As with Barcelona (and many other cities in Europe), London, the destination of TWIKE560’s adventure this year has introduced fees to enter certain parts of the city. London’s road charging zones are a patchwork of eco-driven bureaucracy: there’s the LEZ (Low Emission Zone), the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone), and adding to this, the Congestion Charge Zone in the middle: all designed to discourage high-emission vehicles from entering the innermost parts of the capital. As an EV enthusiast wanting to get my TWIKE right into the heart of London and wanting to get those must-have shots with Elisabeth Tower …Big […]
Neo Cable Selection
Eight years ago, I started a page describing the different cables and connectors needed for long-distance travel across Europe with a TWIKE. At that time, Type 2 connectors were still rather uncommon. Even though I had already built a simple connector in 2014, I still listed this cable as something that might be useful. The full travel kit looked quite extensive back then: Charging and the EV landscape have changed a lot since then. This made me consider which cables and adapters I will actually need for my trip to the UK this year. My mostly positive experiences with public […]
TDGB2025 – Planning Update
Not too much to report other than the planning stage is going forward as planned. I’m really looking forward to travelling to the UK this year in early August. My trip will include me visiting some friends – whilst I’m still sorting out the exact details. Also, I’ve ordered a vital part for my trip to the UK:The itinerary’s filling up fast! This will be my direct connection to the UK grid when I’m there. 🙂 My overall plan hasn’t changed – the map looks still the same! If you want to meet up or have ideas along the trip […]
2025 Q1 Pack Capacity Test
After more than 3 years since the last capacity test and a full balancing just 2 weeks earlier, I was now ready to combine pleasure with some research: how much capacity has the pack lost? I decided to drive to Strassbourg and back – like last time – to test this. Since this is an exercise in extreme hypermiling – not only do I want to know the pack’s capacity, but also how far I could, in theory, drive on a charge – I will have to start pretty early. I get up at 530 am and say hello to […]
2025 Q1 Battery SOH
It’s been a while since I’ve tested the full capacity of my pack – 3 years to be precise. I’m interested in how bad the pack has degraded since then. As I’ve been travelling a lot and my TWIKE has been in ‘daily’ mode since then and I noticed some weird drops during my last TWIKE adventure to Italy, I’ve been keen on testing how much exactly the pack has changed since the last test. For this I need to take out my balancing rig and start balancing all the cells before taking the TWIKE back out to a full […]
TWIKE 5 at TWIKEklub General Assembly – Prototype Test Drive
As president of the TWIKE Klub, one of my favorite responsibilities is organizing our annual general assembly. Finding the right location is always a bit of an adventure … it needs to comfortably fit up to 50 people, have some connection to sustainability, renewable energy, or ideally one of our own TWIKE pilots. Furthermore, it has to offer enough electricity to get all our TWIKEs fully charged and ready for the trip back home afterward. Our general assembly day usually kicks off with some relaxed catching up over coffee, then we spend a couple of hours exploring the venue. After […]
Post-Winter Plexi TLC
The plexiglass windshield typically is very scratched after a winter’s use with salt and grime being wiped away constantly. As I’ve done many times before, I wanted to start the warm weather season with a clear windscreen – If you want to know more about how to restore the plexiglass, please go to the in-depth entry I posted 7 years ago. The magic happens with around one hour of work and really brings the plexi back to its old, original glory and clarity. …and then, your TWIKE will be looking like new!
Early 2025 Black Forest ODT
One of my first little EV adventures of 2025 with the TW560 was a quick day trip to the Black Forest. If you’ve ever spent winter (October to March) in the lower parts of Switzerland, you know the struggle—weeks of thick, soupy fog that just doesn’t go away. After five sunless weeks, your brain starts to feel like it’s running in low-power mode. Luckily, the Black Forest is just around the corner from me—well, 40 minutes away—and since it climbs up to 1600 meters, it guarantees me seeing some sun! Climbing out of the grey and into a clear, sunny […]
Presentation Press coverage
As mentioned in this post, I was invited to speak about electric mobility before it went mainstream at an event. My presentation showed how we navigated public charging, upgrading our vehicles, traveling and how battery technology evolved during the past few years. Since there were some members of the press present, I’m happy to publish one of the accounts here.
Hello 2025
Besides building my new Type2 charging solution in December, my last few months were slow, filled with travel and, ultimately, with many discussions and meetings. I was offered a leadership role at a very large company in my previous industry, cyber security solutions and services. To make sure everyone involved – me, my peers and n-1’s – would be happy, I traveled extensively to meet them all and have frank conversations about goals and strategies. Happy to report that I will be starting February 3 – my wife and I will take most of January off and enjoy some time […]