And the WAVE begins to roll

Day 1: Off to a great start

In the morning the beauty of the WAVE became clear to all participants. Seeing the electric cars lined up neatly in the amazing old harbor of Genova, gave everyone goose bumps. It gave us the feeling partaking in something very innovative.

We started the day with the so called “waving”.

Louis Palmer, the tour director, was fascinated by the concept of  “Where is Matt”. Matt is a young guy, who travels the world and animates people to dance with him. He then combines his footage to create Youtube videos. He tries to symbolize world peace. Similar, Louis Palmer wants to raise awareness to electric vehicles, as working alternative to combustion engines.

Finishing our morning workout we set out into the direction of Asti. Instead of following the highway, we “tortured” our cars, taking steep and narrow mountain roads, covering over 1500 meters of altitude.  

Breakfast at the NH Hotel in Genova

At the old harbour

On the way to Asti

The SunCar made it to Asti without problems. In Asti there was a big festival with over 100.000 visitors. The WAVE vehicles were presented in the center of the old town and drew a lot of attention, partially because of a full police escort.

SunCar is hidden in the crowd

After leaving Asti we headed towards Torino. There again, we were able to park our cars in the center of the city. Thousands of interested people walking by, stopped and appreciated the chance to get a close up glance at some of the worlds most advanced vehicles. Of course our SunCar was a true eye-catcher and many photos were taken with it being in them.

In the city of Torino

SunCar in Torino at night

After a short sight-seeing tour around the city we went to load the cars over the night. With the last bit of energy the SunCar made it to our overnight-charging place (we had to push it the last 10 m) at the Polytechnique of Torino. Unfortunately a transformer had to be “created” by some talented students, after the cars arrived. You'll read about that again in day 2..

All in all, we had a nice and successful day! though the programm was packed and therefore exhausting..