If there was still any doubt about the practicality of Tesla’s electric vehicles, it should have been put to bed by a new record which was set this week by a two-year-old Model S which was driven across the continental US in just under 52 hours, according to the International Business Times.
Breaking new ground
The journey covered an impressive 2800 miles of roads, kicking off in the iconic city of Los Angeles and concluding on the east coast in New York. Anyone thinking about whether or not it makes sense to hire a Tesla in the UK for their city break should appreciate how impressive these cars can be as a result of this successful feat.
To travel this distance so quickly it was necessary for the two drivers, Jordan Hart and Bradly D’Souza, to take shifts behind the wheel and only stop when it was necessary to recharge the battery. Twenty charging stops were necessary throughout the trip and the pair claim that they only took a 15-minute food break once in the entire 51 hours and 47 minutes they were on the road.
All of this effort was not only an attempt to break the record for an electric car completing the journey, but also to raise money for a good cause, which made it even more important for the pair to succeed from the point of view of publicity.
Repeat records
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the last electric car which held the record for the quickest journey from LA to New York was also a Tesla Model S. What is unexpected is that the previous record holders drove a model with a bigger battery, meaning that the crown was taken by a car which on paper was not quite in the same league.
There is still a long way to go before an electric car can take on the current record held by a petrol-powered vehicle completing the same course. The sub 29-hour record has stood for the past four years and required the car in question to be modified with higher capacity tanks to contain enough fuel to minimise the number of stops.
However, one of the main advantages of the Model S, aside from its environmental friendliness, is that its drivers were able to activate the Autopilot feature and let the built-in sensors and software do a lot of the work for them. The vast majority of the journey was carried out autonomously, meaning that the drivers were less fatigued by their time behind the wheel.
D’Souza explained that one of the reasons they were able to outdo newer versions of the Model S onboard the vehicle they used for the trip is that they both have an in-depth understanding of what the car can achieve and were able to push it to the limits of its efficiency and charging capabilities.
The Model S and all of Tesla’s electric cars continue to prove themselves worthy of praise, whether in daily use or in exceptional circumstances.