An electrifying way to tour Ticino
If you arrive in Ticino by train and have a rental car waiting for you at the station - chances are it will be plugged into the nearest electrical socket.
Instead of kicking the tyres or making notes of any dents or scratches, your first step will be to open the boot of the “Easy Move” rental car, grab some cables and find out how to master the simple procedure for recharging the car battery.
“This plug can be used in any household electrical socket as long as the house has 16 amp voltage,” says Gianni Scagliola, owner of Easy Move.
“There are places all across Ticino where the battery can be recharged for free, and where the car can also be parked for free.”
There are 50 recharging stations in Ticino and the Easy Move vehicles can be hired at most railway stations by the hour or day. A day rental costs about SFr50 ($30) for holders of a rail pass, about half the price of a normal rental car in Switzerland.
No stick shift
And once the plug is pulled from the socket, driving off is child’s play. There is no stick shift or need to contend with a complicated panel of buttons and knobs.
With a turn of the ignition key, a green light indicates that the car is in forward gear. The press of a button puts it into reverse.
“It has all the comforts of a normal car – radio, airbags, ABS brakes, electric windows, heating – everything is the same,” Scagliola boasts.
Everything bar the sound of the engine. There isn’t any.
Scagliola has to reassure first time electric car drivers that they don’t have to wait for the engine to roar before driving away.
“I have to admit that it was a little bit hard getting used to at the beginning,” says Serena Chiesura. “But I was so surprised how much I began to like driving it. It’s so easy and comfortable and you become calmer behind the wheel.”
Plagued by smog
Chiesura represents the government-supported Association for Sustainable Mobility, which set up the Easy Move project together with the Ticino car hire company, Autonoleggio sud, and Swiss Federal Railways.
Easy Move is part of a larger project to promote electric and low-fuel consumption vehicles in a canton plagued by smog from car emissions. The association’s goal is to have a critical mass of 4,000 such vehicles on Ticino’s roads by 2005.
Chiesura has been involved in the project for a few months and during this time she has been commuting with an electric car the 20 kilometres between her home in Lugano and her office in Mendrisio.
“I think the experience has shown me that you have to change your attitude when you use an electric car,” she says. “You have to think about when to recharge and you have to plan your route so as not to have to make too many climbs.”
The Easy Move vehicles have a range of 80 kilometres on flat roads, and an empty battery requires a full six hours to recharge.
The good news is that hybrid cars, which can be switched from electric battery power to normal fuel, are being slowly introduced into the rental fleet.
The service offers travellers in Switzerland the combined benefits of train travel for longer stretches and individual transport for shorter distances.
“We have shown how people can choose an alternative without having to give up their freedom,” says Chiesura. “They just have to change their way of thinking.”
by Dale Bechtel
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