One of the biggest challenges for people who drive electric vehicles is having enough charging stations between destinations so drivers don't get stranded.
Around the world in 80 days, and never using a drop of gasoline. That's the mission of a group of Dutch engineering students who stopped at Black and Veatch in Overland Park to show off their 100 percent electric motorcycles.
The bikes can travel 250 miles before needing to plug in at a charging station.
Yuri Steinbuch holds one of the reachable batteries.
"We really want to show that electro-mobility works everywhere around the world, so not only here in the USA where you have a lot of charging stations, but also in the deserts of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran - you can drive electronically without a problem," said Yuri Steinbuch, a mechanic engineering student at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.
Their goal is to show that getting off oil is possible. They said if they can make it through some of the most remote terrain on the planet, there's no reason people in Kansas City can't commute to and from work.
The group said the biggest obstacles behind why most of us haven't gone to electric cars are having sufficient charging stations outside of large cities, creating durable batteries, and developing electric cars that still look cool.
The group finishes their North America tour later in October. From there, they'll go back to France, and then ride back to the Netherlands to wrap up their worldwide tour in 80 days.
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Terra Hall can be reached at terra.hall@kshb.com.
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