New Report Set For An EV Journey From Cape City To Johannesburg In A Mercedes-Benz EQS 450+
Motoring journalist Justus Visagie and co-driver Michael MacIntyre drove from Cape City to Johannesburg in a Mercedes-Benz EQS 450+ sedan in 19 hours and 6 seconds. It is a new report for an electrical automobile journey between the 2 well-known South African cities.
Netstar, a supplier of superior automobile and fleet monitoring, in addition to fleet administration options, tracked the automobile to confirm the time it took the crew to drive from Mercedes-Benz Century Metropolis in Cape City to Mercedes-Benz Sandton in Johannesburg, a distance of 1404 kilometers. They wished to show that drivers of absolutely electrical vehicles can take pleasure in highway journeys and long-distance journeys. The pair left Century Metropolis in Cape City at 17:56 on 28 February and reached their vacation spot at 13:02 the subsequent day (the 1st of March). The earlier report of 20 hours and 17 minutes was set by Visagie and TV presenter Ernest Web page final yr in a BMW iX xDrive50. That journey was additionally was additionally measured by Netstar.
Utilizing GridCars public chargers, the pair recharged the Mercedes-Benz EQS 5 occasions within the following cities: Laingsburg, Beaufort West, Colesberg, Bloemfontein, and Ventersburg. They reached Sandton with a spread of 171 km remaining after their final cost. “The automobile gave us a spread of roughly 500 km on a full cost (100%), however we not often charged the battery above 80%,” Visagie says. “From 80 to 100%, the speed of cost usually slows down, which may have price us time,” he explains. “Every cost took roughly 33 minutes, and a little bit of pre-planning helped us to keep away from chargers affected by load-shedding,” he provides.
Justus will return to Cape City on the 6th of March, and this time he’ll drive the absolutely electrical BMW i4 M50 sports activities sedan and try and set a quickest time between Johannesburg, famously referred to as Egoli (Metropolis of Gold), and Cape City, which is popularly referred to as the Mom Metropolis. “I can be dividing the journey into two days (legs) and drive throughout sunlight hours solely,” Visagie explains. “It’s safer this manner, and by driving through the day, I wish to present that BEV drivers don’t have to attend for hours for a chance to cost, even at occasions when there are extra automobiles on the highway.”
That is actually thrilling because it provides South Africans native examples of lengthy highway journeys alongside standard highways in all electrical vehicles. Over the previous 7 years or so, I’ve been binge-watching Bjorn Nyland’s electrical highway journeys in Norway, different European international locations, and Thailand. It’s actually good to have sensible examples regionally. There are extra electrical automobile fashions obtainable now in South Africa, and the electrical automobile charging infrastructure aspect of issues can be creating properly, due to the likes of GridCars.
As South Africa goes by means of its worst ever interval of electrical energy rationing, referred to as load-shedding, many South Africans could also be skeptical of happening lengthy highway journeys in electrical vehicles, however as this newest journey by Justus and Michael confirmed, folks can go on lengthy freeway journeys in South Africa, even throughout Stage 6 load-shedding. There’s a standard load-shedding monitoring app in South Africa that exhibits you which ones areas will expertise load-shedding and at what occasions, and due to this fact one can plan accordingly. I expect to find out how the return journey goes within the BMW i4 M50 sports activities sedan. I’ll preserve you posted.
Photographs courtesy of Justus Visagie
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