Wave Day 2 - report

Today started very peacefully, not only because of the blue sky. The task of the day was to show how far we can go on a single charge. For every part completed without a charge we were to get 2 points. First part was easy, 77km, then after it was getting difficult.59km, 39km and 37km, making alltogether 212km. We decided to maybe aim for 4 points (since 6, 175km, was a priori out of our reach), depending on how we get along with the first part. We started with a modest speed of 50km/h, but nevertheless with a lot of apprehension, or a planned range anxiety (is it ok? is it too fast? is it too slow?). The difficulties that we had to surmount were not only hills of Schwartzwald, but also a 120km 'said' range as well as a rather heavily loaded car: 2 people, 65kg portable fast charger, 50kg of our own luggage + 20kg of other participants' luggage.Luckily for us, after about 20-30km we ran into a team Frank und Frank (right side of the photo):

who were driving at 30km per hour, clearly out of choice and not because their car couldn't go faster. And we though - well, now that's an idea. OK, this is not something that you do in a real life but this a competition, i.e. special circumtances, hence special rules apply. And so we did apply this rule, drastically reducing our speed.

And ... it worked. After having driven 77 km we still had 50% of the battery left. A quick coffee at a farm in Nordlingen 

and we headed to Neuburg. The savings we made with the first part left us rather optimistic about our abilities to complete the task of getting 4 points. 

And we were right. When arrived at Neuburg, we still had about 20% of the battery left, and that after having driven 136 km! We felt great and to celebrate our accomplishment we were greated with fanfare. Literally.

A local orchestra was there to play while EVs were arriving and parking. The mayor of the town organised a special event to celebrate the passing of the Wave and the car park around the local utility's office was full of locals wanting to see with their own eyes what EVs are like and speak with the people driving them.

As always, the 'eyes' of our Peugeot Partner were a big attraction.

Once arrived, we started Chademo charging

but after a little while the charging stopped, for no apparent reason... A helpful hand of 2 Wave technicians and 1 fuse box later our charger was back on again. First in the queue was a Wave service vehicle, who had errands to do and was in a rush.

then us and then a team Slovakia. Once charging and eating and talking with curious locals was done, we were off to another interim destination, Pfaffenhoffen.

With an almost full battery and only 39km to make we did not limit ourselves and enjoyed the electric drive to the full (within the speed limits of course!). The final destination for the day was Garching, where Technical University of Munich prepared charging for us and will be hosting us for breakfast tomorrow.

With a last fast charge of the day yesterday - saving Marie and Benoit and their Nissan LEAF from sleeping in their car after they arrived at the 'final' destination yesterday with 5km of range (they still had 30 km to make to get to their hotel) we really felt we are accomplishing our mission at the Wave. Although only used every now and there, it helps people in need get on the road faster and get on with their business. That feeling continued today as well. We fast charged ourselves, Wave's service team's iMiEV and an EV of the team Slovakia. And if there was a need, we could do much more. All this with one CHAdeMO charger. Imagine, if there were 1000s of them in each European country! With that optimistic thought, we go to bed!