eTourEurope stands for Electric MOBILity across nations and boarders. After 9 days on the road and an impressive 3,900 km all 15 participating teams arrived safely at the final destination in Anif-Niederalm, near Salzburg, on 8th May 2016. During the course of the rally, over 50,000 keen visitors came to the EV events all over Europe.
Switzerland and Germany win eTourEurope
Winners of eTourEurope confirmed:
Peter Walser from Team Swiss, Switzerland was one of the nine nations taking part, was finally able to seal his victory in the open category in his 6 week old Tesla Model S. He described his motivation saying “I wanted to use the electric car rally to give the vehicle a try on a challenging course”. The Swiss-based teacher was the fastest of the 9 teams in his category. He completed the 3900 km course in 42 hours and 42 minutes, at an average travelling speed of 83 km/h (driving and charging). This is a considerable improvement on the average of last year’s record.
Heiner Sietlas and Dirk Asmus from TEAM LEMnet competed with five other teams to win in category C2, nominal range below 300 km. The German team’s long years of rally experience and relentless determination paid off, allowing them to claim their second win in three years. The two drivers from Hamburg in their Nissan Leaf were able to complete the course in 49 hours and 44 minutes, travelling at an average speed of 64 km/h.
Multiple three-generation teams
In interviews Team Mulder from the Netherlands, the DALIM SOFTWARE & WERLE family from France and the German Electrify-BW team repeatedly stressed the driving pleasure provided by their electric cars. One of the exceptional qualities of these three excellent teams is their generation-spanning pool: all of them competed in three different age-groups achieving outstanding results in the rally’s nine cities over the nine days. Their strategy was based on clever distribution of tasks between grand-parents, parents and children. They thus provided practical proof that sharing a commitment to electric MOBILity has nothing to do with age or generation.
372 participants at “1000 EVs in motion!” community
Werner Hillebrand-Hansen assessed the “1000 Evs in motion!” event with 372 EV enthusiastic participants from all over Europe very positively. Although the target of 1000 participants was not reached he sees the number as rather motivating. “Looking forward and considering the rising popularity of the Rally, I am convinced that next time the numbers will even exceed the target. What counts is the positive attitude toward electric MOBILity that we are seeing everywhere we go: all over Europe, people, authorities and political representatives welcomed us and our electric cars and vehicles with open arms.”
Government premium incentive for electric car buyers
The German Federal Minister of Finance, Mr. Schäuble, confirmed in April that the government is introducing a subsidy programme granting €4,000 for each electric car purchase from May 2016. In addition to this 15,000 charging stations are to be set up in Germany at suitable locations such as supermarkets or sports facilities.
Shortly before the electric MOBILity event “Munich eMOBIL” at Odeonsplatz, the City of Munich also decided to subsidise all electric vehicles, including two- and three-wheeled vehicles. There will be an additional bonus for those using exclusively green energy.
Be Part of it!
The eTour is over and as we say in German, after the game is before the game, so registration for the 4th eTourEurope rally is now open. Participants and electric vehicles are welcome to register as individual participants or as teams. The next rally is from 09 to 18 June 2017.
#eTourEurope
Gabriella Gehmacher-Leitner – Mayour Anif
Peter Walser – Winner CO
Werner Hillebrand-Hansen – eTour Manager
Dirk Asmus – LEMnet
Heiner Sietas – LEMnet
Marita Hansen – eTour Managerin
