Where's Wally? - Looking for EV's in Switzerland

My last trip was to Switzerland, one of the few countries in Europe where it's usual to see V6 and V8 powered cars running around the streets, and there i spent some time looking for EV's. When i said that to my swiss colleagues, they looked at me in a strange way and said: "EV's?!? But...Why?...You don't have by any chance a Prius, do you?". When i asked why, they answered me: "Well, here in Switzerland they say that the Prius is for gays..."

With this provocation in mind, i started to look for EV's and wanted to see if those preconceptions were widespread, here's what i found:

Mitsubishi I-Miev - The first EV i saw was a I-Miev in the Geneva Airport running around between lanes and airplanes and if you come to think of it, it's a smart use for EV's, small distances, low speeds, it's like a electric car heaven. The second (and last) car i saw from the I-Miev family was also a company car, so...No private sales here.

Renault Twizy -  The tiny Twizy is different and therefore a good way for companies to advertise, so the few i saw in the middle of big cities had company decals, making express deliveries at the same time they were used as mobile bilboards. And still no private buyers...

Opel Ampera - The one i saw apparently was a private car and after making a remark that the Opel had a plug, the guy that was with me said: "Wow, nice!...It doesn't look like an electric car!". When i asked him about how an electric car looks like, he answered: "Well, you know...Small, slow, flimsy...".

So, for private EV sales to increase here, they should suit the swiss tastes for SUV's and Sport(y) cars. Tesla has a good chance here to shine...

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Traveling on reserve power

Or how a new kind of electro-mobility can be fun. A guest post from Thomas Fleischmann of Elektrobit Automotive.

Thomas Fleishmann

Imagine you are always driving on reserve power. You find this difficult? Get used to it — and welcome to the new era of electro-mobility! Vehicles like the Chevy Volt, with its secondary combustion engine, are already addressing this challenge — but having to support two types of driving technology can be challenging and costly.

So how can electro-mobility, which is supported by software, be implemented meaningfully? And how do we get drivers to accept it? Certainly not by abandoning the driver with nothing but a nicely animated display of the car’s battery condition.

Let's assume you live in a big city. You don’t even own a car. Instead, you subscribe to a certain number of hours of travel time with your favorite car brand. In addition to your S or XL subscription for four weeks a year, you get access to a fossil-fuel engine for your vacation in another state or country twice a year.

In the morning you find and reserve a car with your BlackBerry phone and get into it at a nearby charge-point. The HMI adapts to your profile settings automatically — your friends, contacts, addresses, and music are already there. The navigation system is your energy consultant; it tells you, based on traffic conditions and topography, how far you can drive with this car and, at the appropriate time, suggests an available electric socket within easy reach. Or the system warns you to turn back soon if you want to arrive home safely. After parking the car successfully, your smartphone guides you for the last few kilometers by bus or subway to your destination — it knows the way and easily adopts the data of your navigation system.

Using software solutions like EB GUIDE or EB street director and frameworks like the QNX CAR application platform you can concentrate on creating the end-user experience and transform the journey on reserve power into something fun and convenient — suddenly an electric vehicle becomes a smart mobility concept.

Check this out; I fried it last week. The yellow center represents the area in which you can drive and go back home. The white area represents the range you can drive, depending on traffic or topography:

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Thomas Fleischmann is Senior Product Manager at Elektrobit Automotive responsible for the HMI solution EB GUIDE. Contact him at Thomas.Fleischmann@elektrobit.com.

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