Asbebokhar

 by Wiebe

Day 245 | More cars in Tehran

Day 245 | Monday November 14

With professor Afshar I went to the R&D department of Saipa. Saipa is Iran’s biggest car manufacturer. A representative came to the presentation yesterday and invited me to come over. They gave a presentation about the brand and their plans to produce their own electric car. The car will be an existing model which they would convert to electric. Some specs: 20 kWh battery, 150km range, topspeed 140 km/h. I was given a tour e around their facility which they call ERIC. They have areas were they simulate different environments, acceleration tests, quality control and more.

It was an interesting visit and great to see that there are companies who want to bring electric cars to Iranian customers.

In the afternoon I had a special meeting, I was invited by the deputy of the Iranian Minister of Environment. He heard about my visit to Iran and contacted me via via, interesting how things are arranged here. The meeting was at NRI (Niroo Research Institute). NRI has played a leading role in developing new technologies for the Electric Power Industry and is the major research organization affiliated to the Ministry of Energy of Iran. There were a lot of very interested professors, researchers and delegates who came to have a look at the car. Because I found out they are doing a lot of interesting things regarding to renewable energy I asked them if I could come back tomorrow for some interviews.

Than we headed back to the office and from there we went to the office of Autoworld, who published an article about me in their newspaper today. The owner wanted to meet me and we had some talks about the project. Every Iranian who I speak to wants to know how I experience the people in the country. Apparently they find it very important that the people here are friendly and welcoming, which is definitely so.

After the meeting the guys from Asbebokhar picked me up and they took me to the Milad towner. The world’s 4th biggest broadcasting tower. It’s 400 something meters tall and it has stores, restaurants and a museum. Unfortunately it was not possible to go to the top today as the level of pollution was to high. Instead we went to a pizza restaurant for dinner and after they brought me home.

Today was a crazy hectic day. Especially here in Tehran as the traffic is so busy and crazy and it exhausts me a lot. Im staying at Ali’s place at the moment who still takes care of me like a hero.

PICTURES

The professor explaining the technique of EV's
The deputy.
First time for him in an EV
View from around the Milad tower
Dinner with the Asbebokhar brothers
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 by Wiebe

Day 244 | A lot of cars in Tehran

Day 244 | Sunday November 13

One of the journalists who interviewed me yesterday was part of Asbebokhar, it’s a Youtube channel about cars in general and they wanted to meet me to make a movie about the car. I met them in a deserted part of the city were some buildings were destroyed. They had a big land rover and in this setting they wanted to show the differences between big polluting cars and electric cars. It were all young guys who published these videos on their youtube channel and are very active on social media. After the interview they invited me for lunch at a very fancy restaurant in the rich part of Tehran. I am really getting spoiled in Iran! The guys posted some photos about me on their Instagram account and within an hour I got 250+ new followers! So great. This is their account and also check out The Rick Kids of Tehran on Instagram. It’s a very interesting account about how young and rich people life in the city. It’s another world.

After lunch we drove to the office of BYD. It’s a Chinese electric car maker and they are planning to bring their EV to the Iranian market. They heard about my project and wanted to meet me. They explained that Taxi companies are interested in electric cars. Taxi’s drive about 200km a day and their car (the E6) can drive 400km. In the city are 5 million cars and of course this contributes a lot to the air pollution in the city, which is huge. I could testdrive the E6, it’s a big car and very heavy, 2.400kg but it’s silent and drives good. It also has a very flashy and futuristic display which looks like a Japanese pinball-machine.

Than I had to rush back to the city. The traffic here is very aggressive and dangerous sometimes. Drivers totally don’t care, they just go wherever they want without thinking about the cars around them and not even using their turning signals. Apparently there is just one rule here: fill in the gaps.

Professor Afshar invited me for dinner, I drove to the office of Ali and Mehmet and met the professor and 2 other ones of the university. The restaurant was very fancy. Between waterfalls we have a private cabin were we ate some delicious local food. Pure joy.

PICTURES

Shooting the video
Action car
Lunch with the crew
Iranian food so delicious
Dinner with the professors

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