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We talk about EVs, from the British perspective.
Practical, Technical and all about Electric Vehicles.
Hello. Greg here. Welcome to the next episode of Take It EV. On today's episode, I've got Chris Ramsay from Paul to Paul and we're gonna be talking about driving EVs just a very long distances. So welcome to the show, Chris.
Gregg:Hey. How about
Chris Ramsey:Thank you for having me on board.
Gregg:How about you introduce yourself, and, we can talk about the stuff you've been up to for the last whatever. Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:So my name is Chris Ramsay from, Plug in Adventure. I'm the effectively the founder of Plug in Adventure. And what that is is taking electric vehicles and doing what some people call as crazy, mad adventures, but for me, going out and just dispelling all those myths about range, and whether EVs can charge, if they can go long distance, whether they can survive in the cold weather, whether they can survive in the hot weather, and just showing people just what's possible with electric vehicle technology. So I've been doing that for over a decade now.
Gregg:Oh, some of us call it fun or I wish I could do that.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. It's, it's basically it started as a hobby, started as a bit of a passion, and it's turned into I wouldn't exactly call it a day job. It's very difficult to get paid doing this kind of stuff, but, yeah, it's it's turned into an amazing opportunity to to showcase just what's going on in the world, which is we're very I say we because I do this with my wife, Julie. Yeah. Unfortunately, she can't be with us today.
Chris Ramsey:So, and we're just very fortunate and very grateful to be able to do this.
Gregg:Yeah. I I mean, for those who haven't seen it, I've, you know, I've I've followed you on the on the socials for a very long time, and you when on the on your last adventure, you you're giving I'm not sure it was daily, but, like, frequent updates. It was always amazing, different scenery, different area. It's you know? That's why I'm saying, like, I would love to be able to do this, but I'm not sure my wife would sign up for this.
Gregg:She's not as crazy as I am. But how did you start? Like, did you one day wake up and, like, I wanna go to Antarctica in an EV? No.
Chris Ramsey:I mean, if we look back at when it really started, I mean, fully charged or before even fully charged started, Robert has been a a kind of an ever present in in what we've done. And I say that because we're sitting here in Everything Electric right now recording this, and, this is kind of an evolution. But I was sitting in my office. I was in at my old company, and for a lot of people don't know, my background is actually oil and gas. I was I live in Aberdeen.
Chris Ramsey:And Aberdeen is the oil and gas capital of Europe, so you work in oil and gas. So that's actually my background. I don't work in that industry anymore. I haven't done for a number of years. And I discovered in the sand leaf, an advert popped up on my computer.
Chris Ramsey:And I thought, what's this all about? And I was that person that said, these electric cars, you know, they're not they're not very good. I don't think they can go very far. There's probably there's probably no way to charge them. So I I got curious, and that's how my brain works.
Chris Ramsey:Being a massive petrol head, I love cars. So I got curious, and I just said, I'm gonna borrow one from my local Nissan dealer, and I'm gonna drive it down. Well, drive it to Edinburgh. Why don't we do the capital cities? Go to Edinburgh, London, Wales, and to Cardiff, and then come back to Aberdeen.
Chris Ramsey:We'll do that in a long weekend and just go and have a cool kinda weekend away road trip. And that's what I did with the 2 of my friends. And during that trip, I met Robert Lewall. I met, Jonathan Pollafield from EcoCARS. These guys reached out and said, hey.
Chris Ramsey:You're doing this cool thing. You're mad. Let's meet up. And I came back from that trip. Had an absolute nightmare, if I'm honest, because there's 60 charges in the entire country at that point at that point.
Chris Ramsey:We were dangling cables out of extension cables out of hotel windows, and we were charging in as this front entrance with the doors literally closing on the leaf while it was charging, and people were having to walk around it. And but I came back and went, wow. This is cool tech. I love this. This is I've there's something about it that hooked me, and I was like, I want one.
Chris Ramsey:So I bought a 24 kilowatt hour Nissan LEAF way back then, and I still have that car today. It's still my car on my drive. And, and that's how it started. I just put all that on social media, put the journey on social media, and people were like, wow. This is cool.
Chris Ramsey:This is an EV showing all the positives, all the negatives at that time, but putting an EV through a real world adventure, a real world road trip, and and showcasing it. And I thought, I'm gonna keep doing it. And then fast forward to 2017, not the the venture we've just done, but in 2017, that evolved in me leaving the industry, oil and gas industry altogether, and saying I wanna promote electric vehicles full time, and convincing my wife, Julie, to go with me from London to Mongolia, 10000 miles in 56 days in a 30 kilowatt hour 90 well, with our modifications, 90 mile range electric vehicle. And, yeah, just showing that in the Mongol rally, which is the event we entered, just showing that electric vehicles can go a long distance. You don't need charging infrastructure.
Chris Ramsey:You just need access to power because from Turkey to Mongolia, like, nearly 6, 7000 miles, we had no public chargers at all, no charging infrastructure. We relied on the kindness of strangers to plug it into a 2 pin plug, and just showed that things were possible. And EVs are capable, and the technology is great. And and that was quite an evolution to that point, but that's really what spawned the passion in EVs just sitting there and getting an advert served to me on my computer at work.
Gregg:Amazing. I mean, I you know, you probably haven't heard my story, but the I got a I got a I I tested of loads of EVs when I lived in London. I used to live in Belfast, then I moved down to, to back to England. And I thought, you know, the this diesel thing that I have no longer kinda works in here, kept on breaking and all that. And I kept kept on test driving different cars, and, eventually, I got myself in a Nissan LEAF.
Gregg:And the moment the guy told me, you know, you can press this eco button on the on the steering wheel and it will take that off. And I pressed the accelerator slightly, and it just the car just jolted, and I was like, wow. I want that.
Chris Ramsey:And if you think that I mean, the Nissan LEAF, is greater card. I mean, let's say, I still have mine, but it's when you think of the way the technology is today, I mean, that was performance. That was, like, you know, that was still great acceleration in performance from that kind of car. And we've come along so much leaps and bounds in the space of, what, less than a decade. Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. It's it's incredible to think. And at that time, that car was exciting. And I remember the, the IMEI, the Renault ZOE in cars like this. They were and with the LEAF, they were so groundbreaking at that time, but they were so they were actually pretty cool to drive as well.
Chris Ramsey:Pretty cool.
Gregg:Yeah. I mean and and the I I always like the fact that the car doesn't look like it can it can do what it can do. Like, it's one thing to get in a Tesla nonetheless and just be fast because I did that as well prior to getting into the Leaf. I actually you know, because Tesla was pretty open about, like, test driving. They'll give you the key for an hour and let you do whatever.
Gregg:And I did, you know, those are crazy things in that Model s for an hour. And the, but it was just prohibitively expensive even though I could technically afford it. I lived in a flat in London. I just didn't see any reason to have a massive car like that, and it was super expensive. Like yeah.
Gregg:So that Nissan LEAF, because it looked, you know, like it couldn't do what it could do Yeah. I I like that appeal. Like, I like the fact that it just it's it's it's, not Pandora's box, but, like, I don't know what the, analogy would be, but it's it just doesn't look like what it is. And nowadays, obviously, people expect EVs to be fast because everybody knows. But back then, people thought, if it isn't a Tesla, it's gonna be sluggish, but it wasn't.
Chris Ramsey:And that's the cool thing is, like, I think I look at it from the perspective of my wife, for Julie because and and people like her because, like, I'm I'm confident in a car. And and the electric car just gives you even more confidence. So if you if you want to overtake, you've got that confidence to overtake. And for people like my wife, initially, there was not that confidence there. So being out on the back road, you couldn't she wouldn't really overtake very much.
Chris Ramsey:But with the LEAF, even with the limited power that it has, at that point compared to today's market, the it gave her that confidence to be able to overtake
Gregg:Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:And to be able to nip out and and do what she wouldn't normally do because the car had that instant talk and instant power. Like, a lot of people out there listening to this podcast will know, but it it was a real confidence builder for her and probably many people out there driving Evisne.
Gregg:Yeah. Yeah. And I'm gonna get to your later as a venture as well. But, again, like, the the analogy, you know, I when I had mine so one of the cool things that Nissan did, at least in the UK, they would give you the car for a couple of days, which was amazing, and I wish more, companies did that. Like, because we are the everything electric fully charged show, There's loads of test drives here, and that actually pushes loads of people to actually try electric.
Gregg:And that's that's what, you know, that's what if you if you're hesitant about it, if somebody gives you a car for a day, you're gonna be less likely to be hesitant because you actually have time to do it on your own terms. Yeah. But the, I remember one long weekend, it might have might have been actually, you know, however many years today, because it was a long weekend in May or whatever, one of the summer days. I actually from London, I drove to Edinburgh, then I drove to Glasgow, and I can't remember, somewhere somewhere in the west country and back to London over the long weekend on the ecotricity charges back in 2016, which, you know,
Chris Ramsey:we know how many of those days. Yeah.
Gregg:And because it said, drive your drive like a wind or something like that, I was like, sure. And because they were free at the time, you know, you just you just took it for a spin. But I'm sure the when you tried your, your 24 kilo kilo kilo kilo hour leave, that was way earlier than that. So, you know, I, you know, I I think we are kinda akin to, like, being adventurous men, but I haven't done any as crazy adventures as you have. So just tell us what what so, I mean, going to Mongolia in in did you say 10,000 miles?
Gregg:That's Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:That's just 10,000 miles.
Gregg:That's a lot of driving.
Chris Ramsey:It it is. And I think one of those points one of those things for that expedition was really to prove a point
Gregg:Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:If if I'm being completely honest. It was to prove that EVs can drive long distance. You're not gonna do it. Let's be realistic. You're not gonna do long distance driving in a 90 mile range car.
Chris Ramsey:No. And and you wouldn't choose that car for those kind of cars for doing that range. But, but for us, that was the point. That was to kinda say, one one of the rules was, in the Mongrelle was the car had to be no more than a 1 liter engine. So the Nissan LEAF ticked that box because it's classified as a 1 liter.
Chris Ramsey:It had to be affordable. And at that time, secondhand EV secondhand LEAFS were really affordable. So we kinda ticked that box as well. One of the things they said as well is the car has to be completely unsuitable for the for the, for the mongrel rally.
Gregg:Okay.
Chris Ramsey:So when you get these cars that are entering it, there's some really clapped out old bangers. There's some really cool looking cars. But for us, they were like the organizers were like, this is the most unsuitable car ever for us that's entered this rally because it's electric. And every perception is that it's not gonna make it. It's not gonna make it out of your out of the
Gregg:It's gonna break down.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. Exactly. And so we kind of did that to prove a point to the world to say, look. No. These aren't what you think they are.
Chris Ramsey:The electric vehicles are more capable than what they are. And but to still drive 10000 miles across, yeah, UK, Europe, Georgia, Azerbaijan, the whole west east of Kazakhstan into Russia and into Mongolia, that was still a challenge. And to do it basically in 56 days was was, yeah, it was pretty tough. It was very tough. I mean, I was gonna say pretty tough.
Chris Ramsey:It was very tough. I call it the most amazing nightmare. That's the journey we had. I mean, we had incredible times. We had amazing times.
Chris Ramsey:And the the one thing we found, as soon as we had to turn to the public and say, can you plug us into charge? Whether that be in somebody's home, a car garage, a petrol station, fire stations in Russia opened their doors to us, just you name it. We went and charged for everything. A a forest, and actually directly from electricity pipeline in the Siberian forest. Everybody opened their doors and went, yes.
Chris Ramsey:Come and plug in.
Gregg:Wow.
Chris Ramsey:And that made the journey so impossible sorry. So, yeah, amazing because it had changed our perceptions of the world, and I think that's one of the reasons why we love doing what we're doing from the if you take the EV aspect away from it, it shows us the world is not the place that we're told in the media.
Gregg:Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. We love that side. We get to meet amazing people, colorful characters, and just showing that there's so much kindness and so much amazing individuals out there, and and the world needs to know more about those people. So that's another another driver of why we do what we do.
Gregg:Yeah. I mean, yeah, the sad thing about the, today's world is that, media just, wants to sell advertisement, and, you know, the the love and kindness doesn't sell as many ads as hate and and polarizing people, basically, sadly, and, you know, doesn't get as many clicks and shares. But, we you know, I'm trying to combat this on this podcast, and I'm sure there's loads of other media where we don't do this for for commercial, you know, elements at all. So, anyway, but so crazy journey, 10000 miles, and I'm sure you have some stories, but the, you've you then next year or later on, you were like, how about we do something even crazier?
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. It's I mean, to frame it for people, so, we literally got back into the UK middle of January this year. On March the I'm gonna say sorry. On 29th March, myself and Joey set off from the 18 23 Magnetic North Pole up in the Canadian Arctic, 250 miles into the Arctic Ocean, and drove all the way from there to the geographical South Pole in Antarctica. So that's 23,000 miles, 14 countries, 3 continents, and we did that in just over 9 months.
Chris Ramsey:And we've, like, literally just come back to the UK, let's say, middle of January, and we're still trying to make sense of the world after completing it. Because a lot of people say, what's next? And we're still trying to deal with what's just happened, if I'm being honest. And it's just and and that that expedition came literally from finishing the Mongol Rally. Sat down in my room, and looking at I've got it my bedroom wall is a giant map of the world.
Chris Ramsey:And I look at that and get inspiration, and then I thought, what could we do? The Mongol Rally showed people what's capable and that EVs are, you know, are possible. And we said, how could we take that one step further and just dispel all of those myths out there? Okay. Range, cold impact, you know, and the list goes on.
Chris Ramsey:There's not enough infrastructure. Well, we went to 2 places in the world that doesn't have any infrastructure whatsoever at at all. Being up in up in the Canadian Arctic in the middle of the ocean, being in Antarctica, there is just no infrastructure.
Gregg:Yeah. So many Europe, it charges a lot.
Chris Ramsey:Exactly. And and we so we challenged all of those myths in one expedition, and it took us 6 years to make that happen. A lot of people see the expedition and go, kinda, oh, great. You know, they you know, it's amazing what they did. You know, they had Nissan behind them.
Chris Ramsey:They had this company behind them, and, yeah, everything was great. But that was 6 years of blood, sweat, tears, a lot of reassurance of from each other, to make that happen. That was it was a lot of work.
Gregg:I'm sure it was. The I mean, so many questions that come to mind with that. What, what do you do to actually, like, come up with a with a tour like that? Like, the you know, do you have to have permissions to be in some of these places? Like, some yeah.
Gregg:So many so many questions, like the how do you how do you organize this? Like, do you do it yourself? Like, let's start with the first one, the the right to Mongolia. You just basically you you did you you can't tell me that you just got yourself a car, put beefier tires on it because I think it was slightly modified for for the terrain because you you weren't driving on nice roads.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. And and literally, that is I mean, it's it's looking at different things. It's first of all, it's having that idea and and having that creative spark. And it's something I'll even Julie questions me at times saying, how do you why why does your brain work like this? And I can't actually answer that question.
Chris Ramsey:Maybe one day I'll just be something will be on TV or somebody will say something, I'll overhear a conversation, it'll put something in my head that'll just spark something. And so, like, I do get a lot of questions, like, just now is and you may be asking preparing to ask it, but what is next? And the answer is honest answer is I don't know what's next in terms of an expedition. My brain is still figuring that out, and at some point, something's gonna spark in my head. It goes, oh, what about this?
Chris Ramsey:Because everything we do is gonna have a purpose. So I've got loads of ideas to go and do some expeditions or do some a trip, but they're not doing anything. They're not doing anything for the world. They're not doing anything for communities. They're not doing anything for people.
Chris Ramsey:It's just fulfilling a a desire to drive Yeah. And go to a country. And for us, that's not what it's about. Yes. We do collect expeditions.
Chris Ramsey:Yes. We have a go to these amazing places. But, like, for example, with Pol 2 Pol, we put charges in the ground through one of our charging partners, Zeno Lexway, to make it possible in South America for people to when they adopt an electric vehicle buy an electric vehicle, sorry, they can then charge their car. They can drive through their country because we have put charges in the ground for them. So that's what we mean by purpose.
Chris Ramsey:Peru had chargers in Lima. So it had a few DC 1 or 2 DC chargers and some fast chargers in in in Lima. Now it has a border to border AC and DC charging network, thanks to Poltorpal.
Gregg:Have you have you guys appeared on any of the national television? I'm sure you're you're invited to some you know, when you when you're driving across the multiple countries, did you say 30 something 1000 miles. Right?
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. 20 23000 miles. Yeah.
Gregg:Yeah. You've got some time when when you turn up at a place that doesn't have any charging infrastructure, you're gonna be there for a while, so you got some time to kill. Right? I'm sure you have some stories to tell, but you also appeared on the national television and or or radio, and I'm sure that pushed pushed some buttons when it comes to local politicians and and activists activists who were keen on, you know, getting this through. They were like, there's this man coming from a crazy, abroad place, and he wants to drive electric car through our country, and we don't have infrastructure.
Gregg:We cannot have we cannot have that. Yeah. After that happened.
Chris Ramsey:Well, that's the thing. And but it's it's it's working with private businesses. So NLX Way was, like, say, in South America who we worked with there. In in the US and Canada, there's there's vast charging networks already. But we've kind of needed to travel through South America and thought, but people do the Pan American highway all the time.
Chris Ramsey:It's the other aspect, it's a big overlanding route. So you hear about people in their la Land Rover defenders or in their VW in their bus in their camper vans and stuff traveling up and down the Pan American highway all the time. How can we transition that into people doing that very same thing, but those vehicles are electric? And they can't do that if there's no infrastructure. So that was kind of say, right, we focus on that.
Chris Ramsey:When we build a network so we can drive through there, essentially, but how does that stay there and how does that get back? So that was one of the key elements. But, obviously, as part of the expedition, we were traveling, as you say, through countries where people kinda go, no. These guys are coming through. How can we use this story to change policies, change you know, to make change happen in our country?
Chris Ramsey:And we've now heard that in Guatemala, we we worked a lot with the British embassies to connect us with the organizations and radio stations and and and such like. So in Guatemala, the British embassy engaged with us and got the EV Association and won the government officials there. And now we've heard that the government are making changes to incentivize and and give out, effectively incentive, yes, for electric vehicles and for businesses to go electric and also for business to install more charges. And that's come from the fact that we were in that country passing through, and we had that conversation with the embassy and with the EV Association and with the government. So, again, it's it's a lot of that work that goes on behind the scenes that people will never see or never know until we start well, till we toil you on a podcast.
Chris Ramsey:This is all that kind of work that we hope that there's these ripple effect, legacy projects there or legacy impacts are gonna come from.
Gregg:I mean, yeah, like the old saying goes, let's talk about stuff. Right? The Yeah. You just once you show it and talk to people about it, then all of a sudden that, turns a a button in their brain or whatever, like or or, you know, and no. I shouldn't say knob on the in their brain because that sounds terrible in the UK.
Gregg:But, yeah, you know what I mean. Like, it just triggers this thing. It triggers a neuron. Right? A a brain cell.
Chris Ramsey:It's plant it's planting a seed with people.
Gregg:Oh, yes. That's a better way to say it.
Chris Ramsey:Thank you. Planting a seed for people to go, oh, actually, yeah, actually, I I think we have that problem. Maybe we could solve it by doing this. So yeah.
Gregg:Yeah. I do have podcast. I should have a way of with words, but yeah. I'm sure you have some stories to to to, to say. Anything that you wanna share, like, from the the journeys?
Gregg:Like, you know, any anything that surprised you, like, because, you know, living in Aberdeen, I'm sure you see loads of people from different countries because it's a, you know, like I say, it's an oil and gas kinda capital, But I'm sure there were things that surprised even you and, you know, and your wife. Like, you know, anything you wanna share, or, shall we let's do a break, and then let's talk about it after the break. Okay? Right. So let's hear some stories, Chris.
Gregg:I'm sure you've got loads of interesting, amazing, and, you know, surprising things to talk about. So, yeah, microphone's yours.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. No. We, when you talk about surprising moments, I mean, we've we've never been to Central America, South America before. So going on this expedition, this was our we're not only just jumping in right in the deep end, we are literally going for it, and we're and everything was completely new. So when we left the US and drove into Mexico, everything was just an overload, a sensory overload of of everything.
Chris Ramsey:You know, it's we're we're seeing all these countries for the first time and everything everything surprised us, but nothing surprised us in a way. Because when you're in when you're in South America, Central America, Mexico, you get you love your your your let's say your senses are overloading. You kinda this is really cool. This is amazing. Then you've gotta come back and think we're trying to do this expedition.
Chris Ramsey:We're trying we've gotta get to our next point. But then you've also gotta battle with the changes in driving style, the changes of what's happening on the roads. And, you know, Mexico down to the southern tip of southern tip of South America, down into Chile, it's saying a war zone in terms of driving on the roads is is probably a a a a, a strong way to put it, but it's a jungle.
Gregg:Yeah. People have a different different driving styles.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. And it's like when we talk about aggressive drivers over here in the UK, we haven't seen anything. But it's fun as well. It's that's one of the challenges of the expedition is kinda we found driving into these countries and driving into Mexico City and to Lima. Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:It's it's a fun drive. It's it's a is an incredible, thing. But I I find one of the things if I look at the surprise then from that aspect, I'm surprised we never had an accident. That is one of the things I will surprises me the most because we were coming bumper to bumper. We were coming wheel arch to wheel arch with cars and trucks.
Chris Ramsey:We were sandwiched between 2 trucks that were trying to get into the same lane that we were in. We're on the left and the right, and they were just they were just coming closer and just cutting us off and cutting each other off. And I I am still surprised why we never had an accident on the Expedition. I say it's I say it's lucky. It's good driving, but Joey, I think, just says that I was lucky.
Gregg:Or maybe your car just stood out so much. They were like, oh, what's this? You know? Or maybe they just that's the way they drive every day. And Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:And and This is just the way It is literally that. That's that's just that's just the rules of the road.
Gregg:But yeah. I'm sure I'm sure you're amazing driving is is part of it as well, because somebody else may have over overreacted or just being, like, you know, throw throwing up the the hands up in the air and be like, whatever. And, you know, and that's accidents happen like that sometimes. So
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. I mean, you learn very quickly how to drive sounds really bad. You learn very quickly how to drive very aggressively, but in the right way because it's it's just the way it happens there. And and and I think it's such an amazing thing to experience because now being back here in the UK, it's very different again. So you have to you have to learn very quickly how to adapt to different driving styles, as when you go into various different countries.
Chris Ramsey:So I think that's why I find driving on the left and the right so easy. I'm sure a lot of people other people out there do, but I think from the expeditions, it's taught me how to very quickly switch between left and right and change driving styles depending on the country very quickly as well.
Gregg:So on on that journey, you you guys were in the Nissan the Aria.
Chris Ramsey:Right? Nissan Aria 87 kilowatt hour E Force for people that are interested. And, the the modifications to that vehicle, because a lot of people may be seeing the pictures online, we have the 39 inch, BFGoodrich tires on there. And that was literally just for the the polar regions, because we need to 15 inch alloys sorry, 17 inch alloy alloy rims, 39 inch tires. And the idea behind loads of loads of rubber was because we needed to drop the tire pressures down to about 10 to 4 PSI.
Chris Ramsey:Now you'd run, what, 25, 30 PSI of tire pressure in your in your normal tires, but we're running them down about 4 to 10 because we need to use that rubber space to displace as much of the weight of the car as possible because we were driving on the sea ice. Yeah. We were driving on up in Canada, we were driving on small little lakes, small ponds, and we don't know there how thick the ice is.
Gregg:Yeah. So
Chris Ramsey:we need to displace all that weight. And but that was it. I mean, we have tow hitch receivers on the front and the back, and that was for whenever we got really badly stuck. We could be recovered from that situation just to pull out and then carry on going ourselves. But we didn't touch the drivetrain.
Chris Ramsey:We didn't touch the battery. We didn't touch anything at all with suspension. It is all stock Aria vehicle. And the idea again is to show people just how capable EVs are.
Gregg:Was it, was Nissan actually interested in the data from the car? Because I you know, as much as as the test driving and and, like, whatever they call the testing, like, the proving grounds and all that, they do it's not as much driving as you guys did. Right? And it's not it those test drives and and, again, I don't know what they're called. Apologies to all the people who are working in the industry, but, you know, you know what I mean.
Gregg:The, all that The
Chris Ramsey:r and d and the tech you know, the test driving and the the date yeah. I understand what you mean.
Gregg:Yeah. That that that's done by professional drivers, people who do this day in, day out. So there's some biases, I'm sure, there. Right? It's not just a person who hasn't done it and just wants to go from a to b.
Gregg:The if you know what I mean. They have a schedule to do, like, you know, so were they interested in the data out of that car, or is the, did you have any were in you were in you well, did you talk to Nissan? I'm sure they they knew about it. Right? The, you didn't just buy a car in the UK and ship it overseas.
Chris Ramsey:No. So, yeah, we we were very fortunate Nissan came on board as a partner, on the project. So Nissan supplied us with the Aria, and myself and Joey worked managed the entire project. So this was, because we've seen a lot of people have asked us the questions like, how did we get picked to do this expedition? How did Nissan pick us?
Chris Ramsey:And Yeah. And and it's not to move away or shy away from the involvement in Nissan High because they were absolutely crucial to the support to the, the the expedition. Without them, we could never have done this. So they supplied us with the vehicles. They the engineers were there on hand in case we had any questions or needed any advice or technical information.
Chris Ramsey:But we appointed Arctic Trucks in Iceland, the as the company to modify the vehicle, to to do the modifications required. And these guys are the experts. They've been doing Antarctica expeditions for about 25, 30 years. They are the experts in that. They were the guys who modified the, the the vehicle for the Top Gear Polar Special.
Chris Ramsey:So they know what they're doing. And we gave it to them. They they, got on with that, and then they understood what we needed to do, minimal modifications. This is their first ever vehicle they've ever electric vehicle they've ever modified. They I we gave them 3 months to do it.
Chris Ramsey:It takes them about a year to modify their combustion vehicle, in comparison. So it was a huge challenge for them. They stepped up massively. And but taking the car into those conditions, I mean, we saw minus 39 in the Arctic, which was our coldest with wind chill, drops it down even colder. And so there was a lot and, well, I was gonna say, and then we had plus 48 in Arizona.
Chris Ramsey:So we were seeing both extreme temperatures. The car was pushed through every every terrain, every, climate condition you can think of. So there was a lot there is a lot of data there, and there is a lot to learn from it. And, you know, there's and from Nissan perspective, they are looking at a lot of different aspects and how we can they can use this. Because that, as you quite rightly said, you can't get that data.
Chris Ramsey:You can do a lot of testing. You can do all that testing, but you can't get that data in the real world. Yeah. And you can't be real world testing. So, yeah, they there's a lot to learn from it.
Chris Ramsey:And
Gregg:they they didn't help you on the, on the, Mongolia rally. Right? The that was just you taking it, and they probably just saw it, and they were like, we could we could help this guy. Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:I mean, Nissan, from from having the LEAF, and then doing various things like the I did the 3 peak challenge in in, the 40 kilowatt hour Nissan LEAF where you have to climb the 3 highest peaks in in the u in the UK and drive to them in 24 hours. I didn't do the mountains. Thank god. It was a a Nissan employee that did that, so I worked with Nissan on that. I did the, John Wilkes to Land's end and back.
Chris Ramsey:That was in a Nissan LEAF. That was a personal thing between myself and Jonathan Potevielle from EcoCARS.
Gregg:Yeah. I remember watching that. Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:So we've done I've done a lot of things, and, predominantly, it's been in in the Nissan LEAF. So Nissan, I've had a good relationship with them from a for a long time. Yeah. So when Poldefo came about and they they had the ARIA, because because initially when I came up with the concept, they didn't have the area. But when they actually had the area and it was able able to be launched, when I had a conversation with them about it, they were on board straight away.
Chris Ramsey:They got it straight away, and they knew that we were the people. If anybody in the world could deliver it, that we could do it. And that's to probably frame it because this what we've just achieved has never been achieved by any vehicle before in history. So we are the fur not only and this is not an ego thing for people. It's like, we are the first people in history to attempt it.
Chris Ramsey:And it's very surprising when you think how many adventurers have come and gone, how many how long the combustion vehicles been out there for, but nobody's ever attempted to do this. Interesting. And we've done it. First people, husband and wife team from Aberdeen on our own. Yes.
Chris Ramsey:We're support partners in Nissan and BFGoodrich and other and and redeem and people like this, but a husband essentially, a husband and wife team have gone and done it on our own in a Nissan Lee in a Nissan area, in electric vehicle. So it's great to say the 1st vehicle in history to drive pole to pole is an electric vehicle, and with a it's the 1st electric vehicle in history to drive to the South Pole as a separate thing.
Gregg:Yeah. I imagine it didn't take them a year to convert it because they didn't have to do anything to the power train, which, you know, driving an ICE car in in 30 minus 38 something degrees must be a a challenge, or you have to you have to do the the the air intake differently and so that doesn't freeze over. And also some things we don't wanna get into, but, like, you know, technically, it's a it actually highlights the the benefits of the, the electric powertrain. Right? It's it it highlights the fact that it's super simple.
Chris Ramsey:Exactly. And that's the thing you can't you one of the things they can't do is switch the engines off Yeah. Because the engine blocks will freeze. So when you think about all those vehicles that are operating and operating in Antarctica, they're all deal they're all diesel or they run off aviation fuel.
Gregg:I've got. So yeah.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. So they're basically running off that, but a lot of those vehicles can't be switched off unless they store them indoors. And they can just do that in a scientific basis and things, but they can't do that at places like Union Glacier, which is the main camp. So a lot of vehicles will run and and they will run their engines, for for long periods of time so the engine box don't freeze. You don't have that complication with an EV, obviously.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. And that's what we're kinda showcasing to the the science bases, the the Antarctica world to say EVs can cope. We haven't modified this car outside of putting big tires on it essentially, and it's coping with the harshest of conditions on the planet. So if we were to actually build a or you guys were to work and build an actual Antarctic Expedition Electric Vehicle and, you know, protect the battery, do some extra modifications to it, make it, you know, a proper custom made vehicle, you could change your vehicles to electric. Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:And then you'll have to come overcome a a few challenges initially, but at the end of the day, we're showing you that it's possible.
Gregg:Yeah. I mean, so many questions come to mind, but the they obviously would what I I think one of the questions people ask were like, where do you get power in our target ticket from? Because there's no grid there, presumably.
Chris Ramsey:Exactly. And and we have to take our grid with us. And and this is, where we've come into a bit of criticism form. We're happy to take that criticism because when people hear that we we took a generator with us, we're saying, well, you had you took fossil fuels to power your car. I was like, yes.
Chris Ramsey:We do because let's let's put the answer back onto question back onto you guys. It's kinda like there is no infrastructure there. There's no there's no engine. So and we could. We we trialed a portable wind turbine in the Arctic.
Chris Ramsey:We worked with a a trailer company and, guys in from, Electron Garage in up in Scotland to build a wind turbine trailer. So I put a 5 kilowatt wind turbine on top of a trailer with a charging with an inverter and a char and a battery backup device to try and harness wind in the Arctic. Sadly, with what's going on in the world right now, it we had extremely hot weather up in the Arctic in terms of in terms of the sun intense sun. So it was it was making the the ice melt south of our route a lot quicker. We actually had to drive on a closed ice road because it was melting, and it actually closed when we got there.
Chris Ramsey:We were lucky that we got dispensation to be on it. And because of that, we had no wind. It was calm, so we couldn't use the wind turbine. Then Antarctica, the flip side, we have 247 daylight, 247 sun. So we used 1.6 kilowatt of solar, combined with the 7 kilowatt generator, which we had in the Arctic as well, to charge the car.
Chris Ramsey:And when we say to people, you see that as a positive or a negative, whichever way you wanna take it, but for us, it was 9% of the expedition. And we're realistic. There's no way we were gonna charge the car solely from wind or solely from solar because we don't physically have the amount of time to do it. Yeah. We've gotta get ourselves up to the magpole.
Chris Ramsey:We've gotta get ourselves back out of there before the ice will melt, before the ice is melting on the on the oceans, and the only way to do that is to charge quickly, is to charge as quick as we can. So that's why we needed the generator. But also to get our permits and licenses to be there, we had to have the generator. And that's again because the industry knows fossil fuels. The industry knows that rely that's reliability.
Chris Ramsey:So they it was an enforcement on us to basically have that as a backup, as a safety backup, or has that have our charging mechanism to ensure that they know that we can get out of the regions if we need to and we were safe.
Gregg:Okay. I mean, yeah, to to all the critics, I always I always say the, as an engineer, this is what you know, I've I don't know the actual details in I don't have the numbers in front of you, but the, I know that the generators are, tuned to be a bit more efficient within certain RPMs. So, technically, actually, you're polluting less, basically, using a generator and putting that in the battery. Because I know it's, like, an ongoing joke is that, you know, oh, you're using a rapid charger, but there's a big diesel generator behind it. Yeah.
Gregg:But that diesel generator is gonna use less power or less emit lows less c o 2 than you driving with the same amount of fuel, you know, for the same distance. At least that's the way it was explained to me. I don't yeah. Because I I don't have the numbers in front of me. If you know more, just send me an email at takeittakeitev@gmail.com.
Gregg:I'll I'll be happy to.
Chris Ramsey:And we were but we were framing it in the sense of saying, look. The the expedition is about proving that an electric vehicle and electric vehicle drivetrain systems can do this. It's not about Yeah. It's not about
Gregg:had a mission, and then Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:Solar, a generator. It's this is what it's about. And why we never said to people it's a zero emissions expedition because it's never going to be regardless of how we're charging. Everything's made from fossil fuels in into it or in oil in a certain way, so nothing can ever be zero emissions. So we just said to people, look.
Chris Ramsey:We're trialing and innovating new technology. We're trying to find ways, and we're trying to push the the renewable energy industry forward in terms of exploration, in terms of adventures. And they're not gonna do that unless they get we're doing that planting of a seed that something could be possible. And it worked because in Portland, when we we were there at an event, some an engineer came up and said, I never thought of doing something like that. Not putting as big a working wind turbine on a on a trailer, but doing something like that.
Chris Ramsey:A lightweight portable trailer with a turbine, with panels, whatever, you've given me an idea, and I think I'm gonna run with it. And and that's great. Yeah. That's what that's what we wanna do. That's what we wanted to do.
Gregg:Well and, yeah, you're doing it as an inspiration and adventure as well. And, yeah, I was just about to get get to that point. It's like, yeah, at at the end of the day, the mission is to test the car. Right? It's just to say EV from a to b, not EV charging cleanly from only 0 renewables.
Gregg:Because I'm sure the grid isn't as as clean in Mexico or Guatemala or whatever. I'm I don't I have no idea. I have no numbers. But I presume that's the case because they, you know, they do not have as many green in in, like, initiatives there. Again, I'm just pulling the numbers and facts out of my bottom, but I I presume so.
Gregg:You you may prove me wrong, but, you know, the the the grid's not green everywhere.
Chris Ramsey:And Exactly. And the grid isn't I mean, there's very few countries in this world where the grid is very green.
Gregg:Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:Is I mean and and I think Costa Rica is probably one of the few, exceptions to that, because they offer they run at about 99.9% renewable.
Gregg:Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:And there is great strides actually in putting countries like Nicaragua and and Mexico and things. And and I think for me, that's if I look back at the expedition, I mean, we achieved something we might have achieved something pretty amazing. And it's only now that we're able to kind of actually reflect on that and think, actually, yeah, we did do something pretty cool. And but one of our disappointments, because we had to move so quickly with all the challenges and all the all the changing of time frames and and and points on there. We we've looked back with a little bit this point and said we couldn't share as much of those stories as we wanted to because there is so many cool things going on in all these countries, and we wanted to share that as part of the expedition.
Chris Ramsey:You know, like, for example, in Vancouver, Harbour Air, they operate all the seaplanes. They've been working on a trial project. They've got an active prototype seaplane, electric seaplane. It's hopefully gonna be in full production, full operation in 2025, but their plan is they're changing their entire fleet. But they're not going on buying new planes.
Chris Ramsey:They're taking the plane existing planes they've got, and they're converting them and retrofitting them because it's actually better to do that.
Gregg:Yeah. Yeah. To prove a a a frame for maybe as a as a ex pilot, I can tell you that it takes years years years to go through all the certifications to actually make sure that the frame is actually, you know, viable Yeah. Airworthy, as they say.
Chris Ramsey:And when you look at the plane, they say this plane, is from 1969 or something. You're like, that's crazy.
Gregg:Yeah. They still yeah. The the the things used to be built pretty pretty good, like, back in the day. Like, this yeah. I used to fly an airplane that was built in 1968, and it's still flying to this day.
Gregg:So Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:So, I mean, that's that's one of the things we we we were very disappointed by doing because in places like Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, there are so many amazing things going on, and they are their grids are getting a lot better. They are there are a lot more renewable energy projects going on. There's a lot cool things happening there, and we would have loved to share that. So I guess that's more probably one probably one of our biggest disappointments from the expedition. As a personal disappointment.
Chris Ramsey:So
Gregg:Yeah. 2 2 questions, like, on the on the, like, personal level. Have you ever had any times when you because, obviously, you know, you've got a plan to to go, but I'm sure that you have been more allowed you didn't you weren't very, sturdy on your goals. Right? You you could say, I'm I'm gonna stay here a day longer or like, because if things change, you have to plan for that.
Gregg:You have to have a, you have to have a plan They
Chris Ramsey:change all the time.
Gregg:Plan a, b, and c, and d. Right? But have you ever had a moment where you're like, I just wanna stay here forever. You know? I don't wanna go anywhere else, or can I just can we stay here for a month?
Gregg:Yeah. What kept you going, basically, is what I'm trying to say?
Chris Ramsey:I mean, sometimes the problem is sometimes we had the challenge of we were we were keeping ourselves going really well. It was it was slowing down that was the problem. And and that's the thing is what I will say to people is social media shows you one thing, one side of our expedition. It shows you the good side. A lot of the bad times that we had on the expedition, we had plenty.
Chris Ramsey:I mean, we're a husband and wife team. Husband and wives have conversations that don't you know, that that leads to a very heated debate, and we have plenty of those, and and you don't get to see that. And and there's a lot of you know, we were put through a lot of stress emotionally and mentally through that expedition. And the ability to be able to stop in places, take a couple of days out was was huge for us. But the downside was when we were traveling through, getting into Central America and we were all going good, the schedule was all great, to then be told that the route we were I'll I'll double back a second because for people who don't know, if you when you go from Panama into Colombia, there's an area called the Darien Gap.
Chris Ramsey:And a lot of people know about it, but for people who don't, it's it's a stretch of land where there isn't the roads don't meet. Okay. It's jungle. And it's it's one of those places where you just do not go. People do go, but if you go into there, we certainly can't drive through it because there is no road.
Chris Ramsey:It's they say it's dense jungle. If we attempted to go in there, we could waste months just trying to drive through it if we weren't kidnapped, if we weren't maybe murdered, or it's a very dangerous place. It's where things cross the border that shouldn't cross the border, essentially. And so if you go there, you are basically on your own. And if you do get if you do go missing, nobody's going in there to find you.
Chris Ramsey:So everybody ships their vehicles around from Panama into Colombia. And there's a well trodden route, and I wanted to go off of that route because I wanted to save ourselves about 800 miles in Colombia so we could do 800 miles less. So I worked on a different route. The shipping company were working on it. And then to be told in Guatemala that the ship the customs agents are no longer gonna clear your vehicle in that city.
Chris Ramsey:You now need to go to the the port town of Cartagena, which is, like, about 800 miles north of where we were gonna be. But to be told that and then say, so you now need to be here 2 weeks earlier in Panama City. And there is only AC charges throughout South and throughout, Central America. So it meant every single day, drive one full charge, charge, sleep, drive, charge, sleep, and driving through the night. And one of the things you do not wanna be doing in San Francisco, South America, if you can help it, is driving at night in some of the dangerous areas where we travel through.
Chris Ramsey:And I don't mean all of the countries were dangerous in all the areas, but there are 1 or 2 areas you need to be careful with, but but we had no choice. So we we drove a lot at night and through the night, and we had to just keep moving every single day. Yeah. Every single day. And that puts a lot of strain on use.
Chris Ramsey:So when we got to those points, like, Quito and Ecuador, where we could spend a couple of days, it was huge. And and I say Ecuador because that is one it's a long winded way of saying that Ecuador was the place that we really enjoyed so much. I mean, every country was incredible. But if we pinpoint you one country and say we wanna go back to, there's a number of them. But Ecuador jumped straight up to what near to the top of the list because it is such a beautiful, amazing country.
Chris Ramsey:And we drove through the center of it. We drove through you know, we're driving across the Andes in in huge mountain passes, having an amazing, incredible time. The car, the regenerative braking system performed superbly. We with the big tires and everything and the wind we had a rooftop 10 box added in in Vancouver. We put so that's basically putting a big windbreak on the top of your EV.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. We had about a 150 miles of range. The car would generally have about 300, 320 miles range. So we half the range because of these modifications. But when we were going through the mountains of Ecuador, we were getting over 200 miles.
Chris Ramsey:Oh, wow. Because we would use 8% battery going up. We'd reclaim 5% battery going down. It was just working really well. But then in Ecuador, you've got the Galapagos Islands.
Chris Ramsey:You've got the Amazon rainforest. And for us, we never got to see that, and we just experienced such kindness and such warmth and generosity in that country. I think we we definitely wanna go back there because it is just one of those amazing countries. And we just think there's so many, but if we if we get the opportunity or I'll reframe that, we will make the opportunity because if we don't if we don't make it, then it's never gonna happen. We'll make the opportunity to go back to Ecuador because it just blew us away.
Gregg:That sounds amazing. Like, I mean, I was I was about to ask you about the efficiency. Like, what is what was the miles to kilowatt or kilowatt no. What's the which way is that? Yeah, how many kilowatt hours per mile?
Gregg:Right? Or how many miles per kilowatt hour? How efficient was the car, basically? And yeah.
Chris Ramsey:No. Very.
Gregg:Yeah. When you said massive tires, I thought, that's you know? Was there no no option to actually change back to legal road tires? That probably would have made things way better. But You would think.
Gregg:Right? You think
Chris Ramsey:that would be the sensible thing to do.
Gregg:I don't know. I just I'm I'm sure there was a technical reason why you couldn't. Well, no.
Chris Ramsey:I mean, there wasn't. I mean, it was literally I mean, what I'd done is because we didn't know what range we were gonna get out of the vehicle at that time because we hadn't built the vehicle. I I worked and done based on my knowledge and experience and kinda I kinda thought, we'll probably probably be around about a 150 miles. If we're thinking huge tires, rooftop tent, we added the the tires also. They're, you know, they're adding extra weight.
Chris Ramsey:So and we we added roundabout, including the tires, around about 280 KGs of extra weight to the car. And they say the big rooftop tent, that's excluding that, and that adds as a windbreak. So we kind of I kinda calculated around about a 150 miles, and it turned out I was pretty spot on. We could get a bit further depending on, you know, say, terrains and things as well, and and the warmth played a part in that as well, obviously. But that was that was kind of how it all worked out.
Chris Ramsey:So what we what I did was I mapped with NLX, in South America. I mapped every basically, 100 to a 150 miles and said, this is where we're kinda looking to probably need charges. And they were like, well, we've got more going in, so we've got more going here and more going there and more going there. So you're fine on that front. This way, we'll get a charger here, which is gonna be about a 149 miles.
Chris Ramsey:So we worked on that basis. And when we could get a 150 miles out of the car comfortably, I was like, why change the tires? Yeah. Because that proves an even bigger point that, you know, we've made all these modifications, and we can still do it with a 150 mile range, but also, it would have changed the look of the car. If we put normal tires on that car It would with the fender flares
Gregg:It would look silly. Gonna look stupid. Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:And and the it was the best decision as well, not just from a range perspective and think, but but also from from an attracting the public point of view. Because we drove through Canada, America, big pickup, truck loving countries, and they just loved the car.
Gregg:Yeah. Because they loved
Chris Ramsey:the color. Cool.
Gregg:Yeah. Yeah. It looked it stood out stood out. Right? It wasn't just a because to them, probably, Aria is like a midsize car or, you know, city car.
Chris Ramsey:Well, to a lot of people, they hadn't seen the Aria before.
Gregg:Oh, yeah. Because it's it's it was a fairly new car at
Chris Ramsey:the time. So and I remember we were driving we were driving through, one of these towns. We had to wind it down, and
Gregg:we're just driving through one
Chris Ramsey:of the city streets. And we it was like, we just heard this girl say to, say, a boyfriend or a husband, but just turned to to their to their partner and just said, that car looks like a Transformer. What is it?
Gregg:It was like
Chris Ramsey:and and we thought, it probably does look a bit like a Transformer. And and that was the thing. So it's we found that not a single person said, it's electric. They were all attracted to it straightaway because of the big tires. Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:And they came over and they went, this is cool. Yeah. And it's electric as well. Oh, it's pretty cool. If I if if this is what electric cars look like, I'd probably buy one because they want a big they want a big vehicle.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. That's the that's the American market. That's it. You're not gonna get away from that at the for the time being. So you've gotta give them a big pickup truck, or you've gotta give them a big vehicle.
Gregg:They got more space.
Chris Ramsey:So Yeah. And and that's what attracted them. And and like I say, not a single person. I can I can put my hand on my heart and say, not a single person said I don't like that?
Gregg:I mean, the, a, they like big things, but, yeah, but also, normally, electric cars are kinda optimized to even if they that makes them look funny, to be a bit more efficient, and you just did the opposite. So and, you know, you've kind of proven the point from that perspective as well. So, I'm kind of mindful of the time, but the you know, because we've been talking for like 50 minutes. But the, 2 questions. What's next?
Gregg:And I suppose, like, we can, you know, we can talk about the any things that you feel comfortable about, what's next, like expedition, any other things going on.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. No. I think, I think I said earlier on, it's kind of, like, what's next is figuring out, like, what's the new normal. I mean, we've it's taken us a little bit of time to to settle back in. Year of of of a year or so of being away from home, so I think about a year of mail and admin stacking up.
Chris Ramsey:So that's what we've been kind of just getting getting to grips with, and now we're just thinking about what what is next. Because we now have this we've worked hard to build a platform and to build a voice. So now we have this voice, how can we use it to be purposeful? And that so that's why we're in this transition of thinking about what what is next. But, we've also been doing we've been asked this question, so from a lot of other people and while we've been here, at Everything Electric as well.
Chris Ramsey:So happy to say that we're also working very round the clock kind of thing on on a book just now. Okay. So we're we kinda think that's another way for us to be able to share really what happened.
Gregg:I'm sure you've got loads of pictures as well. Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:And it's gonna share a lot of those stories that we can't share on social media, and social media isn't the place to share it. So we've, we've we started work on a book. And when that will come out, we're not sure because, depending on the routes that it goes out, it can be anywhere between a year to a year to a 2 years before it can hit shelf. So, and we're not sure the best route. So we're still figuring that out as well.
Chris Ramsey:But the book is in in the making, so that's Cool. Pretty
Gregg:exciting. For us to that because I'm sure there's like I say, there's loads of stories that, you know, they're easier to write down. On the podcast. It'd probably be half an hour.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. Exactly. But you
Gregg:can write them down, and somebody can read them at their own leisure.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. And and so I say so it's figuring out what's next. We're we're we're in that kind of transition period of figuring out what is next, but we're we're just eager to share our story. That's the thing is and and talking to you today is great, so thank you for getting this opportunity. My pleasure.
Chris Ramsey:Yeah. It's it's it's just how we can share our story because and how, hopefully, our story can can help people either transition to electric vehicles or to make simple steps in life or just to be inspired to do something courageous. Yes. And and that could be going for that promotion at work or or taking a new career change or doing whatever it be. It's just or it's just being a bit more bolder and being a bit more courageous in the world because it just you can do it.
Chris Ramsey:I I never thought I'd be doing what I'm doing today, and I am. And it's just because I took a chance. So
Gregg:Yeah. I think I said many times to my wife, if I could get a year year salary, I'll I'll do what Chris is doing. And she would just look at me like, you're mad.
Chris Ramsey:Can I get a year salary? Because I'm not paid either.
Gregg:Well, I know. I know. I've I I learned that as well. I was like, well, okay. You know, because have you had many people just last last couple of questions.
Gregg:Have you had many people saying, I wanna do this as well. I've got the funds. What advice would you give me? Or would you say to people, don't do it? We we did it as a sort of brewing the point and inspiring people, but, you know, because
Chris Ramsey:As in poll to poll or Yeah.
Gregg:Yeah. Yeah. Or more even driving to Mongolia, although I'll I'll probably strongly advise people against driving to through Russia at the moment from the western side of the world. But the, although you might be lucky. But the, you know, it's one thing to inspire people, and people did, like, the, trip to Antarctica or whatever, like, back in the day, like, you know, we're talking a 100 something years ago, when these lands were unexplored.
Gregg:But now there's loads of areas where people just do the the the cool things that people thought were, you know, amazingly unachievable, back in a day. They do it routinely. There's even, like, buses doing it. Do you expect that people will do this again? Somebody else is gonna be like, I'm gonna do this, you know, in a different brand of a car or, you know, do you expect expect people to do it again or do it from bottom up, so to speak?
Gregg:Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:I mean, it's it's kind of, yeah, it's it's kind of a weird kind kind of a weird question to answer in the sense that, yes, I do, but no, I don't. So I hope that what we've done and I know a couple of examples, that people have now been inspired to go and do electric adventures because of following what we've done. And I hope more of that happens. I hope we inspire the adventure world to kinda look and go, well, actually, yeah, maybe I will go and start doing my, what I'm doing now, motorbike adventures, car adventures, whatever it be, and turn them into electric. But I I challenge them to say, what purpose are you gonna deliver by doing it?
Chris Ramsey:Think about delivering purpose by doing what you're doing and not just doing it for the sake of doing it.
Gregg:Yeah.
Chris Ramsey:Adventure and exploration will always happen. We we have a thirst to explore and understand the planet, and that will never change. But let's do it a bit more purposefully, and that's what we do. That's the the hopefully, we we find other adventures and people will take on board. But I also don't want somebody I want somebody to redo poll to polls.
Chris Ramsey:They go through the pain of what we went through and understand exactly what it takes to do it. But if but I also we did that as a statement to the exploration world in those specific region, like Antarctica specifically, to say this is possible to go electric. I kinda not wanting to encourage people to go, well, let's go and explore Antarctica in electric vehicles now. Let's go and do these expeditions across Antarctica in electric vehicles in that sense because I don't wanna incur encourage more exploration of Antarctica Yeah. If that makes sense.
Gregg:Yeah. So it's a you don't want thousands of tourists to all of a sudden appear there. Exactly.
Chris Ramsey:And it and it won't because it's because it is one of those places that very few people in the world can afford to go to in that sense. And so I don't want it to happen for that reason, but I want the electrification to come into Antarctica, and and for that to be that inspiration point to happen for all scientific bases. And we're actually trying to have conversations with a few of them just now to try and spur that on. So I hope it happens, but I hope it happens with purpose.
Gregg:I mean, we can finish on that word because the, you know Yeah. I have nothing else to say. Thank you. Thank you, Chris, for appearing on TechEdv, and I hope, we can talk about your book when it comes out, and I hope I'll I'll I'll be able to read it because I'm looking forward to, you know, seeing all the pictures. I'm sure, there's loads of information and everybody else is gonna be looking for.
Gregg:So thank you for your time.
Chris Ramsey:No. Thank you very much. Cheers. Alright.