In 2024 Lexie Alford became the first person to officially lap the globe by electric vehicle and her EV adventure is now available to watch on Amazon Prime.

The 26-year-old American nabbed her second record (after becoming the first person under 21 to visit all 195 countries on the planet) by completing her 30,000-km journey in 200 days.

That’s more than twice the 90 days that was originally planned for the trip, with delays caused by everything from visa problems to sickness. As you might expect charging Lexie’s Ford Explorer also caused issues along the way.

Rolling blackouts in South Africa and poor infrastructure in India led to days of simply waiting for the electrons to flow into the Ford’s batteries from domestic plugs, but even in the USA an issue with getting the correct adapter for the European-spec Explorer meant she couldn’t always take advantage of rapid charging. Europe and Australia proved to be the easiest continents to drive electric, but a big surprise came in Bhutan which was also well-set for chargers, in keeping with its carbon-negative status.

Alford didn’t have to revisit every country in the world to classed as a record-setter, in fact she only drove through 29 nations on the road trip. She also used several different Ford Explorers and flew from continent to continent. Alford’s journey saw her meet other women pioneers from chefs to MMA fighters.

Alford’s road trip was perhaps not as treacherous as the one that inspired her. In 1922, at the age of just 16, Canadian Aloha Wanderwell became the first woman to drive around the world in a modified Ford Model T. Nonetheless, as you can see from the documentary it was still a gruelling drive. “It took every fibre of my being to make it to the finish line,” said Alford.