Imagine: A saturday – my family fully booked with horse riding and shooting, weather forcast superb for all of switzerland… I decide to leave bright and early to drive wherever TW560 takes me.
although i started out as random as possible, arriving in chur gave me just a limited choice of places to go. therefore, i decided to do this trip in the opposite direction, without the passes, since they were still covered in snow.
i took the motorway, since i wanted to move away from where i usually am as fast as possible.
then, slowly, my battery was quite empty. my smartphone indicated a charging point just a few 100 meters from the motorway – when pulling up to the GPS coordinates, things turned out to be very interesting…
the solar tracker was producing about 10kW of power whilst i was only consuming about 7kW. my charge was therefore 100% direct-solar and the charge felt really good. the hotel just 150m away was very happy to provide me with some breakfast whilst i waited my 65 minutes for a full charge.
heading away from the motorway, i was very much aware that i was now in motorbike territory. sharp bends and scenic views are usually why switzerland’s passes are clogged with motorbikes during summer. What a sight to be alone on this road for about an hour…
Temperatures quickly are much lower as i’m used to. at 1500m, even in bright sunlight, i’m back to 8°C.
if you look around there are sill ski-lifts active and small dots representing skiiers are dotted on various hills. winter ist still very much in control here!
i have to take the st. bernardino tunnel, since the pass is not yet open. i surprise some foreign tourists whilst crossing through the layby just before the tunnel.
last time i was on the other side of the tunnel, we stopped at a very small restaurant with an owner who had his single-phase plug listed in lemnet.org. the guy told us that within 3 years we were the second electric car to charge. this time things were slightly different:
he decided to seriously upgrade his infrastructure and install a 16A tri-phase plug. accoding to the owner, since we arrived last time, there have been many electric cars arriving – some even wanted to charge at 32A…
st. bernardino village’s restaurants are struggling to attract enough customers – the owner told me that an ev-driver usually spends much more than any other guest and stays just long enough to enjoy a meal – perfect for him to attract high-turnover business he usually would not have.
i stop the charge before the battery is fully charged. i have a 1400m descent ahead and the battery is looking forward to the energy recuperated on the way back down to bellinzona.
as i arrive back at about 300m, with careful driving, i’ve been able to get back about 850Wh – the battery is more or less fully charged. this is why i decide to press onwards on the motorway to lago maggiore, about 20km away.
such a beautiful place – just a few kms away from italy, the ice creams are phenomenal!
on my way back to airolo, i decide to charge at a RiPartTi charging station – i haven’t got a key, but i’ve been in the southern part of switzerland enough times to know that the charging stations cannot withstand some loving attention. this is where i get to try my type2 connector for a tri-phase charge.
then i head back to the gotthard.
since the gotthard pass is closed, yet again, i have to take the tunnel.
this time the temperature differerences are extreme: at the entrance, i’ve got about 11°C. inside, the temperatures slowly rise to about 33°C. really hot air suddenly engulfes the TWIKE! then, on my way back out of the tunnel, temperatures quickly fall back to 10°C… drastic changes! air quality in the tunnel is awful – breathing is really difficult. after crossing the alps many, many times, i wonder how our car managed to mask the bad air from us!
after charging in göschenen – nothing was open so i had to just wait whilst streaming some series via vpn from my server. just 55 mins later, the battery was full and i was able to drive 125 kms home on one charge on the motorway.
a very nice day, indeed!