While it had already left its mark on history with the Jamais Contente (the Never Satisfied), the first car to have gone over 100km/h (62 mph) in 1899, the electric car is continuing to show what it’s capable of.
The "Shanghai to Paris-100% Electric" challenge, launched by the manufacturer Venturi, and leaving from Expo 2010 Shanghai, gave an electric car the opportunity to travel 14,000 km (8,700 miles) all the way to the place Vendôme in Paris.
The two teachers, Géraldine Gabin and Xavier Chevrin, drove the vehicle across China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and France, and had to find ways of charging their vehicle at people’s homes.
A journey that, for Xavier Chevrin, bears witness to a revival of the car: "this adventure will demonstrate the reliability of the electric engine and will, I hope, help to prove that is now possible to travel everywhere with this energy, since virtually everyone has it. Yes, you can go further with an electric engine than with thermic engine! Technology, economy, ecology: a new form of travel is born..."
The electric car rises to the challenge
These 55 stages of between 300 to 400 km (186 to 250 miles) each, give the electric vehicle a new image, demonstrating that range and battery charging are no longer barriers to its use.
An initiative which calls to mind "Cop to Cap". The project launched by Xavier Van der Stappen, ethnographer and head of the audiovisual department of Médecins-sans-Frontières, to connect Copenhagen to South Africa in a clean car: an 18,000-km (almost 11,200-mile) trip in a hybrid two-seater.
The Shanghai-Paris "green cruise” is part of the "Venturi Global Challenges": for the past year, the manufacturer has been issuing challenges to the electric car in order to demonstrate the vehicle’s opportunities.
In September 2009, the Venturi Jamais, [named] in homage to the exploits of the Jamais Contente, beat the world speed record for an electric vehicle fitted with fuel cells, reaching 487 km/h (around 302 mph).
The next mission, the Venturi Antarctica, plans to create a clean vehicle to accompany scientists to the Antarctica, to the Princess Elisabeth Station, which is supplied by renewable energy.
With a few months to go before its launch to the general public, the electric car is announcing new adventures for the automotive sector, ones that mix speed, range and green issues.
