Driving Pole to Pole in an electric car? Completed it, mate
British adventurers Chris and Julie Ramsey have just become the first people to drive from the magnetic North Pole to the South Pole. What’s more they’ve done it in an all-electric car.
Their modified Nissan Ariya has taken them on a nine-month, 17,000-mile journey, that began in the Canadian Arctic and ended in Antarctica. Along the way the couple travelled the length of Central and South America, with a short Detour to ship the around the un-passable Darien Gap.
The car was heavily modified by Iceland’s Arctic Trucks, who gave it a hefty lift kit and massive off-road wheels and tyres. As you can imagine, once away from the infrastructure of North America, the biggest issue the Ramseys faced was keeping the car’s batteries topped up. They had planned to use a trailer-mounted wind turbine in remote areas, but towing on ice proved too much of a challenge.
Thankfully in the Antarctic summer the sun doesn’t set so a bank of solar panels could provide power even as the team slept. To cope withe extreme cold the couple pitched a tent over the car and even built an igloo-type shelter to help the batteries maintain some temperature as it charged.
They finally reached the geographic and ceremonial South Poles on 15 December, proving that it really is possible to drive to the ends of the earth on electricity alone.
The Mini 6000 Expedition ends with a lengthy drive back to the Atlantic coast.