You can be a fan of many things, but whenever someone sets themselves a challenge, they deserve respect above all others. In the Netherlands, two true electric vehicle enthusiasts have set out for several days to cover the same terrain as the Tour de France as it passes through the Alps. To do this, instead of bicycles, they're using a Nissan Leaf . The crazy thing is that the Nissan's maximum range is about 160 kilometers, so they're pretty out of their minds trying to take on this challenge, since many stages of the French race cover much greater distances and, moreover, include tough climbs and descents over mountain passes.
There's a video online of their adventures that shows they're not only very Dutch (what else?) but also incredibly witty, and they're certainly no idiots. Really, what better test than this to see if an electric vehicle has significant or limited capabilities? We don't really know what these newcomers to the road are capable of, and these kinds of tests, originating from ordinary people—without any scientific rigor, of course—could be very useful for the future.
The truth is, the crazy experiment doesn't always end well, because they often get stuck a few hundred meters from the finish line of an uphill stage, which adds to the difficulty. The best part is that when the car's batteries run out, a sad text message appears, indicating it as if it were just another household appliance . We have learned something from electric cars: they communicate.