18jan14-update: project finished, see result here. swiss road laws are changing. from january 1st, 2014 onwards, every vehicle on switzerland’s roads must have DRL – daylight running lights – when in motion. older vehicles without dedicated DRL can comply with this law by keeping their main lights on during daytime. a TWIKE, obviously, doesn’t have any dedicated DRL and keeping the main lights on during daytime is not an option for most TWIKE pilots, including me: using 210-260W on just a bit of lighting just seems a tad wasteful and – in tw560’s case – will shave of 6-10 kms […]
world record attempt in zurich july 6: with TWIKE 560
this weekend louis palmer, organizer of WAVE2011-2013 (TW560 took part in WAVE2011, in india) wanted to end the current WAVE with a challenge: beat the current world record bringing together as many electric cars as possible. the current world record stood at 255 vehicles. after reaching out to his network, louis arranged to have all cars converge in zurich on the morning of july 6. below is a video walking along the cars waiting for the start signal. (i started about half way in!) in any case, we TWIKE pilots were here in force! about 60 TWIKE’s were to be […]
racing TW4 at e-mobility world in friedrichshafen
every year, friedrichshafen hosts a large gathering of rare and old cars at the local exposition halls. a remarkable collection it is, but one part is reserved for alternative and electric propulsion cars. this part is called e-mobility world. this year fine mobile, the TWIKE manufacturer decided to take part and have a large presence there. all TWIKE pilots were invited including access to the halls with their own vehicles. i drove the 100 kms to friedrichshafen in one charge. a very nice drive given the wonderful weather. lake constance, nestled between germany, austria and switzerland is a very nice […]
WAVE 2011 – press clippings
i know it’s been a while since WAVE 2011 in india, but i recently stumbled across a selection of news clippings which i thought would be interesting to anyone who had followed our blog in the past. interestingly, most clips feature the TWIKE with either me or jc… click the images for higher resolution versions. enjoy!
visiting fine mobile, the TWIKE manufacturer
after a good nights’ sleep, i rise refreshed from yesterday’s marathon drive across germany. i have a nice balcony on which i enjoy my breakfast, looking down on rosenthal. breakfast over, i head to fine’s HQ… after chatting with some employees, i head for lunch with fine’s ceo, martin möscheid, his brother and the first official twike2fly (in german) partner from morocco, silvia brutschin (a.k.a. twikezora). after lunch, martin möscheid took some time to explain the history of how TWIKE production was transferred to fine mobile after swisslem went out of business. he filled in many blanks i had and […]
halfway through germany in one day
faster than expected the day has come to drive to rosenthal. i’m really looking forward to meeting the guys at fine mobile. some last minute changes to the route and a decision to add a quick 30 minute charge in wurmlingen and the usual preparations regarding my travel cabling kit. so, here i am, 4:40am. TW560 is fully charged, about 14°C and a sliver of dawn forming on the horizon. although i am used to long-distance >450kms day-long drives on our tours, we seldomly go over 300kms/day. View > rosenthal in a larger map above is the route i will […]
under the hood #2: water + batteries > combine at your own risk!
i’ve had problems charging the TWIKE recently. after driving in wet conditions, charging led to FI failures. i was, however, always able to charge using the two external onboard chargers i added to TW560 for fast charging. charging on normal fuses was no problem and since i normally charge the TWIKE during the night on a 6A non-FI secured line, it took some time to discover the problem… the problem had to be with the internal charger and internal electronics. thomas from moeckli elektrofahrzeuge agreed to have a look and this blog entry documents what we found… TW560 was one […]
TW560@TWIKE HQ > visiting fine mobile
since i’ve got much more time on my hands nowadays, i’ve arranged to visit fine mobile, the TWIKE manufacturer june 6-7, 2013. for months now, fine’s marketing department and i have been corresponding on what can be communicated on new developments, options for current TWIKE models and so forth. i felt that i was necessary to see for myself how TWIKE’s are assembled and what status TWIKE 5 has and maybe get a rare glimpse into the design process of this new vehicle. first and foremost, this visit will be for me personally. however, since i am also vice-president of […]
under the hood #1: adding a GPRS module to TW231
a few years ago, with the arrival of the new dreifels controller, modern micro controllers employed within offered many benefits: handling complex charging scenarios more and detailed vehicle data overall better vehicle performance …and a few optional hardware extensions to extend overall vehicle usage comfort. one of these options is a sms module, which – three years ago – i think TW560 was the first one to have officially. the module (in its current release 1 feature level) can help alleviate problems ev-drivers experience when charging: unauthorized unplugging during charge, missing power from the grid, knowing when exactly the charge […]
visting new dreifels HQ
dreifels, the company founded by the three people responsible for creating the vehicle in 1986 have recently moved from sissach to gelterkinden, switzerland. their new hq (see above rendered picture, since i forgot to take a picture myself) is, obviously, an extremely energy efficient building. they combine many interesting technologies plus an avangarde-style bus-based management system which even controls which kind of music can be heard in any given room. anyway, i wasn’t there for sustainable architecture 😉 during the last few years, founders peter, ralph and christian have been very open towards my requests / questions / challenges / […]