Automotive

Dutchman travels through 33 countries on electric road trip

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Aft more than a thousand days on the road, Wiebe Wakker and his Blue Bandit electric car have arrived in Adelaide, Australia
Plug Me In
Aft more than a thousand days on the road, Wiebe Wakker and his Blue Bandit electric car have arrived in Adelaide, Australia
Plug Me In
Wiebe Wakker and the Blue Bandit at Ayres Rock in Australia's Northern Territory
Wieve Wakker and the Blue Bandit in Bali
Supporters of the Plug In Project can offer Wiebe Wakker food, shelter or somewhere to charge his Blue Bandit electric car
Wiebe Wakker and the Blue Bandit in Iran
The Blue Bandit, pictured here in Penang, Malaysia, has a 150 kW motor that gives it a top speed of 180 km/h, while the 37 kWh Li-ion battery pack offers a 200 km per charge range
Wiebe Wakker set out from the Netherlands on his electric car adventure in March, 2016
Wiebe Wakker and the Blue Bandit in Thailand
Wiebe Wakker and the Blue Bandit battling through the snow in Turkey
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On March 16, 2016, Wiebe Wakker set out on an epic journey from the Netherlands to Australia in an electric car. After 1,051 days on the road, he has just arrived in Adelaide after traveling through 33 countries and clocking up some 89,000 kilometers. But his trip is not yet over.

"Electric vehicles are a significant part of the solution to the global environmental problem we all share, sadly the uptake of electric cars is going slow mainly because there are a lot of prejudices, people believe they are not reliable or not fit to cover long distances," said Wakker on arriving in Adelaide. "By driving from Holland to literally the other side of the world I hope to change peoples mind."

He hasn't taken any money with him but is banking on the support of his project followers to get him from A to B, with quite a few diversions along the way as the location of an offer of help determines the final route taken.

Supporters of the Plug In Project can offer Wiebe Wakker food, shelter or somewhere to charge his Blue Bandit electric car

Folks visiting the Plug Me In project website can offer shelter, food or a place to plug in and charge the Blue Bandit EV. The car's 150 kW motor gives it a top speed of 180 km/h (110 mph), while the 37 kWh Li-ion battery pack offers a 200 km (124 mi) per charge range.

It's quite a gamble, but it seems to have paid off as 1,700 people from 45 countries have offered some form of assistance.

After driving through Europe, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia, Wakker arrived in Australia in the middle of 2018, but only made it to Adelaide yesterday thanks to the nature of his crowd-supported journey. The final destination for this all electric adventure is Sydney.

A video diary of the mammoth trip can be viewed via Wakker's YouTube channel.

Source: Plug Me In

View gallery - 9 images
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4 comments
guzmanchinky
It's amazing what you can do when you have the time and no other responsibilities (like a job or kids). I applaud him. It will seem quaint when all cars are electric and can be charged in 5 minutes, but you gotta start somewhere...
christopher
Australian electricity comes from burning coal, with gargantuan losses during transmission (our country is enormous - it's got a long way to travel!).
Electric cars here contribute *vastly* more pollution than internal-combustion ones as a result.
He's sending the right message, but the clueless people here who follow his lead are going to be increasing their damage to our planet without even understanding why.
And before you "start" - no - we don't charge our cars from solar - the sun is only out when we're at work and they're parked in some city garage.
fred_dot_u
@christopher, how much energy losses are involved in transporting petrol products from the source to the destination, in order to power vehicles?
How much of Australia has solar panels providing energy to households and vehicles? It's easy to manage time-of-use solar energy, easier than managing power plant energy disposal that doesn't match time-of-use.
Coal production uses energy, petroleum production uses energy. Transporting coal uses energy, transporting petrol uses energy. The big picture is not being considered in your comment. It can't be easily summarized in a few sentences.
Don Duncan
Christopher: Latest tech makes PV+battery storage grids cheaper than any other source of electricity, from start to finish. And that's not considering the cleaner environment. BEVs were impractical before TESLA/Elon Musk. So were rockets. AI driven cars is next. It's already 10 x safer.