Some Pre-departure Thoughts

There's something about going on a non-holiday trip that always causes a funny feeling in my tummy. Having performed the role of a field engineer for the railroad industry in America, I know what it means to set off on a repair mission to remote locations. After a couple of visits, I concluded that the list of key items to have is made up of:

• A Plan
• Tools
• Safety Equipment
• Knowledge and Skills

For some odd reason, I got the same tummy feeling just before our departure from Durham to Cardiff in the i-MiEV, and interestingly enough, I felt that we had prepared all of those four key items. 

The plan was drafted and re-drafted up until the very last minute before our departure. SatNav coordinates were triple checked. We made a route that pointed us to the desired charging stations, and a backup charging station no more than 10 miles away from the desired station. Phone calls were made to ensure that the chosen charging stations were operational and available.  We even waited for the post to deliver an RFID card to give us access to charging stations in the Midlands prior to our departure. 

Our safety equipment in this case was reduced to a torch, fully charged mobile phone, blanket, medication for any kind of illness possible (as if we were travelling through Siberian winter). And of course, a standard SatNav. 

As tools we prepared all of our charging cables, standard automobile gear, and swiss army knife in case we wanted to cut that sandwich while waiting on the car to be charged. 

The i-MiEV's manual was studied, a paper road map of the UK was packed, and emergency phone numbers were noted. The plug types and standards at charging stations were studied, the vehicle was tested beforehand at all types of charging stations available and on the road. 

The point being that this is part of the beauty of engineering. As an engineer, one plans and anticipates scenarios that can negatively affect the outcome of a project, considering timelines and budgets. However, no matter how much planning (and simulations) one does, there will always be some unexpected challenge. In theory, it is clear that our trip to the LCNF 2012 Conference is feasible, but in practice I know that we will face technical, social and environmental challenges that will question the theory. I believe that the tummy feeling is there to remind us engineers that there is a real world out there full of variables that challenges our designs. Over the next couple days we'll get a feeling of the challenges that will come in our way and probably we'll realize that we could do without many of the items that we brought in the car. Although I can foresee long trips on EVs becoming more popular as charging stations spread across the UK, for the moment I feel more comfortable sticking to the the good old saying "hope for the best, but be ready for the worst". 

i-MiEV in all its splendour

With all the buzz about the CLNR, Durham University's EV and the LCNF 2012, it has been apparent to me that the concept of owning an EV is still an obscure and bizarre idea for some people.

Then, I figured, post some pictures!

This is what the car actually looks like

No! it's not a solar car, it's an electric car!

Smiling at you :)

Fancy a ride into Durham city?

The i-MiEV wouldn't be cool without a good set of tunes!

Giannis doesn't believe it's charging. 

Fast charging station at Durham University

It's not a petrol station, it's a charging station!

Very nice shoes! And 15" wheels!

Safety first! Traction control included!

In Newcastle's Metro Centre's super fast charging station.

It's looks like petrol infrastructure, but not quite. 

Charge to 80% in ~20 minutes! Wow!

Phileas Fogg and Monty Python Arthur meets 400-mile eco trip.

Is there a relationship between movie legends like Mr. Fogg and King Arthur to our trip from Durham to Cardiff? 

At a first glance the answer is no… 

After some thought however, the answer is not so clear.

There have been dozens of road trip movies in the global movie industry, many of them related to a mad idea of some friends or a love story somewhere in the middle of the European or US motorways.  Does this adventure have such romantic characteristics? Of course not. We are simply investigating the technical implications of driving an EV for several hundred miles. Many of our friends have found the adventure bizarre - something along the lines of “A Mexican and a Greek driving cross-country in an EV, yeah right”  Well, quasi-lunacy is exactly what relates our trip to cinema and literature.

In London, October 2 1872 Phileas Fogg bet that he can travel around the world in 80 days. Together with his servant Jean Passepartout, they began this crazy trip around the planet using all kinds of transport. This story of course is a product of the imagination of French novelist Jules Verne that would be brought to cinemas in 1956. Britain is no planet, but it certainly seems long when planning an EV route!

I shall now introduce a similar story: King Arthur crossing the country in search of knights to join him in his court at Camelot just by “holding two empty halves of coconuts and bangin’ ‘em together” making a horse sound. Comparing the way that King Arthur travelled and the lunacy of our plan, the parallel is evident: crazy people travelling in an environmental friendly “vehicle” except this time around, the i-MiEV will prove to be faster than the Monty Pythons' creation. 

By the way, for our international readers who are not familiar with the Monty Pythons, the following video shows who they are.

Speaking of lunatic journey stories, I can't help but think of the movie “Those magnificent men in their flying machines”, in which aircraft pioneers from different countries, compete in a race from London to Paris using their primitive airplanes around the 1910’s. I wonder if anyone ever thought of mirroring the 1965 classic on to an EV story. 

But going back to next week's plan: Living in the technological transition to EV infrastructure in the UK - the notion of a lunatic journey for research purposes is nothing else but pioneering, like the traits depicted in characters previously mentioned. The exciting part is that it's just the tip of the iceberg. Driving to Cardiff is part of the greater CLNR's project to make the move towards a low carbon economy. 

In a few days, we shall find out the funny moments that we will enjoy and suffer through in this project. Although realistically speaking, there will not be a movie made of our lunatic-wannabe journey, it would be a big lie to say that we are not excited to participate in such an adventure!