yet again, we get up early (not bright &) and go to our vehicles. it seems that the cars were unplugged sometime early morning. luckily, the TWIKE, with its small battery was already done charging at that time and we were able to start out with a full charge. not so team twingo – they decide to leave anyway and charge somewhere en route. since we’ve got to cover 156kms today, we need to conserve energy. our current overall weight is about double the car’s weight. our target consumption for this stage is 42Wh/km. the other cars zoom by […]
WAVE India Day5: Hyderabad – Kurnool
left early from hyderabad. instead of heading straight to the motorway, we first went to see an old fort – the detour definitely was worth it! another iconic picture for TWIKE in india! then, after days of backbreaking roads, we finally emerge on a perfect motorway! just for the fun of it, i accelerate to 98kph gps and – whoooooha – this does feel good! today i’ve got a different co-pilot for the first stage: we start munching up the kilometers. after an hour or so, we pull over to have some breakfast and chai’s. […]
WAVE India Day3: Solapur – Humnabad – Hyderabad
Not much sleep for us tonight. we got to our hotel in solapur quite late and are set to leave at 5.30 am in order to make it to hyderabad by 5 pm > 335 kms away. this might not sound like much, but applied to indian roads – believe me – this is a lot! we get to see the sunrise over the dusty planes of rural india – a big red fireball rises. very impressive and not easily photographed. navigation-wise we never really face any problems – either we’ve got our good friend google with us or – […]
WAVE India Day1: Mumbai > Pune
after staying at the shopping centre overnight, we retrieve the cars at 11am and set off on our first official WAVE india 2011 stage! the stage will take us to pune, a city on a plateau about 600m above sea level about 130kms from mumbai. it takes ages to get out of mumbai. when we reach the outskirts, traffic lightens up immediately and thanks to good road surfaces are able to get a decent average speed. the climb itself is impressive. the road takes us from about 30m above sea level to about 800m. the other cars stop for a good hour to recharge […]
first day on official duties
we got back pretty late from customs. mumbai inner city traffic was very dense (we shall learn today, however, that the traffic we got to know was “light” traffic, according to locals, and now, after the fact, us, too!) for today, we are scheduled to attend a press conference and show our cars at a mall. we plunge back into bombay traffic. it is very dense but unlike european traffic, everyone looks out for the fellow driver. thanks to google and our indian sim, we easily find our way to the bombay press club. first journalists arrive and we are […]
releasing the twike from customs
after arriving at iitb at around 830am i decide that i will not go to sleep but rather stay up and try to sync to indian time the hardcore way. the 4 hours 30 minutes time difference to switzerland are quite noticeable. we head out to customs and a very long while later we arrive and meet our agent, john. entering customs free zone, we proceed to our container. the container looks very interesting, since there are cables coming from it and going into the local power distribution centre. the cables and the installation itself looks very dodgy. but interestingly […]
mumbai, 1st contact
touchdown mumbai 0450. did’nt get any sleep but still wide awake. got off plane and progressed though customs and immigration for over an hour. the sheer amount of people trying to get through customs is staggering. furthermore, being in india and all, queuing is part of life – it’s just interesting to see all the people from all walks of life trying to enter the country. be it the indian business man in a crisp suit (even after 8 hours of flight) or the european hippy heading off to you know where – every one of them is treated with […]
Hello visa! (& other musings)
process excellence! just a few days after i applied for the visa, i’ve got it back! here we go. ready for all the fun india has to offer! i’m really impressed by the indian visa process after being treated to much worse service the world over! something else came together on friday, too: my international driving license was issued! whilst musing about what else i need, how about some cool bumper stickers for the TWIKE… or… even better, for my fellow electric car drivers: the trusted “hybrids are for pussies” sticker which has been adorning my TWIKE for the last […]
Road-side repair course
although i am fairly familiar with most components of the TWIKE, i have always left repairs to thomas möckli from möckli elektrofahrzeuge in marthalen. he has been able to accommodate most of my special modification requests – be it a better distribution of breaking power between front and back wheels, or my bluetooth sound streaming to the TWIKE or everyday tasks such as changing the tyres > thomas makes it happen. since the announcement of TW560’s taking part at the WAVE in india on www.twikeklub.ch, the usual suspects related to TWIKE vehicles have been in touch and have offered their […]
Team Images for WAVE2011 India Website
We’re ready! just a few days ago, the indian organizers wanted an image with the team and vehicle. very difficult, if the vehicle in question is 800km away, tucked into a container! with the help of thomas möckli from elektrofahrzeuge möckli and an exceptionally beautiful friday afternoon, we were able to take some pictures and the image above is the one we chose for the international WAVE2011 site. jean claude’s avatar andrew’s avatar