The Hellenic Institute of Transport of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (HIT/ CERTH), has participated for another year in the 11th Hi Tech EKO Mobility Rally, which is included within FIA Racing Calendar and this year was hosted in Thessaloniki, Greece, on the 26th and 27th May 2018. ΗΙΤ was the main supporter in the organisation of the rally contributing both in administrative – organisational issues and racing activities. HIT participated in the race with two electric and one hybrid vehicle. In Category ΙΙΙΑ, amongst 10 participations of electric vehicles, HIT’s 2 cars have ranked in the 3rd (Driver: Tsioutras Athanasios and Co-driver: Symeonidis Ioannis) and 5th position (Driver: Tromaras Alkiviadis and Co-Driver: Aggelakakis Aggelos). It should be highlighted that all participants of HIT’s crew mentioned above are Civil and Transport Engineers and are member of HIT/ CERTH research workforce.
The 11th Hi Tech EKO Mobility Rally was organized by the Greek Institute of Electric Vehicles, under the auspices of the Central Macedonia Region, with the support of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and HIT/CERTH.
The total of 16 participations (10 electric and 6 hybrid vehicles) impressed the audience and the spectators. The majority of participations were Greek, while there were also participation from Italy and Bulgaria . All vehicles travelled in the wider area of Thessaloniki and Chalkidiki following different routes (one for the electric and one for the hybrid cars), covering a total distance of 250km. Mr. Apostolos Tzitzikostas, governor of the Central Macedonia Region, supporter of the electro-mobility, had been raising the races’ launch flag.
An interesting comment was provided by the Director of HIT Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris, who - amongst others- highlighted that electro-mobility is much more financially profitable compared to conventional fossil fuels (5-10 times), while it is also much more environmental friendly. HIT/CERTH promotes research on the further development and upgrading of “clean” vehicles and also welcomes every regulation and activity towards their promotion. Towards this direction, HIT develops a tool, called the “TourEV”, which constitutes an application providing information on trip planning with electric vehicles. The tool is an internet based app for “smart” devices (smart mobile phones) facilitating the optimisation of electric vehicle charging stations’ spatial planning, based on traffic data of the area of interest (origin – destination matrix for the trips in every traffic zone). Moreover, “TourEV” also provides information and guidelines on how and when those stations should be reached by electric vehicle users, aiming at the energy optimisation, as well as at the electric vehicle range anxiety management and elimination.
In addition, it should be noted that during the break of the race’s second day, while the electric vehicles were being recharged with extra power, all colleagues and supporters of the race had the opportunity to enjoy a tour guide in HIT premises, where the main research vehicles and respective equipment, together with the car and the motorcycle driving simulators, were demonstrated.
The beyond doubt success of the 11th Hi Tech EKO Mobility Rally motivated the organising committee to upgrade and further highlight the role of Thessaloniki and HIT/CERTH, pertaining to electro-mobility and so, it was decided that the race and related activities are going to be held in Thessaloniki at annual basis.
