Last weekend, a rallye for Electric Vehicles took place in a neigbouring city in Central Portugal . In the past, I participated in two EV-rallyes, one in 2012 in Amsterdam with my Renault Kangoo Electri'cité -with a Guinness Book of Records listing for longest EV line-up in the world and around 1000 EV's participating- and one in 2014 with the brand new BMW i3. So I was very curious and excited about this event and I took a (small) trip to watch the spectacle. The round-trip appeared about 220 km/137 miles so out of reach for my old i3, so I won't be able to join in the future, but it was fun to talk to some people and to the drivers of a BMW i3 who are still very happy with their car. One of the drivers was rewarded in the past by BMW Portugal for being the first Portuguese i3 driver to reach 100.00 km / 62500 miles with his 2014 i3.....
There were a lot of new models from Peugeot, Kia, Smart, Mercedes, a new model and an old model Dacia Spring, Hyundai, Mini, Volvo, Polestar but also an old Tesla model S with the nose cone, together about 20 participating EV's. There were also two BMW 120Ah i3's. Curiously enough no new BMW models. One of the i3 teams took the first prize for energy efficiency last year, and the third place in this edition. So the "good ol'" BMW i3 is still able to compete when it comes to energy efficiency. Probably due to it's low weight.
Last note: I wondered where the public was.... hardly no spectators to be seen -despite the professional looking setup. It looked mainly as a media event with professional camera teams at work and lots of sponsoring everywhere.
My thought is that EV adoption in Portugal will still take a lot of time and effort, and charging points are still scarce outside of bigger towns and cities (no problems with DC charging along highways and toll roads though) so it seems not to appeal to the general public yet. Wages are pretty low, lots of small farmers and current EV prices are out of reach for most inhabitants. With my 60Ah i3 I can manage to do road trips with careful planning and most charging points deliver 32amps at 1 phase, 7.4kw which is better than in the Netherlands, where public charging points generally deliver 16amps at 1 phase.
All in all, I enjoyed the event and got a chance to view some of the newest EV's on the market in close-up. I must say the latest Smart/Brabus has something.... besides the dangling charge port cap (nothing learned there, lol).
There were a lot of new models from Peugeot, Kia, Smart, Mercedes, a new model and an old model Dacia Spring, Hyundai, Mini, Volvo, Polestar but also an old Tesla model S with the nose cone, together about 20 participating EV's. There were also two BMW 120Ah i3's. Curiously enough no new BMW models. One of the i3 teams took the first prize for energy efficiency last year, and the third place in this edition. So the "good ol'" BMW i3 is still able to compete when it comes to energy efficiency. Probably due to it's low weight.
Last note: I wondered where the public was.... hardly no spectators to be seen -despite the professional looking setup. It looked mainly as a media event with professional camera teams at work and lots of sponsoring everywhere.
My thought is that EV adoption in Portugal will still take a lot of time and effort, and charging points are still scarce outside of bigger towns and cities (no problems with DC charging along highways and toll roads though) so it seems not to appeal to the general public yet. Wages are pretty low, lots of small farmers and current EV prices are out of reach for most inhabitants. With my 60Ah i3 I can manage to do road trips with careful planning and most charging points deliver 32amps at 1 phase, 7.4kw which is better than in the Netherlands, where public charging points generally deliver 16amps at 1 phase.
All in all, I enjoyed the event and got a chance to view some of the newest EV's on the market in close-up. I must say the latest Smart/Brabus has something.... besides the dangling charge port cap (nothing learned there, lol).
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