For some time now, I’ve been following a very interesting project: Tejas, the Solar Tuk Tuk. Naveen Rabelli is driving his DYI-conversion of an Ape three-wheeler on a 10’000km trip from India to England. On his trip he is proving that very simple sustainable technology can be as reliable as mass-produced conventional technology and at the same time connecting people involved in sustainable technologies. Switzerland wasn’t on Naveen’s route originally. I was extremely happy when I was unexpectedly added to a chat-group on a popular mobile chat platform supporting his trip from southern Germany to France via Switzerland. I was […]
My first 35E-week – a recap
Installed on August 8, the first week saw the new 51Ah pack being put through its paces: Normal commuting, every day usage Capacity testing, hypermiling Quick dash to Austria and back Overnight stay and slow TWIKE-style traveling Let’s see how my TW560-usage for this week looked like in detail: Drove to Dreifels from my office in Zurich: 35E pack genesis. Very relaxed return home – percentage counts down very, very slowly. Day at home, some quick trips to Bülach. Same, same. An additional trip to Eglisau. How much capacity does my battery have? After this day, we know it’s 17.77kWh! […]
New Battery Pack: How far can I go on a charge?
Every time when changing something related to batteries, many other parameters potentially change at the same time: Chemistry, response to load, max/min voltages and discharge curves, etc. In a way, it feels like being a novice TWIKE pilot again – you really don’t know how your battery will react and – in consequence – how far your will be able to drive. Without a reliable total charge capacity figure, any subsequent computations are meaningless. I’m currently driving with the 29E-config I just left in-place since my 35E pack has at least 14% more capacity. It would, nevertheless, be interesting to […]
Finally: My 51Ah pack has arrived!
Samsung’s 35E cells weren’t available when I ordered TW560’s new Dreifels 51Ah battery pack. Thanks to a very kind offer by Ralph from dreifels, I was still able to go on my yearly TWIKE adventure and experience a large pack / range with his personal 29E/45Ah pack. During my vacation Dreifels sent me an email telling me that they had received the cells and were having them spot-welded at a third-party supplier. After receiving the welded cell-packs, Dreifels then builds battery-blocks consisting of multiple cell-packs, adding up to a standard voltage of 180V and 17Ah. I’m really looking forward to […]
A 2nd Life for TW560’s previous batteries
My last battery-related entry was on TW560 getting a new battery pack. (Finally, I have the time to write an entry after my epic 10-day TWIKE adventure across some of the highest passes of Europe with less charging stops. 🙂 ) This entry is dedicated to the previous’ pack’s second life as a stationary battery pack for a Swiss household. The application they are going to be used in is very simple: Solar panel – charging circuit – battery – inverter – 230V-loads in household… grid. The idea is to keep renewable energy in-house and only send energy to the […]
TW560’s *New Battery Pack Installed*
I’ve been hinting at this for a while now: TW560 is getting a major battery upgrade. Today, I’m very happy to report that the first phase of this upgrade has been completed. My TWIKE is definitely ready for our upcoming 11-day, 2500km yearly trip, TDAF2016. This upgrade has been in the making for a very long time – more than 18 (!) months, to be precise. Yet again, since this is a major investment in a 15-year old vehicle, I definitely wanted to invest all the time necessary to thoroughly evaluate and compare all options: Buy original packs from Fine […]
560@ … TWIKEs in Interesting Places (TIP) – A campaign for 2016
TWIKE’s are timeless pieces of design. Every time I enter an old Italian city center square or a French village, a TWIKE doesn’t feel out of place – It just … seems to belong there and represent a past future we’re still waiting for. After having a little fun at a Tesla store end of last year … …and entering Indian shopping centres… I thought to myself: which other interesting places exist where a TWIKE could enter and be photographed to create a stunning and thought-provoking image of a TWIKE? I’m sure you know of a place and maybe know […]
Geneva Motor Show 2016 – mixed emotions
Geneva Motor Show – 10 years of visiting this event with an eye on electric mobility. Will we finally have the electric breakthrough? [Spoiler alert: Sadly, no] There are some signs, though. The image above is Rimac’s concept_one car, a 800kW, 1000+bhp all-electric supercar. Interestingly it is the #1 image hit when you search for Geneva’s 86th Motor Show. No breakthrough, but still a marked change. (#2 is Bugatti’s €1m+ Chiron) My focus, as every year, is: What are mainstream brands doing with regards to electric mobility? I haven’t written about the GVA Salon since 2012. This year, Twitter and […]
Getting ready for #geneva #gvamotorshow
Usually, when someone starts talking to me about things like electric cars aren’t clean, because the electricity is dirty and the like, my answer usually is: That is a fascinating point we should definitely have an extended dialogue about one evening … and you’re buying the wine. But what if I can’t have this dialogue and someone with media coverage like the International Auto Salon Geneva pumps out information like above? The GREENEST car in Switzerland: a DIESEL with a 3 litre consumption @ 79g/km CO2? Seriously? How can such a decision be made for an ICE car anyway? ICE […]
Season’s greetings & Welcome 2016!
Season’s greetings to everyone & thank you for reading this blog in 2015! emissionless.ch/emissionslos.ch has seen its visitor numbers double in 2015 – I’m humbled by the sheer amounts of people reading my musings and following my adventures! 2015 has been a very good year for TW560: Many one-day / multiple-day trips, an epic pan-European adventure and very few technical issues. 2015 was also a good year for electric mobility: it truly entered mainstream media and the collective mind – not only because of the VW-emissions scandal. 8 years ago, with a TWIKE and a Renault Kangoo Electri’Cité everyone thought […]