The Horse 2020/21

On a thursday afternoon I've done an interview with Mr. Peter Hofmann. He works in the environmental department in Zurich as project manager, his task is to check the environmental impact of vehicles.

When I asked him how realistic he thinks it is to have only electric cars in the city of Zurich, he said that this is a difficult question.

Today it is not possible to let no diesel vehicles or only electric vehicles into the city of Zurich, because there is no legal basis.

On the national and cantonal level as well as in the city of Zurich there are many efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is also in order to comply with the climate agreement of Paris. In order to achieve this, measures have to be taken, which can be quite specific, such as so-called low emission zones, as far as it is legally possible. There is still a lot to do to reach the goals and it is not easy but he is in a very positive mood. He sees the significance of electric cars in the city of Zurich as divided. On the one hand, he sees a continuous increase in the number of first redeemed electric vehicles, while on the other hand this figure is still in the single-digit percentage range. One reason for the rising numbers is most likely the good prices that are now prevailing.

During our conversation I also asked him about his city of the future.

He said that his city of the future is quite similar to the transport policy of the city of Zurich. This policy states that people will mainly travel to the city by public transport and will0 continue to use public transport or bicycles once they arrive in the city. This way the air is spared and the valuable space is not filled by private vehicles.

Basically he is of the opinion to use public transport as often as possible and if this is not possible, then a car with a small environmental impact.

When I asked what other points the transport policy contains, he said that there is a guideline with the following three points:

1. try to avoid traffic altogether and if possible to cover all shifts on foot.

2. use public transport such as bus and streetcar

3. use a clean vehicle

Another aspect of the city of Zurich is to make it easier to change to public transport or bicycle. For example, bicycle paths are to be extended or separate lanes for public transport are to be built.

At the end of our interview I wanted to know what his opinion on electric cars is and if he owns one himself.

Since he lives in the middle of the city, he does not need an own car. He often used his bicycle or public transport for longer distances. If he still needs to transport larger things, he uses the services of Mobility.

The knowledge he has about electro mobility he acquired himself during his own study at the beginning of this year. We have also received this study and will look at it in more detail. We have not been able to do this yet because the study is very extensive.

As far as electric vehicles are concerned, he is still split. The production of these cars, especially the battery, is a big thorn in his side. Because the many metals and materials used for the batteries have a big impact on the environment during extraction and production.

He also said that he thought that Zurich was using electric cars at the expense of East Asian countries.

In his last sentence he said that a small electric car powered by green electricity is a step in the right direction, but does not solve the problem completely.

Hello everybody,

We are looking for someone who would do a collaboration with our project.
Our project is about changing the future. We want to see how our environment would change if everyone would only drive electric cars in the cities. We have already done several interviews, but we still want opinions that are not in the same country. We want to know what people think who live in a different country, where the circumstances are also different than in Switzerland.
We are also working on a survey to obtain several opinions.

We would be interested to hear other opinions.

Nils and Dylan

Exciting projects in the context of city climate & city trees are in development or "growing"; each project team as well as all collaboration teams get their own category. Here you collect all material, text, media, etc. for sharing with others and later for your publication on the website dontwastemy.energy.

The journey of discovery is underway!

On thursday, the 12th november, I've done an interview with Mr. Peter Hofmann. He's the project leader air polution control in Zurich.

I've asked him the following questions:

- What is his area of responsibility?

- How realistic does he think it is to have only electric cars in the city of Zurich?

- Importance of electric cars in the city of Zurich?

- What does the city of the future look like for him?

- Personal opinion on electric cars? - Does he own one himself?

(in progress)

Sketch on paper from Nils and Dylan

 The aim of our project is to find out whether in a city like Zürich it would be possible to use electric cars only. 
In the course of a self-experiment we hope to find out how electric-car-friendly the city of Zurich is today. With an interview we also want to learn more about the plans that the Zürich city council has regarding the electrification of its urban car traffic.

(in progress)

Our experience so far:

Review and assessment of things done and still to do

We have a list of things we still have to do and things we have already done. And in this list we can look up everything and therefore we can't forget anything.

And when we do our posts on the Horse, we check them afterwards and if we are not done yet, we write it down.

And then assessment, I think that we have done our job not bad so far, these things we had to organize are perfect. For example the electric car. So if we had to assess that, I would give the collaboration a 4.75. And we are trying to invest more time for these things that we still have to do.

Problems encountered so far

We thought we had more problems than we have. This is a good sign, but we try to contact BMW and we don't get an answer. So Nils wrote to them and we did not get an answer yet.

The second is that we are trying to get in contact with foreign countries, but nobody wants to cooperate yet. But I still have 2 contacts that might work. But i have to Motivate them.

What could have been done differently

We could have gone to BMW in the company earlier and asked directly for an interview, then we would have received a clear and quick answer. And we wouldn't have to wait all the time for an answer. But I think that we will do the visit soon, because there is not enough time to wait.

We could have done our planning a little better. We're not bad at the moment, but it couldn't have been a bit more.

How likely is for our working hypothesis to be confirmed?

I think it is very likely because we think that in the future we will only drive cars with electric motors and we humans are slowly getting ready to do something for the environment, in my opinion. And the market for electric cars is huge right now.

Almost every car brand is trying to build an electric car that they can participate in this revolutionary invention.

And we, with this project, can certainly convince some friends or maybe strangers and explain them, that this is a good thing to do to help the environment.

Nils and Dylan

Interview questions e-cars

Not finished with all the questions, but is going to be finished.

(in progress..)

Checklist e-cars

It is not finished yet, but we adapt it again and again.

(in progress...)

We have broken our research into three parts (but we're still not finished with planning):

- We inform ourselves about electric cars
- We are looking for information about environmental change through e-cars
- We do interviews and organize an electric car

Our first questions are:

How far does an average electric car get?
- about 450 km.

How are they built and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
- research - Link to the answer

Are there different types of electric cars?

- Yes, electric hybrid, plug-in hybrid, possibly water cars.
- research - Link to the answer

 How did they get the idea?
- The idea came to the car companies through various protests from people about the environment.

Is there research by specialists?

- Answer not found yet.

The environment changes a lot because of the electric cars.
They are very environmentally friendly. They have 0 CO2 emissions and other pollutants. They are also very quiet and do not disturb anybody. The only disadvantage I have read so far is that they are too expensive and the charging stations are limited. I can understand this, because I think that you can't mass produce a new product when it is fresh on the market. You also have to see if you can find enough customers and if it is worth to continue production. But in my opinion the electric cars are very well received. You can see this especially with the Tesla car brand. I see at least 4-5 Teslas every day and that is a lot for a car with electric power.

We were lucky and have already organized an interview. We don't know yet how and when we will be able to do it, but it has been granted to us. We have also been given an electric car to look at and drive on Zurich with this car. I am very much looking forward to this day, because I am very interested to see the reaction of various people in Zurich. What also interests me is how it looks exactly in the car and under the hood. From these experiences we try to capture various things with videos.

- Link to TCS information

- 10 facts of e-cars

- History of e-cars

in progress....

Nils and Me(Dylan)

We searched the internet for various information about the environment in Zurich and about e-cars. We found very interesting things, which we want to inform ourselves about.

- For example how the environment is changing due to the invention of electric cars.
  Or how an electric car is built together.
  The electric car affects the environment.
  How many people already drive electric cars.
  Do electric cars also have disadvantages.

  etc.

Also we were able to organize a BMW I3 through connections and are allowed to drive this car and also have a closer look at it. Also we have already organized an interview, which we can do either online or face to face. But we will have to do some more planning, so that our project will be good.

in progress...