EV adventure for intrepid French students

This story first appeared in the October issue of EVtalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

Two students from France are about to embark on a seven-month “ecolectric” road tour of New Zealand in one or more EVs.

The 23-year-olds contacted EVtalk to publicise their project which aims to cover about 4300km.

Paris Sorbonne University environmental law and philosophy student Heloise de Bokay and communications and cultural management student Solene Trinquet plan to start their trip in January to discover innovative ideas around sustainable development.

Describing their project as “News&Land” in a take on New Zealand, the two say they will focus on the clean energy transition here.

“During our recent travels, we realised that it was necessary to rethink our method of discovering a new country,” they say.

“Tourism today is no longer sustainable, which is why we decided to opt for a form of environmentally friendly transportation instead of a regular diesel van.

“Electric cars are a sensible solution in your country as more than 80% of your energy comes from renewable sources (only 22% in France).

“Travelling in an electric car is therefore a local and green solution.”

Learning about The Better NZ Trust’s Leading the Charge movement encouraged them to take up the challenge.

“Using an electric car means we will have to travel at a slower pace and thus increase our drop points. We wish to discover the country in its entirety and not just the tourist sites.”

Their objective is to meet people willing to share their commitment to environmentally friendly projects or a green way of life.

They are keen to contact those involved in promoting EVs, combating climate change and invasive species, and those dealing with waste management and recycling.

“We are going to share our adventure through a web series showing these initiatives and our electric road trip experience on the other side of the world. We will mix our day-to-day adventure with informative subjects on energy production and management.”

De Bokay and Trinquet are also organising an exchange between a French and New Zealand school class to discuss and create a project around sustainable development.

“We believe that it’s essential to make children aware of these environmental issues as well as confront them with new cultures.”
They have several sponsors to help fund their project and have been working for the past few years to pay for their trip which is costing them about $66,370.

“However, we have still not found a major car sponsor because New Zealand is rarely a commercial target for European car companies,” they say.

But they aim to fulfil their dream of touring New Zealand “even if we have to take out a loan”.

EV models they have been seeking include the Nissan e-NV200 van or the Mitsubishi Minicab MiEV van.
“We have organised the layout of our trip according to the electrical stations found on ChargeNet NZ. If we do not find the right ones we can always charge our car with a 12-hour classical power outlet.
“It is very likely that we will experience setbacks but this is what will make our trip an adventure.”

Trinquet and de Bokay plan to record their adventure on social media and via their website. They will also produce a short film.
Contact them on news.land@hotmail.com if you can help or for more information.