Wiebe Wakker
June 12, 2016
When I checked the car in the morning I found out he wasn’t charged completely, only till 60%. Probably the fuse broke as it wouldn’t charge when I re-plugged the cable. It was a downer as I had to drive 200km to Stockholm today. I went back to Lisa’s house (an hour walk) to check for other charging stations around. In the city they where only found in paid parking garages so that was no option. Outside of the center there where a few and the best option was, again, the ikea. While driving there I crossed a charging station which was not on the map and wanted to check that out. It appeared to be a free one and should charge on 8KWh, which was perfect.
The day I spend at Lisa’s house to work. Lisa was away for a biking competition. Around 6pm I left her house to pick up the car and it was charged 85%, so instead of 8KWh it charged 3KWh, it was not enough to reach Stockholm but I already prepared for this and had a few back-up options. In Vagnhärad there were 2 stations. The first one didn’t work with my car. The second one was special. It was a station with 2 plugs: a Type 2 21KWh and a Type 2 3.5KWh. Wat was special about it was that my cable fitted only in 1 one of the sockets, while they should be exactly the same. Surprising experience. The station didn’t communicate good with the car either. It would charge for a few minutes, then it stopped and would charge again. It’s because of my custom made car doesn’t have to software for all the stations.
I explored the town and behind a supermarket I saw a press container. This got my attention as I know these containers are always powered with a 32A CEE plug, which means high voltage power and super fast charging. As it was already 10pm and didn’t want to arrive in the morning at my next hosts I decided to be a bit rude. I moved the car to the back of the supermarket, pulled out the cable and plugged it into my car. It worked! A lesson in life: sometimes when you want to proceed in life you need to take some risk. Now I was charging and within 1.5 hours it gained about 30%. Which was enough to reach Stockholm.
Around 11.30 my navigation told me I reached destination. I was not sure where their house was and when I stepped out of the car to have a look, a woman on her bike approached me yelling “Hoiiii” which is Dutch for hello. I knew I arrived right. Their house was a bit hidden between other houses. What caught my eye was that they had a lot of cars at the front of their house. Old cars mainly. There was a reason for that which I tell you tomorrow.
My hosts where Aryan and Lena. Aryan is a Dutch guy who’s been living here since 1987, a year after I was born. His wife Lena is Swedish. We had a short talk and some food and then went to bed, it was late.
Sometimes in you want to get further in life you need to be a bit cheeky.
