We wrote about a trip with an electric car (EV) from Riga to Barcelona more than a year ago. During this time, we have been three more times with our electric car on work trips around Europe, and in these Ligos we finally allowed ourselves to go on a more relaxed trip or a longer Ligo night adventure to the Dolomites.
Make sure you do it while it’s still summer, because it’s in the high mountains – the thousand and two thousand – that you’ll be able to enjoy all the benefits that quality fully electric cars undoubtedly have, regardless of all the insanity that’s been going on politically for decades about saving the world from man as such and often displays mountains of both hypocrisy and outright stupidity. It would be very interesting to look not at the emission data of the new and variously messed up and compliant with many standards ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars, but at a comparison of these numbers, for example, with the emissions created as a result of the firing and detonation of a single artillery shell, or with approximately 1000 hp powerful even before we were born not to mention the CO2 emissions of tracked vehicles rolling off the assembly line, and other military toys and their consequences. Yes, these are all very necessary things, but it is also not necessary to pretend that the big ships in the sea and the already mentioned technical units do not exist, and therefore each of us should legitimately feel a sense of guilt in front of humanity for every plane ticket bought or kilometer driven by our car.
But when you enter the alpine meadow dirt road with an EV, it’s really nice to know that you won’t blow a jet of blue smoke on any flower or insect, and in the city, it’s indisputably better for both people and historical buildings if the smoke produced by the ICE and the wear products of the brake linings are less. In an EV, if it is used in a more recuperative mode, the brakes will wear significantly less and there will be correspondingly less harmful brake products in the environment. Another story is about how electricity or batteries are obtained, but it is a sensitive topic and in the whole living world, unfortunately and without exception, it is so peculiarly arranged that every living creature in its existence eats or otherwise harms another living creature, starting from a bacterium, a small a spider, an oak tree, a flower, a bunny, a tiger and finally a man.
Dry numbers – 4216 km have been driven in a little more than a week with an average speed of 67 km/h. The Opel MOKKA-e achieved an average electricity consumption of 16.1 kWh per 100 km on this particular trip and a total of 454.16 EUR including VAT and bank commissions were paid for electricity to Chargemap, Greenway, Mobilly and Orlen. Expensive or cheap – judge for yourself. The official consumption data of our Opel MOKKA-e, which tend to differ even in one information source, shows 17.4-17.8 kWh per 100 km. This means that by driving most of the way on an electric car and even in an environment unfriendly to hybrids – highways or autobahns – we have managed to obtain an energy consumption that is almost 2 kWh per 100 km lower than the official one. During the trip, the outside air temperature often approached +30 degrees and even more, but the asphalt temperature in places accordingly approached +50 degrees Celsius and the climate system worked at full capacity, which according to unofficial data can even reach 5 kW. No Eco modes were used and we did not even drive at 90 km/h. For a long time, we have been using only the “B” mode of enhanced recuperation, and on the main roads we left in the 110-130 km/h corridor, except for a few cases when it was necessary to save a lot of power and we had to struggle with 80 km/h in a place where 140 can be legally developed km/h On the way, we also visited some larger or smaller cities, for example Vienna and Warsaw, as well as two full days of intense driving through mountain passes and roads at an altitude of about 2000 m above sea level – Pass Pordoi, Passo Gardena, Strada Planac, Passo Fedaia – very a picturesque network of roads around Piz Boè with the excellent Terrazza delle Dolomiti and the Marmalade Hill viewing area, where of course you have to ride the funicular – Terrazza Marmolada. We definitely recommend it, because this year these roads are also included in the guidebooks of various supercar owners’ clubs as must see or must do.
It is in mountain serpentines that you can get to know the essence of EV. Instant burst at the start of each uphill section and powerful recuperation (production of electricity during braking) before the serpentine bend. As many turns, as many times it repeats. Braking before corners significantly reduces consumption when driving uphill, which of course can reach even very high numbers if this type of road is enjoyed as a rally. However, starting the descent, only recuperation takes place practically throughout its entire length. We noted that after driving the entire length of Passo Gardena with the continuation to Bolzano, we recovered approximately 10% of the battery capacity, which is 5kWh for the MOKKA-e. In terms of performance on such mountain roads, most EVs on the market are certainly capable of more than their pilots can manage. To enjoy similar emotions, you need either a powerful motorcycle and the ability to ride it, or at least a Porsche. It should be noted that almost all models and a very wide range of Porsches drive on these roads both individually and in large groups of several dozen cars, but Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren can also be found near small shops or lift houses. The capabilities of an ordinary budget EV here approach the performance of two or three times more expensive ICE cars, which consume incomparably more financial resources for their maintenance and whose fuel costs on high mountain roads approach at least 60+ EUR for every 100 km, if mountain passes are “taken with taste”, which the electric car does easily, quietly and without emissions.
Let’s not talk about the negative this time – everyone knows that the infrastructure and the same green policy in practical terms do not keep up with the pace of development of electromobility in real life. It is very spicy to find out on a nice summer morning that the entire Greenway network on the Polish side has “settled down” for at least 24 hours when the battery has 18% power left, and also to find out that many very wealthy and educated people disconnect their car from the charger by pressing its red Emergency button, which leaves the next user with a “blacked out” screen and complete confusion as to “what to do”. It’s also incomprehensible idiocy (it’s hard to call it otherwise) that cigarettes can be bought all over the world and even in blatantly questionable places with the same credit card or even debit card, but to charge an electric car in each country n-different applications must be installed and each of them must be linked to the validity period one of your bank cards and then you have to worry that suddenly there is no internet, because then nothing will happen. It is just as nice to place a fast charging station with several powerful “columns” in the outdoor parking lot of a supermarket, which cannot be entered on holidays, because all the barriers are down, but in a very long Ligo night you can already drive past dried flower beds. But these are already the “childhood” problems of all new things and technologies, which make all this a bit more of an adventure than traveling by plane or classic diesel. Enjoy electricity – drive an electric car to real mountains! If you don’t want the toughest adventure part of this event (the exhausting covering of long distances) – fly closer to the mountains and rent a powerful EV – it’s already possible. Maybe after such a trip you will want to buy yourself an electric car at home.
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2023-07-10 16:46:50
#Drive #electric #cars #mountains #PHOTO
