e-miglia 2010: Tesla wins the big electric adventure
e-miglia 2010: Tesla wins the big electric adventure
- · E-cars roll over the finish-line in Rovereto after 560 kilometers
- · 24 of the 25 participating vehicles overcome the Alps
- · There’ll also be an e-miglia in 2011
Bolzano/Rovereto, August 6th, 2010. The e-miglia 2010, the first pure international electric rally in the world, is over. After four days, five Alpine passes and 560 kilometers, 24 of the 25 e-vehicles, which started on Tuesday in Munich, rolled over the the finish-line in Rovereto, Italy in the evening. It’s already certain: after the successful premiere, there will also be an e-miglia in 2011. The first partners have already confirmed their support again.
Winner of the first big electric adventure ist he Team Energiebau. In two of the three special stages, Tim Ruhoff (25) and his co-driver Steven Hoffmann (20) achieved the record time and are now happy about the prize money of 10,000 Euro. “To drive through these beautiful landscapes in the Tesla together with all the other e-cars, was wonderful. That we also won, made the experience perfect“, Ruhoff rejoiced at the awards ceremony. Carlo Bermes and Wulf Biebinger of the Team JuWI Racing – also in a Tesla, followed in second place. With a total time of 37:30:03.77 hours, the duo was only 2.18 minutes behind the leading team – and 2.09 minutes ahead of Markus Spiekermann of Team Move About Bosch in a Think City. Marcel Schwager, the only electric biker within the participating field, finished the e-miglia 2010 in an impressive fifth place.
25 e-mobiles started on Tuesday in Munich, 24 set out for the final stage on the morning of the fourth day. The Team Jetcar Elektro had to park their vehicle on the trailer with a technical defect on Thursday evening. The final day once more asked everythig of the silent armada. The first special stage took place shortly after the start in Bolzano, on the almost 1400 meter high Mendelpass. All of the e-vehicles mastered the 14.9 km long picturesque route without problems.
“All complete“, was heard at the next checkpoint, before the e-crew made its way to the Piazza Dante in the heart of Trient for a charging break. While some used the time for a city tour, others took a worried look at their roadbooks. There were two “treats“ planned for the afternoon: first the Kaiserjaegerweg and then the Passo Sommo – including the morning route all in all 2748 meters difference in altitude. This caused some brow to furrow, especially amongst the small city vehicles. Because aside the necessary energy reserves, their problem on mountains is the temperature in particular.
This was also something Markus Wimmer, Marketing Director of the TUEV SUED AG, who competed in the e-miglia in a Karabag 500e realized: “During the special stage the liquid-cooled power electronics ran hot. Afterall we also wanted to use the e-miglia to put the vehicle thoroughly to a test. We will now recommend that the manufacturer amplify the cooling circuit. We were positively surprised by the recuperation technology, that worked flawlessly and even increased the already very impressive range of the Karabag 500e.“
Nicole Y. Maennl, co-driver in a Smart Fortwo, equipped with a BEA-tricks rebuilding kit, had similar experiences: “Just like all small vehicles, our city roadster had temperature and energy problems during the mountain stages. The recuperation however really helped.“ For the next e-miglia, Nicole Männl is hoping for more special stages. “Then we would’ve had the chance to improve our placement.“ The journalist, who was also documenting the rally for the e-miglia media partner wattgehtab.com, was surprised by the work of the co-pilot: “That’s definitely underestimated. What with the navigation, the time management and the maintenance of the boarding card, you really have your hands full.“
In the afternoon’s special stage however the ability of the driver was required: the 7.7 km up to the Kaiserjaegerweg were peppered with extremely steep inclines, jutting rocks and two small tunnels – and, to make matters worse, the road was only two and a half meters wide for
the most part. But even this obstacle was mastered by all the e-vehicles. After this scramble, the Passo Sommo was child’s play. Thanks to recuperation, the batteries had recovered sufficiently after the descent, to survive the second race to the top. At the last checkpoint before the finish, the successful e-teams cellebrated themselves, before setting off in formation to Rovereto.
The Tazzari, the only participating Italian vehicle, reached the destination literally with ist last strength. Georg Kreitmair of the Team First Mobility performed first aid on the little red patient: “We removed the battery charger and loaned the team our company bus, so that we can install the spare part, that’s still at the manufacturer in Imola at this time, together tomorrow.“ Kreitmair himself competed in the e-miglia in a E-TRIC Cabrio: “It was a dream. I managed the entire stage today, including both passes, without recharging. We are now going to incorporate the insights we gained in this rally in our serial production of E-TRIC. That will definitely increase the performance of our little roadster.“
„This was a terrific premiere of this big electric adventure. Contrary to all of the concerns voiced in advance, the silent armada not only met the expectations, but even exceeded them. Everyone except for one made it to the finish, and without big difficulties. Participants and technicians were able to collect unrivaled experiences. That was our goal“, so e-miglia organizer Christian Herles. “Our partners from politics, economy and media have been consistently enthusiastic about the e-miglia. So it’s clear: we’ll be starting again next year.“
This also applies to the TUEV SUED AG, that supported the e-miglia 2010 as technical partner. “We’d love to take part again in the future“, said Marketing Director Markus Wimmer in the evening in the Rovereto. “We’ve set ourselves the goal, to become number one in the area of safety in e-mobility internationally. For that purpose we’ve implemented a fulltime team consisting of seven people. An important component in this area is the e-miglia, that showed us, how far we’ve already come in the area of e-mobility.“ Wimmer also gave kudos to the organizer: “The organization was excellent, the choice of the route marvelous and selected in a way that the vehicles were pushed to their limit. That’s the only way to learn.“
The Schletter GmbH contributed tremendously to the smooth course of the e-miglia 2010. With their mobile charging stations they always provided the vehicles with enough voltage. “Even though the adventure e-miglia was an absolute premiere for us, there were no problems. The local electricity suppliers and the hotels at the stage destinations were very supportive. The only challenge was to be on the spot before the participants, in order to set up the P.Charge charging pillars on time. We did that successfully on all of the four days“, said Roland Sigl, Project Manager for middle-sized companies in Upper Bavaria.
Overall result of the e-miglia 2010:
1st place: Team Energiebau (Starting no. 7), Tim Ruhoff/Steven Hofmann, Tesla Roadster Sport
2nd place: Team JuWI Racing (Starting no. 12), Carlo Bermes/Wulf Biebinger, Tesla Roadster
3rd place: Team Move About Bosch (Starting no. 16), Markus Spiekermann, Think City
You can find additional information on the participants, the vehicles, and images, as well as the complete listings of the results on www.e-miglia.com