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The historical past of people endeavor daring expeditions stretches again to the start of time. There’s one thing concerning the unknown that calls us. It pulls on our creativeness, and with every step ahead in know-how, we propel ourselves deeper into the ocean with higher cameras, farther up the mountain with much less oxygen, into the desert with much less water, or throughout the subsequent land mass in a brand new car.
That very same spirit is alive and nicely at the moment. Practically 100 years after the well-known Le Croisière Monde — or The World Cruise — a brand new technology of adventurers are planning an epic journey for the electrical period. They plan to take 4 admittedly off-road-challenged Citroën Amis from Paris all the way in which right down to the tip of South Africa in simply 3 and 1/2 months.
CleanTechnica sat down with staff chief Eric Vigouroux and the technical chief of the staff, Maarten van Pel, to speak about their expedition, its objectives, and the know-how they’re utilizing to get down there. Proper on the prime of the record, we needed to know why they selected what is basically a glorified electrical golf cart for his or her expedition car. Eric shared that the Ami would enable them to maintain their automobiles as gentle as attainable, which made the Ami an excellent possibility. Lighter automobiles gained’t sink as far into the muck, are simpler to push or pull out should you do get caught and maybe most significantly, use much less vitality to maneuver. As electrical automobiles operating an expedition by way of international locations with little to no electrical infrastructure, effectivity is essential.
The plan was by no means to take inventory automobiles down by way of Africa, and along with his historical past of constructing automobiles and supporting Dakar racers, Eric had a full record of upgrades for the 4 Citroën Amis able to go. With help from staff sponsor Citroën on the car facet, they began engaged on tearing the automobiles down and constructing them again up as expedition automobiles.
The chassis had been strengthened to help a bigger battery pack, and with a 48-volt main battery system, they had been in a position to improve the capability three-fold with out having to get too technical. Utilizing mid-voltage batteries additionally makes charging from photo voltaic panels a lot simpler, as they had been ready to make use of off the shelf 48-volt photo voltaic cost managers.
To remain charged up, they tapped into the experience of Maarten van Pel, who alongside along with his associate Renske took a Skoda Enyak IQ from their house within the Netherlands right down to South Africa over the course of 13 months on the 4×4 Electrical Expedition. They drove greater than 38,000 kilometers from the Netherlands down the west coast of Africa to South Africa and again up the east coast to Kenya.
A key piece of Maarten and Renske’s journey was a customized 6-kilowatt array of photo voltaic panels paired with a customized DC to DC charger developed by Venema E-Mobility Programs to push energy instantly from the photo voltaic panels into the car’s excessive voltage battery. They labored with their companions at Mito Photo voltaic and different companions to construct the system particularly for his or her journey.
The ultimate expedition automobiles might be unveiled on October sixteenth on the prestigious Mondial de l’auto 2024 in Paris. The revealing will function the tender launch for the expedition, with the official begin following on October twenty eighth. As with all daring expedition of this measurement, taking 4 automobiles, modifying them extensively for off-road use, and kitting them out with expedition gear is just not low-cost.
They’ve pulled collectively a number of huge title companions to help their efforts, together with SunPower, Citroen, and Field a la Carte, and nonetheless have openings for extra sponsors. For extra info or to leap on board to help this daring clear tech expedition, attain out to the staff for extra info.
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