Last year, they drove from the UK to Siberia in a Nissan Leaf, stopping to charge every 150km or so along the 18,000km Mongol Rally route.
Travelling through Europe, the married couple from Aberdeen filled up the fully-electric car’s battery at public charging stations – up to a point. After that, they fought to keep the dreaded “range anxiety” at bay and relied on the generosity of strangers at cafés, hotels and sometimes fire stations to keep the 30kW vehicle going.
“The planning can only go so far, because as you are driving things can happen,” says Julie. “You don’t know what the terrain is like, you don’t know if you’re going up and down, you don’t know what the weather is like… you just deal with the situation.”
Julie and Chris Ramsey in Abu Dhabi
Now, the pair are setting off on another electric adventure. Yesterday, they joined 58 other drivers for the launch of the Electric Vehicle Road Trip Middle East in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Over nine days, participants will drive electric vehicles (EVs) including the new Tesla Model S and the Chevrolet Bolt along roads through the country’s vast and largely empty desert, cross rocky mountains into neighbouring Oman and then return to Dubai.
As well as the adventure, the 1,200km road trip also has a practical use. The crew will launch 18 new charging points along the way, opening up new regions to EV owners and hopefully encouraging more people to consider the switch from internal combustion vehicles.
“I’m an EV lover, I love everything electric,” says Julie. “I want to support, advocate, promote the adoption of EV cars.”
Escaping the freezing Scottish weather played a part, admits her husband Chris, but the key thing is instigating change to a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly type of transport. “There are exciting times happening with electric vehicle adoption in the region,” he says. “To support the growth is a key thing for me.”
Event organiser Ben Pullen
The UAE’s large cities are “pretty good” for EV owners, says fellow driver and glass company managing director Salman Zamarud Hussain. The country’s oil-rich government has nurtured the technology’s growth, with more than 200 public charging stations installed in Dubai in recent years.
For drivers in much of the country’s interior region and poorer neighbours, however, EV ownership has not been practical because of a lack of chargers.
“Part of the trip seems like a token gesture,” admits Hussain, “but part of it is also really serious. It is about bringing chargers to the rest of the region… the idea is to spread out from Dubai and Abu Dhabi and into the smaller emirates and throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council [the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar] eventually.”
UAE company Green Parking is providing the 18 new stations, where chargers will take several hours to fill batteries. The operator is also discussing the introduction of 50 more with the government, to enable drivers of cars with shorter ranges to make longer journeys.
Work started in 2010-11, says managing director Sam Alawiye. “Everybody, even my friends in Germany, told me ‘You’re crazy, who would promote electric vehicle chargers in the UAE, in a country that produces oil, and where the oil price is cheaper than water'.” However, he says, it was only a matter of time as the country embraced the new technology.
Part of the launch event as seen from above
As well as rolling out many charging stations, the UAE has introduced impressive perks to encourage EV ownership. In Dubai, charging is free until 2019, with free parking spaces and registration for owners. According to Gulf News, emirate officials hope sales of electric cars could hit 32,000 in 2020 and 42,000 in 2030, following a 30% sector increase in just two years.
The road trip is another initiative that could help increase EV ownership, said UAE energy minister Suhail Mohammed Faraj Al Mazroui at the launch. “We are very excited to start this trip between the UAE and Oman,” he said. “Hopefully next year we can expand it to another country and have three countries.”
Taking a wider look, this week UAE energy company Masdar and Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicted that more than one-third of all vehicles on the road will be electric by 2040, as performance improves and the price for lithium-ion batteries falls more than 50%. So, while the road trip drivers may be pioneers in the Middle East, many more will follow in their tyre tracks in years to come.
Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.