Blog: Inspiring journeys around the world

While we are working incredibly hard to secure our necessary partners for 80 Day Race, as we are in talks with several cities around the world, constructors, local promotors and media partners, we enjoy following global journeys setup by individuals or enthusiastic groups of like-minded people. Some participate for pure fun and enjoying the adventure while others have technological benchmarks to meet. But all are inspired by the book written by Jules Verne: Around the World in Eighty Days.

Wave Trophy
80 Day Race ambassador Louis Palmer was first to complete a global tour with his solar powered vehicle in 2007/2008. After that he organised the Zero Emissions Race, the first race with electric vehicles around the world in 80 days. He’s currently tour director of the Wave Trophy, a rally in which private teams, companies and universities – or actually everyone – can enter any type of electric vehicle.

The 6th edition of the Wave Trophy took place last June, which started in Bremerhaven, Germany and finished in Liestal, Switzerland. The 1800 km route was completed in 8 days and about 50 cities were visited in the process. Their goal? To show that electric mobility is available and ready for everyday life. Find more information here.

80eDays
Another adventure, using only electrical vehicles, is 80eDays. Eleven teams are currently driving around the world, covering 25,000 kilometres navigating to pre-set points on the world map. Having started in Barcelona and a first relative short leg in Europe, the competitors then travelled through North-America and will continue their trip through Asia back to Europe.

For the participating teams it will be a great journey. Most of all, pure fun among the participants is a key ingredient. In addition to that, the organisation of 80eDays will be planting trees along the route in an attempt to neutralise the environmental impact caused by the event. Follow the event here.

Solar Impulse
On the 26th of July 2016, Bertranad Piccard and André Borschberg completed the first round-the-world flight by a solar-powered aeroplane. Starting in March 2015 from Abu Dhabi, they travelled 40,000km in a total of 21 flight days in 17 legs using no fossil fuel. The longest leg was 8,924km from Nagoya in Japan to Hawaii in the United States. The flight lasted nearly 118 hours which is the longest uninterrupted journey in aviation history.

The goal of this adventure is to show and motivate people around the world that by using these new technologies we can decrease our world’s energy consumption, save natural resources and improve our quality of life. Find everything regarding their trip and goals here.

globalrider

Globalrider
Hugo Scagnetti, Head of Connectivity M2M & Global Partners at Telefónica Spain, decided to start a solo journey around the world in 80 days after suffering a serious injury to both legs caused by avascular necrosis. He promised himself that if he was able to walk again without crutches, he would journey around the world for a single purpose: to broadcast and raise funds to support the work of scientific research centres dedicated to the field of tissue generation using stem cells in children.

As a Telefónica employee and with the support of Yamaha, he aims to complete the 37,000 kilometre trip riding the first ‘connected motorcycle’, equipped with the latest technologies in terms of the Internet of Things. During his journey he transmits multimedia content and telemetric information in real time, making it possible for his followers to practically live his adventure at the same time. The journey can be followed here.

STORM Eindhoven
23 students from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have built world’s first electric touring motorcycle. The intention was to build a bike to participate in 80 Day Race. However, due to the timing of the race and the requirements of the busy student life, STORM decided to do their own World Tour. If successful, who knows they might have acquired all the experience to win 80 Day Race later on! Their current goal is to ride around the world in 80 days, to convince people of the beauty of e-mobility. The bike, named STORM Wave, will solely be powered by the existing electricity grid. It would be the ultimate proof of concept for both the motorcycle and electric mobility if they succeed in their goal.

The bike and its rider will cover 40,000 kilometres in 80 days. The STORM Wave uses a swappable 28,5 kWh modular battery pack to be able to adapt the bike’s characteristics to the demands of the route. The battery pack provides juice for 380 kilometres without charging. When empty, the energy can be renewed within 7 minutes by swapping to a second battery pack. By creating this ground-breaking bike, media around the world have already picked up their developments, which is just a start.

The STORM World Tour starts 14 August 2016. Follow the team here.

Photo credit: Solar Impulse and Hugo Scagnetti.

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