Explorer Completes Longest Journey by an Electric Car

A Dutch explorer has successfully completed a historic 95,000-kilometer journey across the world from Europe to Australia and reached Sydney this Sunday in the longest journey by an electric car ever recorded. Though the aim of the journey is to prove the viability of electric vehicles in tackling the issue of climate change.

Wiebe Wakker drove his station wagon, which he nicknamed as ‘The Blue Bandit’ across 33 countries of the world. The trip that started from the Netherlands and ended in Australia, took more than three years to complete.

Wakker drove across a number of countries with different climatic conditions such as Turkey, Iran, India, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia. The route of this lone journey is decided by the voluntary offers and guidance from local people that Wakker received on his website.

Sharing his experience Wiebe Wakker said, “I wanted to change people’s opinions and inspire people to start driving electric by showing the advantages of sustainable mobility. If one man can drive to the other side of the world in an electric car, then EVs (electric vehicles) should definitely be viable for daily use”.

The journey was not so easy, before the journey he has modified the car otherwise it would have required 6,785 litres of petrol to complete the journey. Whereas on a single electric charge a vehicle can travel 200 kilometres. Wakker said he spent just $300 on charging.

Wiebe Wakker started his journey from the Netherlands in March 2016 with no money but a goal to prove the viability of electric vehicles spending 1,119 days on road travelling over 95,000 km and visiting 33 countries.

The journey is fully supported by public funds across the world. As he needed the support of random strangers offering him shelter and food on his journey also the electricity to charge the car. Wakker said, “I got about (1,800) people to sign up and make me zig zag all the way through Europe, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and finally today I arrived here”.

He posted on his Facebook page, “It took some effort but overall I had a pretty easy trip, made possible by hundreds of people who signed up on my website (or) offered help on the way”. He further wrote, “People are congratulating me as I have shown the possibilities of electric cars but I am more happy with all the help I received from people during my journey”.

Wiebe Wakker’s Plug Me In initiative now hopes to educate and inspire a carbon-free future by encouraging the electric cars for transport.