The purpose of today was twofold… test out the tech for the WAVE and give me a bit of a tour of the area around Zurich. It was successful on both counts.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing. We are using a MiFi hotspot for Internet connection and in spite me testing it out in the UK when I started it this morning it didn’t connect. 15 mins on the phone to the support in the uk sorted it out but it delayed us a couple of hours. No harm done as that was the point of today… to solve these kinds of issues.
Yesterday was busy but fun. After flying to Zurich I met up with Markus and we went to his home where we spent a couple of hours setting up the car and making sure everything fitted in the tiny boot of the Tesla Roadster. It did… well, mostly!
After lunch in an English pub (!) Markus was kind enough to give me a potted tour of the centre of Zurich with its rich history going back to the Romans. It is a city I will have to return to when I have more time to explore.
Then we went to a company launch party for CleanTech where we met up with no less than 6 Tesla Model S owners and another Roadster. Most of these these will be joining us for the trip to Stuttgart for the world record or doing the WAVE so I will see then later in the week again.
Then back to the hotel for a well needed sleep. A long day and great fun.
Tomorrow is a holiday in Switzerland so we are doing a driving tour around Zurich to test out the various tech on board. Follow us on Glympse on the home page.
After the weeks of waiting and preparation the day has finally arrived and I am on my way to Zurich to meet up with Markus.
The first leg is by train to Gatwick Airport then a stay overnight ready for tomorrows flight.
Electric vehicles are most certainly not silent. At car park speeds they make as much noise via various fans, pumps and tyre noise as most modern internal-combustion engine vehicles. At high speeds the wind and tyre noise is comparable to any car. And like so many other issues surrounding the EV, this “problem” was addressed years ago. The EV1 had a back-up warning, as well as a pedestrian alert that could be activated by the driver when needed.
