Norfolk, the very flat place which can be found on the sticky-out round bit on the east side of the UK, seems to be a hotbed of electric vehicle activity these days. First off, the flat lands of East Anglia (of which both Norfolk and Suffolk are part of) is ideal for any EV owner. There’s a high number of small NEV vehicles which find homes here. The open flat roads make ideal conditions for long-distance EV drives. Unlike their western counterparts who moan about inaccurate sales literature stating optimistic ranges for EVs, the Norfolk EV’er often exceeds them without a second glance.
And while London and Bristol may be the cities where you’re more likely to see an electric car buzzing around it seems that the very agricultural setting of the Norfolk broads, with their miles of flat marshland and nothing but the cries of dive-bombing pewits is actually the place not only where EVs go a long way on every charge, but a place where EVs get to dream of speed.
Dream, and achieve it too.
The ubiquitous Tesla, who have long had a relationship with Norfolk based sportscar company and tuning house Lotus, now assemble their UK Teslas at Hethel, next door to the thob and hum of Lotus’ tuning plant. Teslas have been spotted running around the Thetford area as a consequence for many years.
But now, Dale Vince, CEO of wind power giants Ecotricity and visionary behind zerocarbonista, has used a Norfolk-based engineering team to build the first of his ‘wind powered cars’. Although the name suggests a car with windmills on the top (anyone with a basic understanding of physics knows that one won’t fly) the concept behind the name is that the vehicle is charged entirely on power derived from wind turbines. Less of a wind-powered car and more of a wind-charged car then…
The ZeroCarbonista car has just had it’s first proper outing and seems to bring a big grin to everyone’s faces involved. And an extra grin to my own face as I hear the distinctive Norfolk Accent talk about electric vehicles.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOrCCS1rp1A&hl=en&fs=1&]
Well done Norfolk, you’ve done me proud. It’s good to see my home county so into fast EVs.