I know I left you in utter suspense waiting for more twists in our EV road trip in the Nordics. Writing part two of this series has taken longer than expected. The team needed a
The team needed a good night sleep and got one. The hotel they stayed at was surrounded by more than 40 AC chargers within a radius of 100 meters. Not bad at all … for the workers at the surrounding office buildings where they belonged. The hotel had none, still quite a surprise in a country with one of the highest shares of electric vehicles. The race for adventure resumed.
Unlike most competing products, Mamba doesn’t have the well-know “brick” in the middle, and all the electronics are miniaturized and housed in the plugs on both sides. The type 2 side includes an LCD display showing charging status and connects with your phone over Bluetooth or using an in-built SIM card. It’s a slick solution that can replace a wallbox at home and become a rescue partner on longer trips. Mamba did well charging through the night at minus 15°C degrees.
Okay, truth be told, the app had one friendly feature — that is, it could be connected with any chosen RFID card to start the chargers . It was a small sweetener, but well appreciated.The building we stayed at in the city of, is either new or had just been moved there, like many other buildings in the area. The reason behind this extraordinary effort by local authorities is a hole a few hundred meters long and a hundred meters deep — a mining-related ground deformation in Malmberget.
The range the car showed was 350 km, the outside–inside temperature difference was 50 degrees, three adults and a lot of gear was inside, the BMW iX was ready for the ride and it passed the test. Average consumption was 27.8kWh/100km. At charging costs from the latest station, that meant $8/100km. Knowing the price of gas at Swedish petrol station was $2/l, we could estimate the same journey in a comparable SUV running on fossil fuel would cost $19/100km. EVs win, again.