Dutch undergrads took the concept behind Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days and ran with it—on electricity.
Last year, students at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands constructed the Storm Wave motorcycle, which ran completely on electricity, and drove it around the world in 80 days (capable of clocking 300-plus miles per day, the bike could run 236 miles on a single charge). Creating their own “Storm Grid,” or appointed/sponsored pit-stops along the way, the team of engineers biked about 14,300 miles between August and November 2016.
The route started in Eindhoven (near the southern border of the country); and crossed through destinations such as Vienna, Austria; Sofia, Bulgaria; Istanbul, Turkey; Tabriz, Iran; Bukhara, Uzbekistan; Kumul, China; and San Francisco, California; before driving the final 249-mile leg from Paris to Eindhoven on Nov. 2. (Of course, the bike and its crew received some assists via air transportation; it didn’t have any James Bond gadgets on it that converted it into a submersible.)
For more on the incredible trip and the tech behind it, click here. Below, watch a video of the motorcycle in action.
—RealClearLife Staff
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