hjalte's blog

We have a weekend waiting for our electric car and explore Valencia. Valencia's famous architect Santiago Calatrava has created a complex of striking monuments containing museums, concert-halls, imax cinemas, sports stadium, a giant aquarium and an out-of-this-world bridge. Large azure basins mirrored the white concrete, glass and intricate steel. A dinosaur stood yelling in the middle of it all. We felt like walking in an enchanted garden. In the warm afternoon we found an outdoor cafe and had tiny mussels and mushrooms in garlic. Valencia is gearing up to the annual fiesta Fallas. On this last Sunday of February violent canons announce the coming fiesta. Every street compete for the best decorations. In our street a forest of lights draw notes and romantic shapes.

Nina and Hjalte

2008 Solartaxi drove round the world with a light-weight vehicle carrying solar-cells on a trailer producing power for the motor of the three-wheeler.

2010 Odyssey of the Pioneers was a marketing stunt by the watch-company Tagheuer to send a Tesla electric sports car round the world with a PR-show for the watches. The excellent Tesla was shipped to 16 cities round the world - presumably by plane judging from the calendar of the event. And the pictures only showing the car at photo-ops with cooktail-party people.

2011 Zero Race for electric cars are still on the road with three electric vehicles. They plan to finish in Geneva this February. Participating are an electric scooter, an enclosed MC and a three-wheeler. Missing is a real production electric car.

If you know about electric cars that have gone round the world, please send an email to: nina@moto-mundo.com

Farewell to USA. Green Car clocked 7400 kilometers in the great country. Not a scratch so far and no hick-ups. New York gave us loads of snow (the snowiest January ever). We had fun jumping in front of Manhattan before we drove to the warehouse and loaded Green Car into a container bound for Valencia in Spain. If all goes well we start the last stage of our round-the-world electric tour on March 1st. THE BLOG WILL NOT PAUSE. 

Nina and Hjalte

New York embraced us with spring-like sunshine. On a Manhattan skyscraper a counter showed how many tons of greenhouse gasses were released into the atmosphere. 3,673,292,928,119 metric tons up to this day. Green Car saves approximately 100 gram CO2 for each km compared with the gas version Qashqai. On our tour we have so far driven 20000 km and saved the atmosphere 2 tons CO2. If all the cars in New York turned electric you could see the counter begin reversing.

Hjalte

Look, Hudson River! And the skyscrapers of Manhattan! We had to shout our joy. Green Car had taken us all the way across America from San Francisco to New York, more than 7000 kilometers. We finally stopped at the corner of Central Park and Harlem, where we had friends waiting for us. Rita gave us a warm welcome and showed us the grand view from their 9th floor apartment. Later we parked Green Car at the local gas-station. Five men had to move a Pepsi-wending machine to get Green Car hooked up. When all was done it was time for a glass of red wine and good long talk about life in this city so unlike all the other cities we have seen on our tour. We looked out the window on all the lights and just felt so happy - we made it!

Nina and Hjalte

We talked to journalist Bill Huges from the Bloomsburg Press, and he did an interview and took some photos. We had to dig Green Car out of the snow next to the White Birch Bed and Breakfast. Snow became sleet and freezing rain, the worst weather so far. As the rain froze over on the windscreen, Green Car sloshed through wet snow and salt. In the Delaware Water Gap we found an open KOA camp-site and got Green Car hooked up. For us there was no lunch just some chips and sweets. In the company of a worn pool table and two tired pin-ball machines we worked on our blog for some hours. A big TV was tuned to Weather Channel and predicted all kinds of icy rain, frozen roads, sleet and fog for the rest of the day.

Nina

The distance an ordinary car can cover in a couple of hours Green Car will need a full day to drive. Like the early polar explorers we struggle ahead mile by mile with frozen toes. We almost can´t understand why we are so slow moving. I guess you have to try it to understand it. Power last night was only 110V so Green Car was only half charged as we set out in the morning. The last 10% of the morning power was spent searching for more power around Milton in Pennsylvania. We found it in Jake´s car-repair shop. His outlet was a kind of 100 amp socket we hadn´t seen before so Hjalte had to combine some loose legs and grind down one of them to get Green Car charging. We were eating  lunch and apple-pie in The Arrowhead Restaurant for 4 hours until Green Car is ready for the next stint on the Interstate 80. In front of the windows the big Susquehanna flows by. The whole area, the restaurant and the car shop was flooded in December and it has been like that almost every year. But nobody moves. The Arrowhead has been here for 60 years and survived 20 floods.

Nina and Hjalte

I, Green Car, can't stand it much more! I am covered by road-salt. It itches all over my body, under the belly, on my rear end and all over. And when Nina og Hjalte touch me they get all whitish clothes. I am driving soft and silent like an angel, and then they keep talking about I have never been so dirty. Luckily I still got my thick rubbers and stand firmly in ice and snow. Nina on the other hand was just about to fall over yesterday. Suddenly she skated away on one leg with flapping arms. The rubber under her shoes is deplorable, she really ought to change to Continental tires. Hjalte catched her computer in mid-air and she regained balance. To walk on your own legs is not popular in the US. Here you take the car.

Greetings from Green Car

Icy morning. We drive east along Interstate 80 through the vast forests and low mountains of Pennsylvania. White and grey and blue rips in the clouds. It is a Nordic landscape. We have the flashers turned on and the 18-wheelers blast past us. On the radio advertisements and religious country-music. In the middle of the day we eat at a Buck-Horn restaurant decorated with interesting historic photos from the area. At 5 o´clock we unplug Green Car from the truck-repair shop and set out on the second shift of the day. It is dark now. The challenge is to get as far as possible. Some hours later we leave the interstate still with a good portion of power left to reach a motel in Lock Haven listed on our GPS. As soon as we see the building we know we can not get power to Green Car - the motel is like a fortress and worst: central air-condition with sealed installations. The next address turn out to be a residential house. And a bed & breakfast only has an answering machine on. The next motel has an oil heater and no 220V. On the last % of power we drive to a motel back on the Interstate. But again - no luck - there is only 110V. Now we have to stay. Green Car can no more. We have not been prepared for four missed shots!

Nina and Hjalte

Most electric car-owners charge their car at home and only drive to work and the shopping-mall. That is easy and convenient. To go far in an EV is all about finding electricity outside home, and that is not always easy. Oddly as there is electricity everywhere. But there are always circumstances. So today we have spent four hours in a large truckers gift shop and restaurant while Green Car got power from the clothes-dryer out under the emergency-exit door. And at the end of the day we found a motel with a very friendly girl that gave us a room with an outlet for Green Car for free and a nice warm room for us. Sometimes we are really lucky. We are getting closer to New York...

Nina