After two months of driving a new Nissan Leaf 13,000kms from Poland, adventurer and explorer Marek Kaminski has arrived at Dongfeng Nissan’s Intelligent Mobility Experience Centre in Beijing.
Kaminski’s No Trace Expedition project is raising awareness about how an electric car can travel long distances through the wilderness, and at the same time positively influence the environment.
From May to September, Kaminski is driving the Leaf alone through Kaliningrad, Lithuania, Russia and Siberia, Mongolia, China, and South Korea on his way to Japan.
His No Trace Expedition stemmed from trips to the two ends of the Earth where he was inspired to plan a journey that had as little impact on the environment as possible.
“When standing on Earth’s two poles, I saw a clean, flawless white world with no pollution,” Kaminski says. “There probably are very few adventurers who would drive an electric car for tens of thousands of kilometres on an uninterrupted expedition.”
Kaminski is trying to overcome the perception that EV technology is still considered by many to be new and not fully supported by infrastructure.
“Reliability and cruising range of the vehicle was my first concern,” he says.
As an affordable, popular mainstream product, Kaminski says finishing the journey in a Leaf will be more meaningful – showing it can take the rigours of varying road conditions and distances.
The Leaf’s ProPilot that provides additional convenience to drivers has been a help.
“I’ve been using ProPilot and it worked perfectly under all kinds of driving conditions during the expedition,” Kaminski says. He says it provides energy-saving for long-distance driving and he only activates it when he needs some rest.
“Comparing new energy vehicles to traditional vehicles is like comparing today’s smart phones to mobile phones 20 years ago,” Kaminski says. “I believe that it represents infinite possibilities of the future. Maybe next year I will drive across the extremely cold land of Siberia with a Nissan Leaf.”
