London to Bright EV Rally: “Electric vehicles ready to take over”
Ahead of the London to Brighton EV Rally this weekend, we invited co-founder Bill Murray and Tom Druitt onto the Everything EV podcast to talk about the event.
On Sunday 18th July, a swarm of electric vehicles of all shapes and sizes will be setting off from the bank of the River Thames on a 59-mile journey south to Brighton, all with the aim of celebrating electric vehicles.
The event has been months in the planning, and even with Covid restrictions still in place, the Rally will be taking part with around 60 cars expected to make the journey, which will also include prizes for the vehicles with the lowest energy consumption in all classes.
The men behind the event are Bill Murray and Tom Druitt, who is also the chief executive of The Big Lemon, a sustainable transport firm that launched the UK’s first solar-powered electric bus back in 2017.
As well as celebrating all sorts of electric vehicles, the event will also aim to represent the growing popularity of EVs.
“The last couple of years we’ve seen the popularity just completely balloon,” said Druitt when asked what the event says about the wider EV community. “Everyone is talking about them now. It’s only a matter of time before diesel and petrol technology becomes such a dinosaur technology that in a couple of years’ time we’ll all be wondering how on earth it lasted that long.”
Murray added: “There’s this dark-art surrounding charging and some of things like that so hopefully we’ll dispel some of the myths about what it is to drive an electric vehicle. We’re quite happy that we’re forming a small cog of what is hopefully a huge wheel that turns on electric power.
One of the entrants for the Rally is TV personality Charley Boorman, who is best known for his extreme motorbiking journeys Long Way Round, Long Way Down, and Long Way Up.
Boorman will be taking part on his Harley Davidson LiveWire, one of the first fully electric vehicles produced by the motorcycle firm. Commenting on Boorman’s involvement with the Rally, Druitt believes this shows just how much the world of electric vehicles has grown.
He said: “I think it speaks volumes for how far the technology has come. Not so long ago, electric vehicles were ‘poo-pooed’ by petrol heads and the joke has gone the other way now. It’s obvious to anyone that the electric vehicles that are on offer now are now much more exciting than petrol and diesel vehicles. I think essentially that people are coming round to that, and this is where all the fun is right now.”
