As Wiebe Wakker turned off his car in Sydney, Australia, this afternoon it marked the end of a more than three-year journey for the Dutch adventurer and Blue Bandit, his converted electric Volkswagen Golf.
Mr Wakker’s Plug Me In initiative is the longest journey in an electric car ever recorded and was started to inspire and educate on a carbon-free future, according to the campaign’s website www.plugmeinproject.com.
Reuters Newsagency reports Mr Wakker departed the Netherlands on March 15, 2016 and has spent a total of 1119 days travelling more than 95,000km across 33 countries to try and draw attention to the durability and sustainability of electric cars.
The drive had relied on the support of strangers across the globe who offered the traveller food, a place to stay and the essential means to charge his car along the way.
“I got about 1800 people to sign up and make me zigzag all the way through Europe, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and finally today I arrived here,” Mr Wakker told supporters after reaching his finishing line in Sydney, the capital of the state of New South Wales.
Soon after 2pm AEST, Mr Wakker and a motorcade of electric cars crossed Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, before finishing his long journey at the Royal Botanical Gardens by the Sydney Opera House.
In Australia he travelled from Darwin to Perth, across the Nullabor Plain, north to Alice Springs, east to Rockhampton, then to Newcastle, Broken Hill, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.
Throughout his journey Mr Wakker has met ministers, MPs, mayors, sheiks and government officials.
Mr Wakker said his ‘Plug Me In’ project aimed to prove the viability of electric cars.
“Electric cars are a way to tackle climate change,” he said.
“I wanted to change people’s opinions and inspire people to start driving electric by showing the advantages of sustainable mobility.
“If one man can drive to the other side of the world in an electric car, then they should definitely be viable for daily use.”
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I am excited to finish in Sydney because it is as far away from Holland as you can get on Earth.”
When he returns to Holland later this month Mr Wakker will write a book about his journey and remain an ambassador for sustainable mobility.
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