Meiringen : A pair of sturdy goats led 10 cows with regional and national flags tied to horns and bridles up towards the mountains this week at the launch of a new Swiss eco-project.

Behind the animals came a silent line of 60 brightly coloured small cars, which then sped off — equally silently, towards the nearest Alpine pass.

"I think just one of those cows made more noise than all of us put together," said bemused Swiss tourism official Federico Somarruga, at the wheel of one of the two-seater automobiles.

The occasion was the launch in Switzerland of a green tourism project dubbed Alpmobil, to promote the use of battery-driven electric vehicles — EVs, by summer visitors to the area some 100km southeast of Bern.

The area's plentiful electricity supplies, created by harnessing the power of mountain waters through reservoirs and dams, have been tapped to provide over 20 battery charge-points serving up, Alpmobil says, totally green energy.

Campaign

Alpmobil, whose sponsors include the regional hydropower giant KWO and cantonal governments and climate research authorities, has acquired the 60 "Think" cars from the pioneering Norwegian EV company of the same name.

They will be on hire between July and September at hotels, garages and railway stations for 60 Swiss francs (Dh206) a day across the area's Goms and Haslital regions and Alpmobil offers booking on its so-far only German language website.

The "Think", built in Finland by speciality manufacturer Valmet Automotive, was conceived, like most electric vehicles, as a town car, but Alpmobil's spokesman Dionys Hallenbarter says it is also ideal for leisurely mountain touring.

A smooth 20km drive up from Meiringen round hairpin bends to the 2,165-metre Grimsell Pass and back suggests he is right.

But it also shows how much the survival of the stunning scenery in a country that lives up to the images on its picture postcards needs a big cut in the sort of emissions produced by traditional petrol-driven vehicles.

Along the way, huge boulder-strewn gashes in mountainsides stretching down from the peaks tell the tale of disappeared or disappearing glaciers, or of the landslides and avalanches that rising Alpine temperatures provoke.

The EVs, their admirers say, can also play a big part in tackling noise pollution, another topic dear to the Swiss.

Turning the key in a Think leaves a driver wondering if the engine has fired, and on the road even with the windows open the only sound of movement is the swish of tyres on the tarmac.

A set of instructions from the Swiss automobile association Touring Club Suisse (TCS) warns: "The electric cars are very quiet. Please take into consideration that cyclists and pedestrians are not used to this! Anticipate reactions and toot the horn if necessary," the plastified TCS card admonishes.