2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 15:44
The Michelin Challenge Bibendum is celebrating its eleventh edition at Tempelhof Airport in May. For the first time, the public is invited, who should appear in large numbers.
By Thomas Flehmer E
-mobility has been on everyone's lips long before the National Platform was founded. The Michelin Challenge Bibendum is certainly one of the pioneers in this area. The forum has been about alternative drives of all kinds since 1998. "Over time we have seen more and more interest," says Patrick Oliva, director of futurology and sustainability in the Michelin Group and the spiritual father of the Challenge Bibendum, which is based on a non-profit platform.
Open to the public for the first time
While only a few car manufacturers and trade visitors took part in the opening event, which moved between Clermont-Ferrand and Paris, Oliva expects 5000 trade participants from 80 countries and 70 exhibitors to present their products at the eleventh edition from May 18 to 22 at Tempelhof Airport present on 22,000 square meters. Around 200 vehicles from different categories can then be tried out, from electric bicycles to fuel cell cars.
In contrast to the ten previous editions, the public will be admitted for the first time on the last two days. "We expect 30 to 40,000 visitors," says Christian Metzger, the project manager of the Challenge Bibendum. Given that German manufacturers have some catching up to do in the electromobility sector, this is an ambitious goal. At last year's Cleantec, a trade fair with a similar topic at an identical location, visitors were greeted with a handshake. Metzger himself is looking forward to "shaking hands with each of the 30,000 visitors."
Rally on three tracks
The visitors can then not only examine the exhibits, but also try them out on various courses on the Tempelhofer Feld. The event should then also have a sustainable effect, because according to the Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit "a world of experience for electromobility not only for Berlin" is to be created in Tempelhof. "We want to make Berlin a center of debate on the way to sustainability."
Before the closing days, the traditional rally for the Challenge will take place on the premiere day, this time on a total of three tracks. Vehicles with a range of more than 300 kilometers travel around 300 kilometers through Berlin and Brandenburg, a distance of 120 kilometers and for vehicles with a top speed of 45 km / h there is a street circuit around the airport area. "These rallies are a test of the everyday suitability of the various drive concepts," said Metzger
No ideal road recognizable
Various workshops and discussion rounds enrich the days, which should end with the adoption of common goals for the necessary tasks of the future. A "panacea" is not to be expected, says Oliva, "there is no silver bullet, but the drive of the future will come from combinations that are also regional."
The founding father Oliva does not see the backwardness of the Germans as serious either, since the manufacturers based here are already working to reduce consumption in other areas. And Wowereit is also combative for the future: "Sure, it was too slow to think ahead. But there are still enough opportunities to regain lost ground."
