SolarTaxi made it halfway around the world!

Hi everyone,

here is some news from the SolarTaxi!! SustainaBee reported
on it about half a year ago just before they started the journey,
and now they've made it to Australia!
The newsletter is below.

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Dear Solar Taxi fans!

It's time for a new Newsletter! We have now made it half way around
the world!! Exactly 8 months after our start and after 21359 km we
have now reached Perth in Western Australia!

What a journey! We started in Lucerne 8 months ago and up to now we
have traveled across 20 countries and 3 continents, and the vehicle is
still doing well. The only things we had to replace so far were the
chain, one wheel cog, a light bulb and the two tyres of the trailer.

What has happened in the last three months:
The highlight of our journey was definitely the World Climate Change
Conference in Bali last December, where the solar taxi was
transporting around the delegates, ministers and the press. We
received great worldwide media coverage and so we could show to the
world that we can even drive a car around the world with the power of
the sun, without using a single drop of petrol, and that something can
be done against global warming.

After Bali, we hitched a ride on the Greenpeace flag ship Rainbow
Warrior and celebrated Christmas and New Year on board of the ship on
High Sea, with a crew of 14 people from 13 countries. We even
encountered a volcanic eruption in Indonesia, but quite often during
the trip I suffered from Sea sickness, so it was not always really
pleasant. Finally, after four long weeks, we ended up at the end of
the world, on the northern tip of New Zealand. From there we drove all
the way to Christchurch on the Southern island.

This detour via Bali and New Zealand has extended our journey by about
3 months, but this is causing no worries, as the Executive Director of
UNEP, Mr. Achim Steiner, has invited us to the next World Climate
Change Conference, which will take place in Poland in December 2009.
If everything goes well, we should be back in Switzerland after tht
conference, just before Christmas, after 18 months all together.

Also with the team everything goes well. In these days of rest now,
while the boat is on its way from Australia to Singapore, we simply
relax. I am doing some office works in Singapore, while Thomas is
still hiking somewhere in the mountains in Western Australia. We have
also found a new almost permanent member in our team, Erik Schmitt
from Berlin. He is filming our journey for a documentary, and some
first cuts you can already see on youtube, see the links below.
Another new member is Frank Loacker from the canton of Zurich. He is
an electrician and specialist for electric cars, and he is going to
travel with us on the next leg all the way up to Korea.

All together, we have another 21000 km or more ahead of us, across the
Far East, North America and Western Europe. Next Monday we are going
to pick up the solar taxi at the port of Singapore, and then we start
the next leg of our journey next Friday. We are meeting the State
Minister in Melaka and I am going to hold many presentations at
different universities. Then we are going to travel across Thailand,
Laos, China and Korea. In the summer we are going to cross Canada and
the USA and in November we should be back in Europe. Our next
challenge is definitely China. This country has requested a 3-months
prior application for a transit permit. For not getting lost in this
jungle of applications and papers, we are receiving great support from
the Swiss Embassies and Consulates along the way, from my main sponsor
Q-Cells and from a Chinese travel agent. Let's see what is going to
happen there ...

For following our expedition, stay tuned on www.solartaxi.com !

Keep in touch and Happy Easter!!

Kind regards from Singapore

Louis Palmer