Well, the WAVE is over… Lots of people won lots of trophies, and we’re happy for every one of them (the people, not the trophies). We’ll include a few pics of some of the winners in here, you’ll probably be able to check out the complete list of winners on the WAVE trophy homepage soon.

We started early to beat traffic and managed to catch a free road up the Julier pass. The weather was less than average so the photo opportunities were limited. When we stopped for coffee at the top, it even started snowing. Later on, we heard from other teams that had headed up behind us that the snowfall had intensified – we’re glad everyone made it downhill in one piece.

Before we left we had anticipated a certain amount of WAVE related traffic – in our world, this means that there will be teams queueing at the available fast charging points and you might have to wait for your turn with several cars in front of you.

Think of it as the automobile equivalent of a potty break gone wrong

Therefore, we decided that we would avoid the most obvious choices and head for the fast charger in Flims instead, betting on the fact that nobody would make the ten mile detour to charge there. Sure enough, we were all alone and therefore able to charge immediately and for as long as we wanted.

One factor we had not considered was the weather; starting around Flims, we had heavy rain for the rest of our trip to Schmerikon and perhaps some of you will know that rain affects range! We did make it to Schmerikon but by managing our speed and ending up with only a few miles of range left.

After charging enough to make it to the fast charger in Rapperswil, we went on and met two other teams as well as a local friend with his LEAF there. We were lucky enough in that we arrived at the right moment and we could start charging right away.

From there, it was a leisurely drive to Sankt Gallen. We stopped on the way to take a few pictures and were spontaneously joined by two other teams. The warm welcome on the finish line in the middle of the old town in Sankt Gallen was a real highlight. Needless to say, our car got the most prominent spot (again) and we enjoyed watching our team mates arrive and celebrated our achievement together.

We spent the evening in a decommissioned railway shed where awards were distributed and tributes paid to all what the support and organization teams had done during these days. We’re now back at our hotel and I can tell you that the whole week was incredibly exhausting; I have rarely been so tired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGrpsZ7BsQA

In any event, this is just a summary of today without any further insight. We’ll gladly give you a wittier comment to this year’s WAVE once we’ve had more than four hours of sleep in a row for a change, so please make sure you join us again tomorrow.