCC Cobra () Arno was driving can reach a top speed of about 70 km/u so we had to take the secondary roads. It happened to be very bad weather with winds of Beaufort seven or eight and a true downpour. The roads in Amsterdam were very busy which cost us a lot of time. To make up for this time we had to hurry and I think I can say I got to know the Zero’s road handling that day.

After arriving at the meeting point we were right on time, and we were the seventh or eighth car in the row. Unfortunately the weather kept deteriorating, and because of the open terrain and the vicinity of open water it really was not a fun place to be.

Rain, rain, rain.....

After about half an hour a row of more then fifty electric cars had formed of all possible brands and types. It was funny to realise that I’d test driven most of them: Twike, Zero, Th!nk, Tesla and Plugin-Prius. There were also two converted Lotus Elises and a few Fiat light vans which I had not seen before. It was a great collection of electric vehicles, it was unfortunate that the bad weather made it nearly impossible to chat with the other drivers. Everyone remained in their cars, because being outside for only a few minutes was enough to get very wet. It was raining nearly horizontally by that time.

I managed to talk to a few people, and it turned out that there were a few cars with nearly empty batteries, probably caused by the low temperature, headwind, etc. One car had only enough battery capacity left to drive five kilometers – and the Almere city hall was more than ten kilometers away. I have no idea what happened to those cars, maybe they’re still there. The Zero and the Cobra both had about half heir battery capacity left, so we had no trouble whatsoever.

We were there for about an hour, and in that hour I saw no one of the organisation, at least no one who identified him or herself as such. At some point in time a few people apparently had enough and wanted to drive to the Almere city hall individually. We soon found out that the road we were on was a dead end – so we all had to reverse! Because the road was very narrow, and the grass on both sides very soft, this made for some hilarious scenes. Some people don’t seem to understand that it’s not a good idea to drive a 1500kg car over soggy grassland. A few cars got hopelessly stuck and had to be pushed out. This short movie gives an impression of the circumstances:

The Zero is a very short car with a small turning radius, for me, turning around was no problem and soon we we on our way to Almere. Because we couldn’t find any people from the organisation, we decided to follow converted Lotus Elise because the driver seemed to know where we needed to go. Thus turned out not to have been a very good idea, not only did he have no idea at all where we needed to go and to make matters worse he backed into me when we had to turn around somewhere. Yes sir, I’m pretty sure I have a ‘first’: the first collision between two electric cars in tghe Netherlands. I can still see him coming, slowly but surely, and the sound will also stay with me for quite some time to come: it sounds like two big plastic bread bins crumpling into each other.

The damage wasn’t to bad (tear in the Zero’s bumper) but from there on we thought it better to find our own way to the city hall with the help of my phone’s satnav system. Upon arrival we found a large number of charging points, so that seemed to have been arranged very well. Unfortunately, all the charge points used CEE-plugs, while nearly all cars used normal plugs. The Zero had a charging cable with both plugs, so I could start charging immediately, but the other cars had to wait until a box with converter plugs was hastily brought in.

The medal we got

Eventually, with all the cars happily sipping electricity, we could go indoors. (Note that everything I’ve described so far happened in pouring rain, by coat was soaked and even my feet started to get wet.) In the city hall there was supposed to have been some sort of ‘ceremony’, but this turned out to be a short speech by a local politician, followed by Marijke Vos and a performance by René Shumann en Angel-Eye (of which I do not quite understand what they have to do with sustainability…). About half an hour later some one announced that it was over and we were expected to leave the city hall.

We had dinner somewhere while the cars charged a bit more. When we returned to the cars the day had more bizarre surprises for us… some one had locked the charging point! Our cars were still plugged in so we were basically stuck there. After we overcame our surprise we ran to the city hall and fortunately found some one with a key. After unplugging the cars we could finally go home. Except for the fact that my satnav system tried to guide us onto the motorway while I specifically had configured it not to the return trip was uneventful – although still in very bad weather. Racing through a deserted Amsterdam at night is fun

After arriving at the Zero’s home base there was one last surprise: its boot wouldn’t open and of course my bag with everything I carried was in there. After a bit of tweaking the release button would let go, the boot opened and I could finally go home.

Tips for a next time

Here are a few tips for the organisation people:

• It’s not the organisations fault that we had horrible weather that day, but it may be good idea to plan such an event somewhere between April and September. In that period there’s a much smaller chance of rain, the temperatures are higher (which allows the cars’ batteries to perform better) and there’s more daylight so it becomes more attractive for the public to come and watch. I find it hard to understand why November 11th was chosen.
• Although I did not count them, I estimate that there were approximately fifty electric cars on the country road. Isn’t this a Dutch record? I would have called the Guinness Book of Records. Extra publicity.
• It was clear that no one really knew what to do while waiting on the country road, which caused much confusion as many people decided to make their own way to the city hall. It might be a very good idea to have visibly recognisable members of the organisation present next time.
• The country road had a dead end and was very narrow. It was very unfortunate that the grassland on both sides was impassable for heavy vehicles, but even with dry weather many of the cars would have had trouble turning around. A better location is to be advised for a next event.
• It was clear to me that many drivers drove their vehicle for the first time that day. There not much wrong with that but the bad weather, the narrow road which required turning around and the confusion about where to go, and when, made thing unnecessarily difficult for the inexperienced drivers. This might also have been a contributing factor to the fact that some cars arrived with nearly empty batteries. I wouldn’t know what to do about this, but it might be good idea to point out to the participants that having drivers that know their vehicles well is an advantage to completing the journey safely and stress-free.
• The ‘ceremony’ in the Almere city hall didn’t amount to much, to put it mildly. I had expected more.
• The fact that the charging points had the wrong plugs was bad, as was the fact that some one locked a charging point with two cars still attached to it.

But despite this points which can – and need to be – improved I had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. Maybe this was even because not everything was planned very well and the bad weather. Arno, thanks for letting me use the Zero again.

I have to work tomorrow, so I have no special activities planned for this day. I’ll just go to work (without a car, as always), our solar panels will produce electricity (as always) and when we’re not at home everything in our home is unplugged (as always) – so for us it’s just going to be a very normal, sustainable day.

-update-

Sometimes things go differently than planned. Tomorrow I’ll drive a Tazzari Zero for part of the tour! It’s the same Zero () which I test drove at the beginning of October 2010. It’s going to be fun!