From September 18 to 20, a few thousand EV enthusiasts gathered again in Fulda, Germany. The event was organized by Timo Schadt and the elektrische COMMUNITY.
As last year, I was responsible for the offroad parcours at the event. With the help of Hans (Tesla Dram), I prepared the parcours on Friday afternoon.
On Saturday, participants could use the parcours with their own cars for free. During the first round of a new driver, I always walked next to the vehicle to explain the parcours and make sure that no car was damaged.
Altogether, 13 people decided to give it a try. This time, 12 different vehicles were used on the parcours. For me, it was revealing to see the different capabilities of these vehicles. Some of them were surprisingly good.
Tesla Model X
Of course, the first test drive was done by Hans, who helped me set up the parcours. He came with his Tesla Model X, which he also used on our trip to Dakar in January.
His Model X carries General Tire Grabber AT3 all-terrain tires and is well prepared for light and medium offroad tracks. Due to the air suspension, ground clearance is quite good. Except for two especially challenging obstacles, he mastered all parts of the parcours.
If you wonder why a Juice Booster mobile charger is lying in the mud pool, Hans now has a cooperation with Juice, and they provided a couple of samples for the event to show how tough they are built. The idea was to drive over them all day and check at the end of the day whether they were still intact. Spoiler: at the end of the event, they still looked like new. I’m not sponsored by Juice in any way, but I’ve used their products on all of my expeditions and never had a problem.
Maxus eDeliver 7 AWD
Next, we had the Maxus eDeliver 7 from Didi on Tour on the parcours. Didi was the official photographer on the last Rive Maroc Rallye. I’ve met him at several EV events in Germany in the past two years. His Maxus van is the long-wheelbase version (L2H1) with AWD. In addition, Didi had installed a 4 cm body lift (with spacers). This results in a good ground clearance of about 19 cm. His tires are still standard road tires.
The Maxus was surprisingly good on the parcours. Traction was never a problem. The AWD system seems to be working quite well. But the main reason for the good performance was probably its very good axle articulation (for a non-solid-axle van). During the whole course, all four wheels always had ground contact.
We even tried provoking a situation at a corrugation where most SUVs would lift their rear wheel. Not the Maxus. Impressive!
The Maxus’s main limitation was its departure angle because of the mounted trailer hitch.
Even at gentle inclines, it hits the ground. At least it is massively built, and the connector is very well protected. So besides the risk of getting stuck, not much will happen.
Tesla Model 3
The next car on the track was Julian’s beautiful Model 3 (dual-motor 4WD version). He plans to follow Hans’s and my footsteps and drive to Dakar with his Tesla next January.
To prepare for this adventure, he has already made some important modifications to his car. He mounted Grabber AT3 all-terrain tires on steel wheels and a sturdy roof rack with a full-size spare tire. What is currently missing is a suspension lift, but he’s seriously considering adding one before setting off for Dakar.
The Model 3’s very low ground clearance was the main limitation on the parcours. Julian had to choose the perfect line very carefully to avoid any ground contact. But after a couple of rounds, he knew exactly how to steer his car through the parcours.
KGM Musso EV
The next car on the parcours, a KGM Musso, was also very interesting. I had driven it last year at the E4 Testival at the Hockenheimring, but had never seen it on an offroad track.
It was equipped with a Multi4Camp cabin. The KGM driver was also the owner of this company.
The KGM has a ground clearance of 18 cm, which is ok, but not great, especially not for a truck. It looks like a pickup truck, but it’s not really built like a truck. The whole construction is more like a light SUV. It also has no specific offroad settings for traction control and 4WD. If one tire is in the air, the traction control reduces power to the other tires to nearly zero. Not suitable for offroad usecases. I would personally recommend the KGM only if you drive only paved roads and want to carry heavy loads.
Tesla Cybertruck
The car that attracted by far the most interest was the Tesla Cybertruck. It is not officially available in Europe, and everybody was curious how it would behave on the offroad track.
A visitor from Norway brought his personal Cybertruck to the event. He imported the car from the U.S. to Norway and registered it in Norway with the help of a local dealer. It is now one of the very few Cybertrucks in Europe with an official European registration.
The standard parcours was absolutely no challenge for the Cybertruck.
Luckily, the parcours also had some additional obstacles that nobody had dared to try with their cars so far. Perfect for the Cybertruck.
At the highest air suspension level, the Cybertruck has 40 cm of ground clearance. Very impressive.
Traction control and 4×4 application were quite good. Even with one tire completely in the air, the power distribution to the other tires worked quite well. That wasn’t the case with the early samples of the Cybertruck. Seems like Tesla learned a lot in the last year and updated the software accordingly.
A German TV team was also at the event. Of course, they were mostly interested in filming the Cybertruck in action. Still a very rare sight in Germany.
To be honest, I’m not a big fan of the Cybertruck. I don’t like its design. Personally, I find it far too aggressive to drive through less developed countries. It just wouldn’t feel right to me.
But I was quite impressed by its offroad performance. I hadn’t expected this.
Kia Niro
Friedwart, who joined us on the first section of our trip to Dakar in January, explored the parcours with his Kia Niro. It was the only car during the event without 4×4.
Still, he managed to get through the standard parcours, but for some obstacles he needed significantly more momentum compared to the other cars.
Mercedes G 580
The most interesting car after the Cybertruck was definitely the Mercedes G 580. I always wanted to see this car in action. If it wasn’t so prohibitively expensive, I would probably buy one. But 150K+ is out of my range. I love the boxy design and the concept of the whole car with its ladder frame, four motors, and large battery. Only the 400 kg payload is subpar and limits its use for serious expeditions.
The ground clearance is 25 cm, which is sufficient for most offroad challenges.
After the Cybertruck, the G 580 was the second car that mastered all obstacles on the track, even the most challenging ones.
One famous special feature of the G 580 is the G-Turn, where the wheels on both sides turn in opposite directions.
Its usefulness for offroad use cases needs to be proven. But as a showcase to impress other people at events, it definitely works.
Smart #5
We also had a beautiful Smart #5 trying out the parcours. It had mild all-terrain tires (Radar Renegade AT5), a sturdy roof rack, and an awning.
I already know from last year that the Smart is quite good on offroad tracks. Its 19 cm ground clearance is clearly above what most BEV SUVs offer.
The Smart completed the full standard parcours and, in addition, some of the more challenging, steeper sections.
Maxus eTERRON 9
Next, we had another very interesting car on the parcours, a Maxus eTerron 9. It is one of the very few fully electric pickup trucks currently available in Europe. The eTerron has 4×4 and an air suspension with an impressive ground clearance of 26 cm at the highest suspension level.
This car could easily drive across all obstacles on the parcours, even the very challenging ones.
The Maxus’s offroad performance on the parcours was quite impressive. The only major drawback is that the 4×4 doesn’t work in reverse. For serious offroad adventures, that’s a clear showstopper. Maybe they will fix it later with a software update. But my guess is that Maxus made that decision deliberately to protect certain components, and it can’t be easily changed in production.
Tesla Model Y
The Tesla Model Y we had on the parcours had a lowered aftermarket suspension. Its ground clearance was comparable to a Model 3.
Driving through the parcours without any ground contact was practically impossible with this car.
Kia EV6
Next, we had a Kia EV6 on the Parcours. Despite looking like a sports car, its ground clearance was surprisingly good and much better than, for example, a Tesla Model 3. The Kia managed to drive through the standard parcours without any ground contact.
It’s not an offroad vehicle and definitely not in the same class as a Model X or my Audi Q8 e-tron, but you should still be able to handle many dirt roads or gravel tracks with this car.
Tesla Model X Plaid
The last car that was used on the offroad track was the Model X Plaid of the event organizer, Timo Schadt. He didn’t drive the car himself but instead gave two of his friends the opportunity to experience this high-performance vehicle on the track.
The Model X Plaid had some problems staying at the highest air suspension level. But that was likely user error, since none of the drivers, including me, had much experience with the Model X’s suspension settings. Besides that, the standard obstacles of the parcours were no challenge for the car.
eCamp
This event in Fulda is likely also the largest gathering of people camping in their electric cars in Europe (and maybe in the world). It was interesting to see all the different camping concepts in real life.
From large pickup-truck campers to fully equipped vans to sleeping in small cars like the Renault Alpine.
I decided to bring my ID.Buzz GTX to the event and sleep in it for the first time. I still own my Audi Q8 e-tron and plan to use it for all upcoming expeditions. But since March, I have had access to an ID.Buzz as a company car, which I could also use for private trips.
As a camping car, the ID.Buzz is definitely much, much better than my Audi. But its offroad capability is sadly not up to what I need. Otherwise, I would switch immediately.
In the evenings, we all enjoyed interesting chats about our EV adventures at the campfire.
Presentation
On Sunday, I had a 1.5-hour presentation together with Hans about our trip to Dakar.
We got good feedback and lots of questions after our presentation. The event team filmed the whole presentation, and I will share a link to the video as soon as it is available.
For lunch, a variety of African dishes were served at the event. A perfect fit for our presentation topic.
Altogether, it was a very nice event with great people. The interest in offroading and overlanding with electric vehicles is still very limited in Europe, but the community is growing steadily. For me, the highlight of the event was seeing relatively new and rare vehicles like the Tesla Cybertruck, Mercedes G580, and Maxus eTerron in action on the offroad parcours and being able to directly compare their abilities.
