being able to be the main sponsor of events though my company, i have the unusual freedom to choose what activity or thing is going to be sponsored.
instead of boring roll-ups or other corny give-aways i usually decide on something more interesting or memorable.
this year for a conference i decided to take some of my customers on a segway tour around switzerland’s captial, berne. although i had planned to do something with electric cars, i had to abandon that idea pretty quickly, since it seems still very difficult to get more than just 1-2 electric rental cars to any given point at any given time!
normally, when one gets to see a segway at a mobility fair or otherwise, one gets to drive it some quick minutes, mostly in a closed compound. this was something completely different: 90 minutes of driving and sightseeing in one of the nicest capital cities of europe. (if you haven’t been to berne yet, you should plan to visit soon!)
everyone (including me!) had a lot of fun – beautiful weather helps, too 🙂
the night was spent at the novotel berne, which proudly answered my request for an overnight charge for TW560 with a “sir, we are most delighted to report that we have 2 parking spots reserved exclusively for electric vehicles – electricity is included in the room price!”
wow…but when i arrived, the only thing ready were the parking spots (marked green) but *no* plugs in sight. lucky me that i had taken a 30 metre extension with me!
the next day i needed to get back to zurich very quickly and decided to drive all the way there on the motorway.
View Bern > Glattfelden by TWIKE in a larger map (& i do like TW560’s GPS tracker! (click blue line))
with some special driving techniques, i was able to keep my consumption at around 45Wh/km for about 106kms whilst upkeeping a 76km/h average which included urban traffic in berne until i got on the motorway.
then, just before zurich i hit traffic and until i got where i needed to go – i had reduced average speed to 67km/h @ 46.9Wh/km for about 132.6 total distance covered.
quite happy about this feat – i remember my NiCd days not so long ago, where i had to keep my consumption way below 45Wh/km and recharge en route for about 90 mins when travelling from berne to zurich!
on another note: just a few days to go until TDE2012!