Which vehicle? (2)

Information received today from Brian and Jo. Brian runs the excellent EV information site, mygreenwheels. Within is an EV comparison guide. Jo is from drivelectric. They sell the Citroen Berlingo conversions. Jo tells me the range is 50 miles – not enough for this project unfortunately.

Passport photographing a wriggling 6 month old

Passports! Obviously neccessary for our trip. I remember when you could just add your children to your own passport. Now they need their own – with proper centre of field position of head and shoulders. I traipsed the full length of Peckham high street to find a photographer but they’ve all gone into hiding. I eventually took my son Idris to a photo booth and tried to balance him on one hand so that he was in the picture and I was not. Queue in the Post Office found my antics highly amusing. We have photos – now to fill in the form.

Which vehicle?

The round-trip will be very roughly 5000 km (@3000 miles). We have around 40 days. So we need to cover at least 125km/day (78 miles) but ideally will be able to cover up to 400km (250 miles) in a single day at up to 110km (70pmh) – motorway speeds. What electric vehicles currently available can come close to these requirements? So far I have found only one in commerical production in the UK – the Modec van. I’ve also found two suitable prototypes cars so far, neither British. These are the Aptera and the Bollere Blue Car.

Summer 2008 – we aim to use electric power to drive across Europe

Hello! My name is Richard Scrase and this blog is about a trip across Europe that I am planning for this summer. The aim of the trip is to demonstrate that it is possible for an ordinary person to use an electric vehicle rather than a carbon burning vehicle to make a long trip through (to me) unfamiliar territory. During this trip – which will create a transect from Britain to Romania – I will be filming to make radio and TV documentaries.
En route I will be interviewing academics, NGO representatives and politicians to make a ‘green audit’ of the countries we traverse. I’ll also be on the lookout for technologies and social developments that allow Europeans to live more sustainably. Recently published reports such as zerocarbonbritain from the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAAT) lay out pathways to making our civilisation sustainable that require cuts in carbon use of 90% by 2050.
All such scenarios require land transport to use electricty and that electricity to be generated renewably. This trip will see how close Europe, or at least some of its constituent countries, are to meeting that vision.