The first EV to drive around the world is going for another lap

Detour Life

Aug 14

On 11 May 2012 Rafael de Mestre set out in his Telsa Roadster from Barcelona on a mission to circumnavigate the globe. Now he’s doing it again.

Over a decade ago when de Mestre began his ground-breaking journey neither the range of his Tesla nor the charging infrastructure were truly fit for purpose, but 127 days later on the 22nd of September he had covered 28,282km across the USA, China, Russia and Europe.

Adding to the excitement was that he was also in a race with two French drivers in a Citroen C-Zero who set off several weeks ahead of him. Amazingly he overtook them in the final days of the trip and earned his place in history.

de Mestre charted every charge point along the way to aid future electric adventurers, which came in handy in 2016 when he opened the challenge to 11 teams for a second EV race around the world. Nine of the crews beat his original time and in 2024 he’s hoping more records will tumble.

The goal is to get 12 teams to travel 40,000km in 80 days using zero emissions ships to cover the watery bits. de Mestre has had to have his original Tesla Roadster refurbished for the new challenge and is currently on the road doing reconnaissance for the route.

You can follow his progress at https://80edays.com/

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