Posted on October 19, 2020
MAJ on November 27, 2020
An engineer by training, Rémi Pillot left his CDI and the advantages of a stable life to criss-cross France aboard a vehicle using only renewable energies.
To do this, he converted his 30-year-old Volkswagen T3 van with combustion engine into a 100% electric vehicle whose batteries are powered by solar energy. A project that took him three years of effort.
The project recently took a new turn ahead of the launch in early October of a five-week “Tour de France” to raise awareness of the initiative.
100 kilometers per day
The “generator” of his vehicle, called “Nano”, consists of a set of solar panels fixed on a trailer called “Eve”. Thanks to it, Rémi manages to cover an average of 100 kilometers every day without consuming gasoline and therefore with a zero carbon footprint.
The use of solar energy allows him not only to recharge his batteries sufficiently to advance each day further in his journey but also to live independently inside the vehicle transformed into a motorhome during his stops. .
“Retrofit”, from thermal to electric
As he describes in the video of our Brut colleagues, Rémi applies here the concept of “retrofit” which consists of transforming a thermal vehicle into an electric one. A common practice in the United States and which is beginning to be emulated in France, where a legal framework has existed since March 2020.
Read also :
Electric Spirit: the electric car revolution
