Electric dream

A world-conquering man who visited Albany last year will complete his three-year electric-powered journey in Sydney this weekend.

Wiebe Wakker will silently pull onto an embankment near the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Saturday, ending an expedition that has seen him travel more than 100,000km in an electric car.

Mr Wakker, from the Netherlands, visited the Great Southern in September when he was two-and-a-half years and 70,000km into his journey.

Arriving in Albany, he called his journey — which saw him visit 33 countries and meet people including the Indonesian royal family — “the trip of a lifetime”.

“I get to see a lot of nice stuff and meet a lot of interesting people,” he said.

“They say electric cars aren’t viable for Australia because Australians drive such large distances, but it’s not true.

“I did some research and saw statistics that you only drive 20km to 30km a day. You just need to charge it once every 10 to 15 days depending on which car you have.”

From Albany, Mr Wekker visited Esperance and Kalgoorlie, before crossing the Nullarbor and heading to Uluru.

He passed through Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne.

His Australian crossing was not without issues — he had to be towed to a charging station at least twice in the interior — but on Saturday, after more than 1100 days on the road, he will arrive at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden to end his journey.