Students Drive Tuk Tuk to France

On November 28 at Mahidol University in Vibhavadi Rangsit a press conference was held to announce the founding of Pilgreens, an initiative found by exchange students from Toulouse University in France. The three friends, Ludwig Merz, Karen Koulakian, and Rémy Fernandes-Dandré will drive an electric and solar-powered Tuk Tuk from Bangkok, Thailand to Toulouse, France. The trip will take 120 days, passing through 16 countries such as Laos and China, totaling a combined distance of 20,000 kilometers.

Ludwig and Karen revealed that the Pilgreens project is the highlight of their education at Thailand’s Mahidol University aimed at supporting clean energy and replacing fossil fuels with electricity. The Tuk Tuk runs on electricity and can travel 200 kilometers on one charge which takes 6-8 hours. It also uses solar energy which it will use to charge when the group stops for breaks in villages along the way.

The two students from Toulouse University said that they first came up with the idea when they saw a Tuk Tuk in Thailand and took it out for a spin. One of them then asked why not take the Tuk Tuk to France. Thus they conceived the idea to driving a Tuk Tuk to France through 16 countries using only clean energy. The project is sponsored by Tuk Tuk Factory, a company that exports electric Tuk Tuks around the world. 

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