Five teams from four continents lined up for the start of the race, aiming not necessarily at winning the event, but at showing the world that electric can mean reliable and fun at the same time.
Organized by Louis Palmer, winner of the European Solar Prize in 2008, the event was designed for purpose built electric vehicles, built in-house by the teams from Australia, Switzerland, Germany and South Korea. The first impression following the first day can be summed up like this (the blog post can be read in full here):
"We were all extremely tired (and slightly grouchy) by evening time, but at least it was completed with a delicious dinner on a farm in the company of great local hosts who invited us to indulge in locally produced foods."
To qualify for the race, the vehicles, two seaters. have to be propelled by an electric motor and capable of driving at least 250 km at an average speed of at least 80 km/h. Range was also a criteria, with the organizers asking the builders to make their case capable of traveling 500 km per day, with only one recharge stop of 4 hours.
“With this race we want to show, that seven billion people on this planet need renewable energy and clean mobility“, Louis Palmer says on the Zero Race website. “Petrol is running out, and the climate crisis is coming… and we are all in running against time.”
The small convoy will first be traveling through Europe, reaching by the end, 80 days from now (the end of January 2011), 16 countries and 150 major cities.
Updates on the race can be found on the Zero website, as well as on Facebook.
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