After leaving an hour later than scheduled due to coordinating so many different vehicles and people, we headed the 30 miles or so to the border. The road conditions were fine, and before long we were pulling up to the Mexican side of the border. Our passports were quickly stamped out of the country and it looked like it might be a quick crossing. The last thing we had to do on the Mexican side was to cancel our temporary vehicle importation permits, and upon trying to do this, we were told that we had to go back to Tapachula, with all the vehicles, and cancel the permits there. However, we were assured by the consulate in the US that we would be able to cancel the permits at the border. But no matter how many times we explained this, the border guards were not playing dice!

After a lot of back and forth, we finally established that we were allowed out of the country with the vehicles, but if either myself, Clemens or Chris (registered owners of the support vehicle, SRZero, and motorcycle respectively) came back into Mexico, we would be liable to a $500 fine which increases every 6 months. This was not an attractive option, and neither was the alternative of going back to Tapachula and delaying the whole day significantly. So, after a chat with the British Embassy who assured us they would help us sort the whole situation out, we decided to leave Mexico regardless, and continue into Guatemala!

On the Guatemalan side of the border, we were greeted by a large police 4×4 who were kindly going to escort us to Guatemala City. However, before we could leave, we had a mountain of bureaucracy to climb over, and with all our passports in hand, Clemens marched off to the customs house to spend the next 2 hours dealing with it.

Meanwhile, the car was attracting the most attention we had ever had; literally swarms of people were surrounding the car, so much so that you couldn’t even see the car anymore. Over the course of the next 2 hours, thousands of people must have come by to check out what was going on. However, we needed a way to communicate en masse what the car was and why we were here. Coincidentally, there was a small van parked up on the side of the road which had speakers mounted on its roof, and a microphone in the cabin. We went over to ask if we could borrow it, to which the driver promptly agreed! So there we were, a few minutes later, talking to hundreds of people over a loud speaker right on the border with Guatemala…it was really a fantastic and unique experience!

Finally, after conquering the Guatemalan paperwork, Clemens returned with all the passports and documents stamped, and we were free to carry on. Along with a police escort as well as several vehicles from the university, we climbed our way up the mountain and towards Guatemala City. Along the way we stopped for dinner at Central America’s largest restaurant. It was indeed massive, the food delicious, and we had a great time talking with our contacts from the university.

Time was pushing on however, and we still needed to cover a good 100km to get to the city whereby we would be parking and charging the car at the university. So we left the restaurant and proceeded, although progress was much slower than expected as the road was in an awful condition. It was so bad that the support van had to go in front of the SRZero and call out potholes for the trailing SRZero. In addition, it was raining very heavily, and visibility was very poor.

After hours of travelling at speeds barely averaging over 20km/h, we made it onto the smooth highway leading up to Guatemala City, and what a difference! The road easily rivalled anything we have in Europe or the US, and it was a real pleasure to drive on. With progress speeding up, we quickly made it to the university and parked the car up under a massive marquee where we would be addressing an audience of students and journalists the next day.

With this complete, we were able to drive over to the hotel which the university had very kindly booked and paid for. We were expecting a small B&B or something, but it turned out to be an incredibly luxurious 5* hotel. How we could possibly deserve such treatment is still a mystery to me, but we happily sunk into our king size beds and slept the few hours we had at our disposal before the event the following morning!

At the wind farm we had a few delegates from the local media turn up, but by far the most interesting event of the day, and certainly a highlight of the trip so far, was the opportunity to climb to the top of their biggest wind turbine; a 2MW beast! As the rest of the team were still back at the hotel they were unfortunately unable to climb it, so only myself, Andy, Claudio and Cynthia experienced this absolute wonder!

I was pleasantly surprised to see how much the company cared about our safety as we climbed the turbine’s mast as we were equipped with protective suits and a harness which was at all times connected somewhere to stop us from falling. You can never really appreciate the height of a wind turbine until you climb the vertical ladder up towards the hub. The heat, humidity, and the fact that we were wearing the boiler suit on top of our normal clothes made for an extremely hot and sweaty experience, but at the top, it was so worth it!

Stepping out onto the top of the wind turbine on a small platform directly behind the blades was an unforgettable experience, and truly allows one to fathom the extreme size of these machines. The turbine’s blades, each larger than a wing of a jumbo jet, stretched away from us, and the strong breeze added an extra element of excitement! The view was incredible with the jungle stretching out around the base of the turbine, and vista of hundreds of other turbines popping out of the tree canopy. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience, and completely unforgettable!

But with the afternoon marching on, we had to get moving in order to get to our last destination in Mexico; Tapachula on the border of Guatemala. So we went to pick up the rest of the boys from the hotel, came back to the wind farm, unplugged the car, and got onto the road once more. We did still have a few daylight hours of driving ahead of us, but unfortunately we were forced to drive into the night again. Aside from a dinner of roadside tacos and anti-malaria pills, we didn’t stop until we reached the out skirts of Tapachula where we were to meet an incredibly helpful bunch of people from a university in Guatemala City who were hosting us when we entered Guatemala. They had organised our hotel here in Tapachula, as well as a method of charging our car.

Upon arriving at the designated meeting point, they weren’t there. We waited for a bit, but given that we were in what looked like a slightly dodgy neighbourhood, we decided it was best to call a taxi and ask him to lead the way to our hotel. This was promptly done, and before long we were in the parking lot of a very nice looking Holiday Inn. As a side note, we have stayed at quite a few Holiday Inns over the course of the trip, with the most recent one being in Oaxaca. In the US, they tend to be clean and of good value, and they have always been willing to help us with our bizarre electricity requests, but in Mexico, the hotels have been exquisite and more like a 4 or 5 star hotel than anything else, and still for a great value!

Anyway, back to Tapachula; the last thing we needed to do today before we could go to sleep was, as usual, put the car on charge. We had done our research before, and there was no way we would be able to charge up enough in time off normal mains electricity in any of the hotels in Tapachula. So, with the help of our Guatemalan friends, we organised for the use of a mobile generator. Certainly not the greenest way of powering the car, but it was a brand new device, and far more efficient than a car-based combustion engine. Given the SRZero’s super high efficiency, our carbon emissions for this charge would still be substantially less than a similar journey done by a normal car.

Nonetheless, we are keen to avoid using generators wherever possible, and if anything, the experience serves to highlight the fact that the electricity infrastructure still has some way to go before modestly fast charging of electric vehicles can become a reality everywhere.

As usual, we split up in order to make best use of everybody. Toby, Nik and I went out into the city to try and find other places to charge the car, while Clemens and Andy stayed back at the hotel with Sergio to work on logistics and to plan in some press for later today and tomorrow. A few hours later though, we had still not found a suitable charging place, and we came back to the hotel with one more option up our sleeves; this was to call the local electricity company, and to see if they could help.

Sergio made the call, and within an hour, representatives of the electricity provider were at the hotel and were keen to help. “No problem,” they said, “You can charge the car at our office.” So we jumped in the SRZero, and followed them to their “office”. I say “office” because, while there was an administration building, the site was dominated by a large substation dealing in 30,000 volts rather than the meagre 220 volts which we required! They asked for us to park the car next to the substation, and then they promptly laid a cable which went to our chargers directly from the substation! Here we had a 30,000 volt supply being transformed in 220 volts by a large transformer; essentially what your mobile phone charger does, but on a much bigger scale. The great thing was that we had access to all the power we would ever need, and the car started charging fast! Our calculations were that by 6.30pm we would have enough juice to get to our next destination.

While we were charging the car, we held a large impromptu press event with local, national and international media turning up. This was yet another fantastic occasion to get the project’s message out there, and a number of very pertinent questions were asked demonstrating that the Mexican media was very much on the ball when it comes to electric cars!

After the press event, we still had a few hours to spare so we headed back to the hotel, picked up the rest of the team, and along with Sergio went out into town to try and find some food. As I mentioned earlier, Oaxaca is renowned for its cuisine, so we were keen to find a small traditional place in this beautiful city. A short walk around took as to a small restaurant about 5 minutes from our hotel, and one look at the menu showed that we were eating some real local delicacies! Among the dishes we ordered, we had fried grasshoppers, sunflowers stuffed with cheese, and chicken in a whole variety of local sauces; it was undeniably delicious!

By now, it was rapidly approaching 6.30pm, so we left the restaurant, collected the support van and Claudio from the hotel, and headed back to the substation. Again there was media there to see us off, and by around 7pm we pulled out of the substation to start our belated journey to La Ventosa about 180 miles away. Unfortunately, due to the charging delay, we were driving at night which is not great for the view, for filming, or for safety in general. Nonetheless, we had no choice, and we pushed on. The drive was actually very exciting, with lots of twists and turns as the road made its way down and off Mexico’s high central plateaux. The weather, aside from a brief spell of very heavy rain, was great, but unfortunately the road condition in many places was not the finest, and we ended up taking quite a bit more time than predicted to get to our destination.

Finally though, at 4am, we pulled into our hotel in Juchitan de Zaragoza, a town about 10km from La Ventosa which is where the car was to be charged. You may be wondering why we would bother having the car charge a massive 10km away from where we were staying. The answer is simple, for La Ventosa is not a town; it’s a massive wind farm, and we had been invited to charge directly off a wind turbine! So after unloading the bags and checking into the hotel, we drove the support van and SRZero over to the wind farm, getting hideously lost on the way, and pulled in at around 5.30am. Amazingly, many people had stayed over at the wind farm’s office to greet us, and with their help we had the car plugged into pure wind energy in very little time! This was a charging first for the team, and it was great to see the car being powered off clean electricity that we could actually see being produced.

As you would imagine, we were now thoroughly exhausted, so we rushed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. The consensus among the team at this stage was that we really needed to get out of the habit of driving so late into the night, for our own sanity if not anything else!

As planned, we left at exactly 7am and started the 292 mile journey south to Oaxaca, the culinary capital of Mexico apparently. It is also highly praised for its beautiful town centre and traditional architecture, so we were glad that the early start would afford us a daylight viewing of the attractions. Unexpectedly, we made it out of MC very quickly as we must of been before the rush hour, and we were soon heading south on the Pan-American Highway; the first time we were on the official route since Canada (as the US has no official Pan-Am designation, and we were advised against this road in the northern section of Mexico.)

Despite the cold and foggy weather on the high mountain roads we were travelling on, we were making fantastic progress, and the car was driving superbly. Quite suddenly, the fog dissipated and the sun illuminated the countryside through which we were driving. What we saw around us was a different landscape to anything we had seen on the trip so far. We passed through fields of giant cacti, and across bridges spanning deep gorges. The road twisted and turned up steep mountains, reaching a height of over 3,000m, and driving so close to such a shear drop was exhilarating. In the distance, vast mountains covered in lush sub-tropic vegetation provided their peaks for our horizon, and the smooth tarmac road stretched ahead. The dramatic scenery provided some fantastic shots for the documentary filming, and even after spending a lot of time doing this, we were still early when we came to a halt around 5km out from our hotel in Oaxaca. The time was 4pm.

You may, at this point, wonder why a) we came to a halt, and b) why I mention the time. Well, the answer to the first point is as follows: All the cars around us had stopped, and people were walking out of their cars, and some cars were turning back round from the way they had come. The reason for this quickly became clear as we saw 4 buses blocking the road ahead in a deliberate road blockade. Our first thought was that we had inadvertently driven into a drug cartel shootout where roads are frequently blocked. We had been advised that this may happen, and that if it should, we should just remain put until everything is broken up.

However, upon further investigation, we found out the reason for the blockade. The city’s bus drivers had decided that they should charge 7 pesos (35 pence) per bus journey, but the public had rejected that and said they wanted to keep the 4 peso (20 pence) tariff. So, to assure the public that the bus drivers were not going to accept anything less, they decided to blockade all the roads into the city. We waited for half an hour before realising that we weren’t going to go anywhere unless we made something happen.

So, with his best Spanish at hand, Toby got out of the car and went forward to the blockade to see what he could wangle. After a quick discussion with the local leader, and upon him seeing the SRZero, Toby managed to persuade him to let us pass. This was fantastic news as we weren’t delayed for too long. We were ushered to the front of the queue, the passes parted just enough to let us through, and off we went into the clear road ahead.

Except, a few hundred metres on, it was blocked again in the exact same way. We repeated the procedure, and for the second time, we were allowed to pass without waiting too long. But upon driving a few hundred metres more and coming to a 3rd blockade, we begun wondering how many more there were to come. We tried the same tactic as before, but this time the bus drivers weren’t budging. Apparently no matter how sexy an electric car you showed them, they were still intent on getting their 7 pesos per bus fare!

We were getting stuck here for s long time, and at about 7pm it started raining hard. The clouds descended and the streets began flooding as the torrent commenced. And this is where peoples’ tempers started to fray. Some members of the public began shouting and screaming and jumping on somebody’s pickup, and what was a docile and patient crowd a few minutes earlier, turned into an angry mass of people who could become violent at any time. With us caught in the middle, and with the SRZero standing out like a sore thumb, we were a little vulnerable!

But the bus drivers did not want to get in a fight, and upon seeing an angry mob rapidly approaching them, they decided it prudent to get the buses out of the way as quickly as possible. And so we proceeded past 4 more road blocks; the rain was making things very difficult, visibility was poor, and the traffic was chaotic. One way systems and road works added to the misery, and after circumnavigating more road blocks that hadn’t heard about the break up yet, we finally reached the hotel at 9pm, tired, frustrated and angry that the last 5km had taken us 5 hours to drive! On top of this, we were hungry and tired and the whole evening had certainly out the team under strain. But we had made it to the hotel, and all we had to do now was get the car on charge, and then eat and relax. If only it had been that simple…

When booking the hotel, I made sure that they would have a place for us to charge up. There would be no problems they assured me, and upon arriving and telling them that the electric car was here, they ushered us to a covered garage where we could charge up. Toby and Nik took a look at the plugs they expected us to charge off, and they were much less than impressed. The wiring looked a little dangerous, and the plugs, despite being 3-pinned, were not actually grounded. As our chargers are cased in metal, the plugs we plug them into have to be grounded in order to stop people from electrocuting themselves. But there were no ground wires, so what were we to do?

In typical RGE fashion, we just decided to rewire their wiring system, and we wired a ground into the plugs we were using. A ground test showed that our plan had worked, and so we plugged in and cranked up the juice. For a few happy seconds, it looked like everything was fine and the car wad charging normally. However, the happiness soon ended as all the lights suddenly went out and the chargers turned off. Despite the circuit breaker saying it was amply rated, it had tripped nonetheless, and we were now without power. Normally, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem as you would simply go over to the circuit breaker, reset it, and use the chargers at a lower power. Easy, right?

Wrong. It turned out that the circuit breaker was in a locked room, and that it wouldn’t be opened until 9am the next day. This was seriously annoying as it meant that we would not be able to charge overnight. We had to find another place to charge, and fortunately, the hotel owned another garage directly across the street which they offered us to use. Unfortunately, we could only charge off a quarter of the power we would have been able to charge off, and this would mean that we would not be charged for our leg the following day. But by now it was 1am and we had no other choice, so we plugged it into the limited power supply, and we headed off to bed. We would leave the problem of fast charging the car to the next day when we would all be in a much better state to get the car charged!

It was a very mixed and long day, with fantastic weather and beautiful scenery for a few hours, but with the second half of the day providing a frustrating but very interesting insight into an aspect of Latin American culture, namely if you want to raise bus prices, park your buses in the middle of the street and don’t let anyone into the city!

We needed to pick up the shock absorbers from the local Radical dealership today as we needed to leave for Acapulco on Sunday. But after making some calls, it appeared that the components had been shipped to a race track in Mexico City rather than the Radical dealership, and as there was no one there to receive it, the package had been returned to the depot. Despite our best efforts, we could not retrieve the goods on Saturday, and as everything was closed on Sunday, it looked like the earliest we could procure the components would be on Monday.

This was a setback as we very much needed to push on from MC on time if we were to meet our scheduled stops elsewhere in Mexico and in Guatemala. Nonetheless, I would be lying if I said that we weren’t a little pleased as MC had really begun to grow on the team, and we were keen to experience more of it. As such, Saturday afternoon was spent walking around the central area and taking in the beautiful buildings and atmosphere. Come evening though, it was time to check out a different type of nightlife, so we headed for the Condesa district where there are many restaurants, cafes and bars spilling out onto the street. Here we enjoyed a sumptuous dinner overlooking the street, followed by some dancing in one of the many bars. It was a tremendously fun evening!

Sunday dawned and we felt it was time to delve into a little bit of local culture. So with Tania as our guide (Tania being an old friend of Clemens’ who lives in MC) we travelled out of the city in the support van to Teotihuacan where the world’s 3rd largest pyramid was situated. On the way over there was much talk about racing up the pyramid and who would win. In typical boisterous fashion, everyone claimed they were the fastest, and it was not long before we would find out because as soon we rounded the corner, the full scale of the pyramid was revealed. The people standing on top and walking up it looked like mere ants in comparison, and the task of running up suddenly looked very daunting!

With common sense failing to prevail, Clemens, Andy and I began the race to the top. It was not particularly dramatic I have to say; after about 15m of vertical assent all of our legs gave up, and we could merely walk up. The altitude (2,500m ASL) combined with the steepness of the pyramid completely demolished us, but it was Clemens who made it to the top first, followed by Andy and then myself. I can’t speak for the others, but that was probably the closest I have ever had to a heart attack…it was brutal!!

After having a look around and admiring the quite stunning scenery, the attraction was beginning to close, so we climbed the long way back down. There is little point in me trying to describe the scenes atop the pyramid; suffice to say that it’s definitely one of those things that has to be done in life if at all possible. Please take a look at the pics to see what I mean!

From the pyramids (there were more than just the one we climbed) we drove back into MC amid the most powerful rainstorm I had ever encountered. In comparison, the heavy rain we had driven through back at the beginning of the trip near Fairbanks seemed to pale into insignificance. The rain was so heavy that the road could no longer drain the water fast enough, and before long, the entire road was a gushing river over 30cm deep in places. It was a sobering reminder of what was still to face the SRZero as up until now, we had had very little in the way of rain. How would an open top car running off 600 volts fair in such an onslaught? Time would certainly tell…

Back in MC, the whole crew, that being RGE, Tania, Claudio and Jonathan from Von Planta Productions, Chris, Cynthia (the two bikers), and Jessica from KPMG, decided to go out for what we thought would be our final meal in this amazing city. So we went to the Gran Hotel de la Cuidad de Mexico for what we thought would be an delicious dining experience. While the old colonial-styled hotel was undoubtedly beautiful, and in an enviable location with fantastic views, the food was a disappointment. Regular readers of this blog may have become tired with my constant food praising, but that is only because the food has always been so tasty! On this occasion, the food was cold, the main courses came before the starter, the bread was stale…it was not the greatest meal to complete our stay in what has definitely been my favourite city so far! Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable occasion, and we went back to the hotel looking forward to receiving our replacement parts the next day, but also regretting the fact that we were not able to stay longer.

After getting up early the following morning, Nik was quickly on the phone with Radical and UPS in order to try and get hold of our spare components. However, due to a computer malfunction on UPS’s behalf, the parts where shipped back to the same incorrect address as before, and so we still didn’t have the components! In fact, while we were trying to locate them, they were circling the city in one of the UPS vans, and wouldn’t be back at the depot until 7pm. If we were unable to get these components today (on Monday), we would be unable to leave on Tuesday, and that would forever alter our schedule and would mean we could kiss goodbye to our fantastic plans for Guatemala and beyond.

Amazingly, over the next few hours, Tomás, head of Radical’s Mexican division, managed to track down the UPS driver, and got him to deliver all the components to the proper address. As soon as we had confirmation of this, Toby and Nik headed off to collect the components and service the car with them. Before long, the car had its brand new shock absorbers installed, and it was ready to tackle the rest of the Pan American Highway!

However, the 2 day delay meant that we had to change our route significantly to remain on time. As such, Clemens and the rest of us worked out how best to do this while Nik and Toby were fixing the car. With a new route planned, which unfortunately meant missing out on Acapulco and taking a more direct route down the original Pan-American Highway, we went to bed with a very early start scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Despite being delayed, MC was a fantastic experience, and the general sentiment among the team is that we very much want to return!

And this is where KPMG really stepped up their game in the first of many times to come later this day. They were so determined to have us there as scheduled, that they sent a taxi all the way out to meet us at the petrol station, wait for us, and then guide us in! It was a fantastic idea, and when we were ready to leave at 2.30am, the taxi driver was waiting for us and ready to go.

Very shortly after setting off, we entered some of our worst weather yet; dense fog and heavy rain combined with complete darkness aside from the headlights of the huge trucks bearing down all around us. But the taxi driver kept close, and with his hazard lights on, guided us into the third largest city in the world. And wow, did we need the guidance! The road twisted and turned under and over other roads, and the intricacies of the one-way system were thankfully avoided as the experienced taxi driver plucked a direct route through the maze with the incredible dexterity of a seasoned professional.

As the fog and rain lifted, a hint of the full scale of the city could be observed; lights of houses and streets stretched until the far distance where the black outline of the mountains could be seen. It’s difficult to convey the shear size of what lay before us; perhaps the daylight pictures included in the Photos section of the website will help demonstrate the magnitude of this city which is home to over 22 million individuals!

After around half an hour of city driving, KPMG’s skyscraper loomed in the distance, and shortly after, we were there! The time was 4.30am, just 3 and a half hours before we were supposed to be there, but nonetheless we had made it despite huge setbacks. The team was ecstatic, you only have to take a look at Claudio’s video of the escapade to see the relief on our faces! Yes we were tired; we had pushed ourselves beyond the point of exhaustion, but that didn’t matter anymore…this was a major milestone for the project which cannot be understated, and can only be contributed to the teams’s extreme dedication and stamina combined with the support of our numerous sponsors!

Upon arriving at KPMG’s Mexican HQ, we met with a whole bunch of staff who had eagerly waited for us to arrive despite the late hour…it was touching to find so many people who had given up their evening and precious sleep to greet this strange foreign convoy! But it was only a hint of what was to come tomorrow…

After greeting everybody, the priority was to get the car into the building and then try and catch a few moments of golden sleep. KPMG also had the generosity to organise and pay for a great hotel just 10 minutes away so that we could quickly get back to the office for the event which was due to start at 8am. And so it was a relieved team RGE that headed to the hotel and crashed for just 2 hours of sleep.

Before we knew it, all our alarm clocks simultaneously awoke us from our slumber, and where we normally have a period of snooze-button-pressing to ease us into the the land of the living, on this occasion we bounced out of bed as today promised to be very interesting indeed!

A quick taxi ride brought us back to the KPMG offices where we were mere hours before, but this time we were looking slightly more presentable in our smart shoes and RGE shirts and jackets. On the steps of the office, Rosia from KPMG warmly greeted us and took us in to meet Claudia, Jessica and Monica; the whole crew who had orchestrated today’s events and every other interaction of our involvement with KPMG while we were in MC. What a great bunch of ladies! I will thank them again later in these blogs, but I should say right now how helpful and friendly they have been, and what a great time they have given us!

Anyway, in true mothering instinct, Rosia instantly spotted the hungry boys within us, and quickly ushered us up to the 17th floor to a private dining room which was already laid with a sumptuous breakfast of empadillas and fruit. A waiter was dispatched to organise some coffee, and we began the process of reenergising ourselves! Here we were joined by several of the company’s partners who were due to spend the day with us, and we spent a happy hour acquainting ourselves with the personal and the day’s schedule which looked rigorous but very rewarding.

Before going down to greet the media, Rosia showed us the 17th floor roof terrace where we had a view of the entire city. Our observation of the city last night proved to be a real understatement of how gigantic this city really is. MC is located on what used to be a giant lake, and as such rests in a depression surrounded by a ring of mountains, some of which are volcanoes. And within this ring of mountains, the city fills every single nook and cranny; occasionally a patch of greenery could be spotted amidst the concrete jungle, but in all other respects, man’s influence dominated as far as the eye could see; truly an epic vista!

The time for preliminaries was now over however, and it was time to go down to the events room where the car was parked and where the country’s press was currently assembled. We were lead into the room and introduced by a voice over a microphone, and before we knew it, action music started blaring out from the speakers, a video of the project started playing on one of the 8 screens dotted around the room, spotlights trained on us as we walked in, and everybody started clapping and snapping away on their cameras! A world famous rock star could not have hoped for a more exciting, genuine and charged reception! In all honesty, we were blown away. The room was jam-packed with press, and over the coming hour there was a queue of people lining up to take photos with the team and the car. It was incredible!

Next up were the speeches where Guillermo, Jorge, Jésus and Albrecht, senior partners at KPMG expunged the qualities of KPMG and why they have decided to align themselves with our project and other responsible initiatives. Clemens and I were then invited to give off-the-cuff addresses of how the project started and some of our experiences of the trip so far. We were very well received by the audience, with Clemens winning them over with his glowing enthusiasm. A number of very pertinent questions followed, after which we were back at the car for more photos.

This was a huge amount to fit in in just a morning, but as soon as the last of the press and KPMG employees who were invited to meet the team and see the car had left, we were due up on the 17th floor again for some lunch. On this occasion, we were invited into the partners dining room; an expansive room with an unparalleled view across the city. Here we were invited to delegates from the British Embassy as well as soon students from a local university who were also building an electric car. We enjoyed a sumptuous lunch with them as well as the senior partners, and it was a shame that we had to call it short at 3.30pm and return downstairs for a repeat of this morning’s session, but instead of press, we were joined by a select group of KPMG’s clients. Again, it was a very enjoyable event, and time raced ahead until 6.30pm when the last of the attendees had left.

Phew….what a day!

But it wasn’t over yet! After a quick nap back at the hotel, we were ready to see what Mexican nightlife had to offer. You may think that we are a bunch of absolute lunatics for going out after 2 days of extremely limited sleep, but we couldn’t let a Friday night in MC go to waste! So at 10pm, Jessica picked us up and took us out to a genuine style Mexican restaurant in the centre along with some other KPMG employees that have been involved with the project. The food and atmosphere was absolutely fantastic, and it was topped off by a surprise belated celebration of Andy’s birthday where he got his face smeared in some sort of black paste and then face planted into his cake. Apparently that’s what you do here.

In true Latin style, we finished dinner at around 1am and then decided to head over to the city’s most well known club; El Classico. In the US, you wouldn’t even bother going out at this time because everything would be closed, but here, things were only just getting started! The rest of the night was spent dancing away in a very spirited fashion, and it was not until much later that morning did any one of us find our way to bed. Truly an epic way to begin our stay in Mexico City!

Once again, on behalf of the team, I would like to thank the whole KPMG crew for making our stay so enjoyable and for such a popular and well organised event!

Anyway, it was 10am when we realised this, and the car was not sufficiently charged for the journey into Mexico City. In fact, if we left it to charge fully, we would have no chance of getting there on time to meet our contact, Elia, an Imperial College Alumni, who had kindly offered to guide us through the city’s maze of streets and to the KPMG offices downtown.

So we decided on an interim solution; we would allow the car to charge up until 3pm which should, in theory, give us juuuuust enough juice to get to Mexico City, and it would also, in theory again, get us to Elia in time. We set off through San Luis to try and find our way out, all the time trying to avoid the hideous condition of some of the roads. Finally we got through the city’s maze of streets and onto the highway south. In order to reduce energy usage, we had only Nik driving the SRZero rather than having the additional weight or drag of a passenger…this is how close we were!

The drive south was again, beautiful, but our minds were more occupied on the very limited charge we had, the 2 damaged shock absorbers on the rear, and the ominous black clouds that accompanied the nightfall. In addition to this, the traffic heading for Mexico City was absolutely suicidal; huge 26 wheeled trucks were bearing down at us from all sides, overtaking in any space available even if that would mean breaking the speed limit or driving on the hard shoulder. But our driving skills, honed in the SRZero over the last month and a half, served us well and we navigated our way safely down the highway.

Imagine, if you can, the scene we were in; the rain began coming down in torrents, and the regular radio updates from Nik in the car seemed to indicate that we would not have enough energy to get into Mexico City given the stop/start nature of the traffic, and the water on the road which increases our coefficient of rolling resistance. We had to do something immediately to fix the situation, and so we decided to pull into a big petrol station and do an intermediate charge.

Upon pulling up into the petrol station, we got the usual stares and thumbsups from the locals, but the shop owner was rather surprised to hear that we wanted to traipse cables through her shop to a couple of sockets. Nonetheless, she was happy to help, and soon we had the chargers humming away and the car happily slurping up some juice.

Now we had a few hours to kill, and fortunately the shop was very well equipped with a sumptuous deli making some of the best sandwiches ever, Internet, and a wide range of drinks. As such, we were very well catered for as we waited for the car to charge up. We ate, drank, and did some work, including blog updates and website maintenance. No sleep was on the agenda though, and day 45 of this adventure ended with RGE, Claudio, Jonathan, Chris and Cynthia sitting in the petrol station each on our respective computers. Certainly not where we had planned to end up at this time, but with Mexico City just 70 miles away, we were confident we could make it to KPMG in time in early hours of the following morning!

This is where we got our first taste of daytime Latin American city driving; it is, in a word, insane! Traffic lights seem to be more for decoration than anything else, pedestrians cross anywhere and everywhere, and the general rule seems to be that if there’s tarmac, you can drive on it regardless of traffic direction. It certainly takes any form of monotony out of driving!

Before long we arrived at the workshop whereby the mechanic did a fantastic job at repairing the damaged component. Unlike the previous fix, the piston shaft of the shock absorber was made straight rather than crooked; it was great workmanship! Meanwhile, while at the workshop, we met a super friendly accountant who insisted on taking us to a great place for lunch. A quick speed through Saltillo got us to a really authentic looking taco joint with a tree growing through a hole in the roof; great for shading the restaurant and it means you don’t have to water the tree…smart engineering!

The tacos and quesadillas were fantastic, as you may expect from a nice local joint! With bellies full and shock absorber fixed, the morning’s tasks were completed successfully, and we headed straight back to the hotel. Within 10 minutes, the fixed shock absorber was reinserted into the car, and because we were now paranoid about the suspension, we gave all the nuts and bolts another check over, despite having done the same thing the night before…better safe than sorry!

By 1.30pm, the van was packed and ready to go. However, Claudio had just received a call from Chris Sorbi saying that he would be there before 2pm and that we should wait for him. Now, Chris is a new addition to the growing RGE family and the way he joined the project is an amazing one. As you may remember, 9 days earlier, Rick had decided to leave the trip, and we were now short of an accompanying biker from which Claudio could shoot some moving shots. However, after sending out a Twitter message asking if there was anyone out there up for joining the trip all the way down to Argentina, he immediately got a response from Chris. Chris and his girlfriend, Cynthia, were in Montana at the time, and in the process of driving around the world by motorbike in order to raise awareness and funds for chronic malnutrition and hunger. His website can be seen here. Anyway, Chris and Cynthia (C&C from now on) bombed it all the way down from Montana to Saltillo in just 3.5 days…an incredible feet of endurance!

C&C arrived bang on time, we gave them a hearty welcome and got very quickly acquainted before heading off to San Luis Potosi 290 miles away. Aside from getting heavily rained upon, the only other noteworthy aspect of the journey was the range of the SRZero…based on the state of charge, our total range was beginning to exceed 350 miles despite travelling at 65 mph. The reason for this is the change in air density as we climbed higher and higher into Mexico’s mountainous central region. And so it was after driving very quickly that we arrived in San Luis Potosi with over 20% left in the tank…no range anxiety here!

The road was nice and smooth up until San Luis, and until entering the city we hadn’t been giving much thought to the 2 damaged shock absorbers in the rear. But getting off the toll road brought with it the most horrendous rods conditions; huge potholes, bumps and cracks where everywhere and sometimes compounded by the fact that some of the roads we cobblestone. The SRZero had never taken such a beating in her life, but everything held together perfectly!

And so, after getting lost in the centre trying to find the hotel, and also being surrounded by a bunch of incredulous kids (really great experience by the way!) we found our way to the Real Plaza Hotel. Here we were promised a secure garage with an electricity supply. However, upon going to the garage with the SRZero, two things became immediately obvious; first of all the garage was full, and secondly it looked very difficult to actually get the car down the ramp. After trying a few various methods, the hotel suggested another garage they owned just round the corner.

After relocating, we quickly had the car on charge and we were ready to find some food. We found a delightful little Italian restaurant a few blocks away from the hotel, and we celebrated a successful day on the cusp of a major milestone; Mexico City!

So, as planned we turned up at the border early, being the first 2 cars of the day to cross into Mexico. Before we could pass through though, we had to get our Carnet signed. This document is vital to the continued progress of the trip, and it basically shows the Canadian and US authorities that we have taken out of the country all the components we have brought in. The border guard on the US side told us to pass through the border, park up, and go into the US Customs office to get it signed. If only it were this simple…

In order to get into the customs office, we had to pass back into the US, and despite having been in the country mere minutes before, we had to wait for over an hour before we were let back in. And on the other side, we were told that we had to go to an altogether different border crossing in order to sign the Carnet…frustration!

Finding the other border about a mile away was easy enough, but it proved very difficult to find our way to the mysterious hut where we were to get the Carnet signed. However, after half an hour of getting incorrect directions after incorrect directions, we finally found a small building where they would sign it. Clemens disappeared inside and emerged over an hour later with a signed Carnet! Apparently it had taken a great deal of persuading to convince the US authorities that we weren’t doing anything illegal, but finally all the bureaucracy on the US side was over, and we were quickly ushered through the border and into no-mans land!

No-mans land consisted of a bridge crossing the turbulent Rio Grande, and half way across a plaque demarked the official border between the two countries. With the SRZero leading the way, RGE crossed into Mexico! Beyond the bridge lay the Mexican border post, and contrary to what we were expecting, passing through was a very laid back affair. For starters, no one seemed very interested in seeing our passports, and we didn’t even have to take them out! The border guards, who were all ladies, were more interested in hearing about our project and showing us their very friendly Labrador sniffer dog, which I have to confess was the most fun I have ever had at a border!

But now we were officially in Mexico and we had to have all eyes on the look out. Some of the stories we had heard in this region were truly shocking, and we were keen to drive the 280 miles down to Saltillo as quickly as possible, thereby limiting the time spent in the region. It became clear very quickly that there were some people who wanted to keep us here for a little longer if possible…

As soon as we were out of the border post, a car started chasing us. Weaving in and out of the traffic, they quickly caught up and overtook us before slowing down and trying to force us to the side of the road. This was a fairly harrowing experience until we read a sticker on their car; it appeared that they were in fact from a TV channel, and not part of dome criminal gang intent on nicking our shiny electric car! We slowed down and went into a lay-by whereby they jumped out of the car and explained how excited they were to see the car, and if they could have an interview. What a welcome to Mexico!

But we had clearly attracted some attention outside of the media, and seconds after stopping 3 police cars screeched to a halt. After checking our documents, which they were satisfied were in order, they allowed us to proceed with the interview while looking on with keen interest. With the interview over, we continued southwards, accompanied by a policeman in his car who took it upon himself to stop the traffic at red lights and wave us through…this was VIP treatment at its finest!

However, the policeman soon left, and we found ourselves alone on the deserted highway. But not for long, as over the next hour or so we got stopped 3 more times by more police! They were more curious than anything else, and in common with our previous run ins with the law, we were treated professionally and certainly very friendlily.

We still had one thing left to do before we could legally drive further than 150km from the border, and this was to get a temporary vehicle permit for the support van. We were advised we could do this at kilometre post 53 on highway 57, and so with the day’s previous delays behind us, we sped there post haste.

We found the building with ease, but upon entering we were blasted with an onslaught of pointless paperwork, photocopying, showing of passports, and getting pieces of paper stamped. We spent 2 hours going from desk to desk and person to person, despite doing the same process for the SRZero a few days earlier in Austin where it only took around 5 minutes! We finally got the blue slip we were after, and we were free to continue our journey after a very frustrating time. By now we were praying for no more delays as we were keen to get to Saltillo before nightfall.

The scenery turned from dusty wasteland into the most incredible vista imaginable. Low level shrubs spread out around us in a vast plain, with tall mountains in the distance. No human influence except the road could be seen for quite some time until we came to a small town where we stopped for a delicious authentic Mexican meal. The proprietor was very impressed with the car and what we are trying to achieve with the project, and he gave us a lot of really helpful tips and advice. However, dark clouds were rolling off the mountains, and we were advised that if we wanted to miss the rain, we better get moving…and so we did!

After just a few more miles, we were confronted by our first major physical challenge. Due to Hurricane Alex which had passed through a few weeks ago causing immense damage to the local infrastructure, the main highway was in a state of major disrepair. One side of the road was completely closed, and the other side of the road was being used to take both traffic directions. Upon pulling up at the diversion, we were told by a warden that there was no way we would be able to cross the next few miles with the SRZero. With this advice and the fact that we had a highly bodged shock absorber on our rear left suspension, we turned off the road into a petrol station to have a look at our options.

Looking at the map, if we went back up the highway for a few miles, there was a road which went round the damaged area we were warned about, but it would make the route many miles longer, and this is something we didn’t want to risk given the fact that we were already doing a long leg. So we decided to ask a few locals, and as usual, we got a 50:50 response; 2 reckoned we could just about make it, while 2 others were firmly in agreement that we would not be able to pass.

While we didn’t doubt that the road ahead would be in bad shape, we also had the memory of the SRZero taking on some pretty horrific roads in Alaska and Canada, and on all them it had survived admirably. So we decided to risk it, and a few minutes later we were at the traffic warden who had initially warned us about the road. He shook his head in what may have been a sign of disbelief, and he waved us through.

A few hundred meters on, the road did indeed get bad! Potholes and cracks in the road abounded, and it was only with Toby’s skilful driving that he managed to navigate around these obstacles in the SRZero. Upon crossing a bridge, or what remained of it, we could see the full extent of the hurricane’s damage. The other side of the bridge had completely collapsed, and the fields all around were waterlogged with many trees completely flattened or uprooted. But despite the warnings, the SRZero made it through without grounding out, and we emerged a few miles later onto the tollroad’s silky smooth surface. In fact, during the whole day, this was the only region of bad road; the rest was very good and on many occasions rivalling what we have in Europe and the US.

We were quickly into the Mexican wilderness again, with a long road cutting through the scrublands and weaving its way through the mountains. It was some of the most beautiful scenery we had yet come across, and was entirely different to what we were expecting. The team was in high spirits as the car effortlessly glided down the smooth road to Saltillo as the sun began to inch towards the horizon. But out in the middle of nowhere, disaster struck again…

It was the right hand shock absorber this time, and it had failed in the exact same place as it had done 2 days before. It completely underlined the team’s theory of it being caused by a fatigue failure rather than a single overloading, as both components had failed at almost the exact same mileage. But unlike the first failure back in the US, upon inspecting the damaged suspension it had become clear that the spring and spring cap (used to compress the spring against the top of the damper) had exited the vehicle. While we did have a spare spring, we did not have a spare spring cap, and so we were faced with multiple problems.

With the light slowly fading, we decided on a course of action. We would use the remaining light left in the day to scour the roadside for the spring and cap, after which we would split, with some of us staying with the car, and the rest racing into town in the support vehicle to try and find a solution to the broken shock absorber (please note that the terms “damper” and “shock absorber” can be used interchangeably).

We each ploughed our own path through the roadside scrubland, sweeping our eyes across the ground for any sign of the black spring and cap. Apparently this was also a prime spot to find some snakes, so we were on the look out for them too, albeit for a different reason! After around half an hour of searching, eagle-eyed Andy spotted the spring in some deep grass a hundred metres back from where we stopped the car, and a little later Nik spotted the spring cap too…another disaster averted!

As planned, we split up with myself, Andy and Jonathan (our second cameraman) staying with the car, and the rest heading into Saltillo around 40km away. We took the opportunity to go a few metres off the road, which is much safer than standing on the roadside, where we found a comfortable patch of ground to sit on. Jonathan whipped out his emergency pack of sweets, which we happily feasted upon while the local mosquitos and fire ants quietly took similar pleasure on our legs and arms. They were merciless, and we all had the proof the following morning as our legs and arms swelled with huge insect bites….dammit!

Anyway, we did our best to amuse ourselves while waiting for the others. This included trying out some long exposure shots on the camera, writing blogs, and doing some general filming. Once we had exhausted these activities, we got chatting about all manner of things while the din of grasshoppers and other animals of the night increased around us. It was actually quite a fun experience; certainly one of a kind! It is doubtful however, if any of us would want to repeat it again!

Meanwhile, Clemens, Toby, Nik and Claudio had made it to Saltillo. As expected, 9pm was not the greatest of times to get a broken shock absorber fixed, but we needed to get the car into Saltillo somehow. And this, my friends, is where we did something we never wanted to do. We had always planned to drive every millimetre from Alaska down to Argentina, and even on the 2 occasions where we tow-charged, we still always towed back to the same place we started from before continuing our journey. But at this point, we had run out of options. We could not leave the car out on the road overnight, and we had only 2 days to make it to Mexico City in order to be in time for our press day with KPMG on Friday at 8am. So we called a tow truck and led him back to the car…double dammit!

The tow truck arrived along with the support vehicle, and we quickly had the crippled SRZero loaded up onto its back. I should point out that despite the right side failing catastrophically (engineering term for failing very quickly) the left side which had been fixed 2 days earlier was holding up very well; a further indication of fatigue failure.

With the car safely strapped down, we proceeded towards Saltillo and our hotel on its northern edge. After around 40 minutes, we arrived at the hotel, paid the tow truck driver, and set the car up to charge. After all this, it was 2am before we got to bed, and even before our heads had hit the pillow, we slipped into a delightful unconsciousness.

The important thing was that we had made it through the violent region in Mexico’s northern provinces, and despite everyones’ warnings, we had only been met with kind and friendly people.

What a day!