Irish man drives from Ireland to Africa and back in his electric car
Irish man drives from Ireland to Africa and back in his electric car
Irish man, Grattan Healy has driven his electric car 9,500km from Galway to Morocco and back.Mr Healy and his partner, Simona, travelled to Ouarzazate in Morocco via Edinburgh in his Tesla Model S.
Now the couple is already planning their next trip in their Tesla all the way to eastern Iran for their next major road trip.
The green energy couple live between Inverin and Ballsbridge and they really enjoy their getaways to warmer climates for part of the winter, such as their trip to Morocco in the Tesla EV.
Grattan is an energy specialist and he was an adviser to the Green Party in the European Parliament for six years up to the end of 2001.
He told the Independent:
"We have been doing these kinds of trips for years (Istanbul and Norway) in other cars, but this is the first time we made a serious trip in an electric car."
The EV driver had previously driven his petrol, Audi, as far as Marrakech in North Africa.
"After that trip, we were keen to go further and get across the High Atlas to the next large town of Ouarzazate, 200km further on to explore the 'other Morocco," he said.
"Considering you can charge at almost any power source, and there are probably more electrical sockets in Morocco than petrol stations, we just needed to make sure we had the right equipment to be able to charge,".
"I only require a Type2 cable to charge my car in Ireland, though we also carry a Tesla adaptor for the faster CHAdeMO chargers.
"After some research, we got the necessary adaptors and cables from Tesla to use along the way."
Their itinerary brought them from Dublin to Belfast and on to Edinburgh to visit family. They then travelled down through the UK and onto the Channel Tunnel (The Chunnel) through central France, east coast of Spain.
They took advantage of the many Tesla charging station along the way through France and Spain and also used Tesla Destination Chargers at hotels as well.
From Spain, they travelled on to Tangier, Morocco and then on to Casablanca, arriving at the exotic destination of Marrakech with more than battery charge left.
Grattan Heally at the Tizi n'Tichka pass (2,260m up the High Atlas) half-way from Marrakech to Ouarzazate.After a few days in Marrakech, they crossed over the High Atlas mountains.
"That first half of the journey used 40pc of our battery, so we were at least confident of reaching Ouarzazate," Grattan said.
"We had anticipated the descent would use very little battery, and indeed it only took a further 8pc to reach the Berbere Palace Hotel in Ouarzazate."
Along the way, hotel staff were very surprised to learn they had crossed the High Atlas in an electric vehicle.
"The reception manager claimed ours was the first electric vehicle in Ouarzazate,"The hotel's technicians, within an hour, had come up with a temporary Schuko socket with which to charge the Model S.
"That enabled us to explore the wonderful Dades and Draa valleys over the following two days," Grattan said.The couple did this over the Christmas holidays 2016 and celebrated the New Year at the hotel before heading back across the Atlas to Marrakech and then following the very same route back to Spain.
In all, they covered 9,500km and at "minimal cost".
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