Published September 24, 2012
By Philippe Crowe
It took eight months, but today the French Electric Odyssey team finally completed its trip around the world at the wheel of an EV.
Antonin Guy and Xavier Degon, two French engineers who created the Electric Odyssey project, left Strasbourg, France on Feb. 11 with the goal of going around the world in their Citroën C-Zéro, a re-badged Mitsubishi i-MiEV.
Their trip led them through 17 countries and they covered 26,366 kilometers (16,383 miles). To do so, they had to stop and charge their ride close to 300 times.
They made it back to Strasbourg today just in time for lunch, local time.
As the duo declared before their trip, “we are convinced that the electric car will be tomorrow’s transportation. In order to prove this and to participate in its rapid development, we will realize the first world tour in a standard electric car: the electric odyssey. This adventure will enable us to promote the image of electric cars to the public at large and to reassure them on its use (its autonomy, its safety, how it can be charged, etc. ... ).”
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While some charging points were anticipated in advance, the crew’s biggest challenge has often been to convince the encountered inhabitants to lend them their outlets.
The upside is their estimated charging costs were 250 euros, about seven times less than they would have paid for gasoline.
Links to their Facebook page, Twitter handle and to a Flikr account where one can see pictures of their trip can be found on the team’s Web site, which is both in French and English.
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