EVS27 Barcelona

The EVS27 (the largest international electric vehicle symposium) was held between November 16th and 20th outside - for a general audience, pedestrians and tourists - and inside in the halls of the new Fira de Barcelona, where only professionals, lspeakers and some journalists had access. The EVS27 was a big success for Spain and specially for Barcelona - even though part of the outside demonstration was victim of torrential rains on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. But never before people had seen so many electric vehicles together, and never before had been in contact with such a lot of new companiess - from different countries - looking for a place in this great challenge of a better, cleaner and more connected world.



The ExpoElectric-formula1, an independent event, joined with EVS27 into the biggest concentration of electric vehicles in a city. The weekend 16th and 17th of November, vehicles gathered at the iconic Arc de Triomf square, surrounding, and in the center inside some tents: cars, motorcycles, bicycles, go-carts and other electric vehicles. It was an offer to the public, free, funny, interesting and conversational, and the traveler could spontaneously take a test drive with the Volkswagen E-Up, which will arrive early next year to Spain, the BMW i3, already on sale in some dealerships of the brand, the Nissan Leaf, the veteran, but more relevant than ever, and the small Icar0, a new minicar represented by its Chinese parent company.

For two hours on sunday morning they cut some streets bordering the square for conventional traffic to allow at this time only the use of electric vehicles in order to perform mediations and see how pollution is reduced in situ. Participating models of all brands, a heavy garbage truck Iveco, an urban bus Byd, motorcycles, scooters, Monowheels, Trikkes ... all powered by electricity only. Substantially noise and odors were lowered ... plus, the unfortunately invisible expulsion of harmful carcinogenic particles from diesel engines.

For the kids there was electric karts and a small circuit - ¡they were happy! In a small explanation the kids were informed that they would use an electric vehicle, pollutionfree, that also could be recharged with solar energy (if politicians allow it, of course).

In the tents you could find everything. The mostly young, many of them very small companies, demostrate they are able to engineering new concepts to ensure even better and greater mobility in large cities. The offers ranged from folding electric bicycles, some of them suitable to carry on the Metro, up to more confortable electric bikes looking like a classic motorcycle, trikes and scooters of all kinds, to singular monowheels not topple due to its special technology and handled with body movements. Another idea to be more and more introduced is the rental bike to and from any point of the city, with a renting price same to the price of the underground.

One comment caught our attention: a young businessman commented to Prestige Electric Car that his very special electric bike, produced/assembled in Barcelona with the best components available and handmade, caused much more interest in foreigners than nationals. The ones stood in his tent were tourists, asking for all kinds of information, and only a few Spaniard. In our country, still, there is only little interest in the beauty, the practical, environmentally correct, the modern, the inspired new ays ... people from other countries are more attracted by these values, and specially all for a new and exciting future than the Spanish people. May be they are too involved in their special problems.

Prestige Electric Car also had the opportunity to make a short touchdown both the new BMWi3 and the new Volkswagen E-Up. The i3 we like the philosophy of a car designed and built specifically for electric lines with novel ideas and achievements, the excellent and powerful engine with an acceleration in the style of the great sporting BMW, the BMW appearance, especially in grades and benefits; but what we criticize - generally this is happened to the too sophisticated electric cars - is the complete control of each car, its occupants, their location ... and even the habits of the driver through Smartphone and Smart Computing. If we do not stop these advances, we will soon be slaves to the system (even more than we already are), because we could be easily controlled by anyone. There is also a tendency to remove drivers from all driving work, the car can brake for you and stop without using the pedal. The engineers said the car can it better than a human being.

The Volkswagen E -Up, however, is more the car we normally use, but electric. It is pleasant to drive, it holds the driver job who has to intervene and operate, but at the same time it has the new gearshift system, automatic style, which, on three levels, slows the car down, recovering energy introduced into the batteries. Who perfected his driving, does stop before the traffic lights without stepping on the brake pedal. But watch out, the brake lights are always turned on in these maneuvers, there is no danger for cars following us. What in the Volkswagen is a manual handling changes and braking intensity in the BMW is fully automatic. OK, but we felt a bit like stupids that have to be controlled everytime.

We are just foolish enough with our personal life, actually, and specially in Spain, we are very manipulated by the state, the dailies, everywhere. We personally are in favor of being able to make our own decisions without so much intervention from outside.