Simon Hackett, a participant in Australia’s Global Green Challenge, has completed a pivotal leg of the race, driving his 2008 Tesla Roadster 501km from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy with only 3 miles left on the charge. This marks a new world record for a production electric vehicle.
The previous long distance record for an electric vehicle was set last April, when another Tesla Roadster finished the entire 387km Rallye Monte Carlo d’Energies Alternatives with approximately 38 miles left on the charge.
Emilis and I have decades of experience flying gliders competitively and we applied the same energy conservation techniques to our driving, with significant results! The car had about 3 miles of range left when the drive was completed. We travelled 501km on a single charge. Let that sink in for a minute. – Simon Hackett
Besides the exhilaration of a new world record, it also sounds like Hackett is having quite the outback adventure, travelling across the open Australian interior through a variety of locales including cattle stations and traditional ancestral and sacred sites, spotting numerous species of wildlife including eagles, hawks, kangaroos, wallabies, camels and snakes along the way.
With still some distance to cover, Hackett must arrive in Adelaide to complete the course. But he’s in good hands it seems… the all-electric sports car is faster than Porsche 911 or Audi R8, yet is six times as efficient as conventional sports cars. ‘Electric Vehicle’ and ‘road trip’ in the same sentence… the future looks promising!
Want more? Check out these related posts:
In the context of today’s world, ‘consuming’ and ‘balance’ in the same sentence seems to be an oxymoron.
on 
on 
on 
on
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }