It was almost inevitable that Chad Schwitters would buy an EV. He had used biodiesel, rode the bus, carpooled, moved close enough to work that he could walk, etc – all for environmental reasons. He didn’t know anybody who owned EV, and thought they would probably “suck,” but was willing to make the sacrifice. He was wrong.
“It turns out there is no sacrifice, EVs are better cars,” Schwitters said. “Even if somebody invented carbon-free domestic gasoline and gave it away for free, I would still drive electric simply because the experience is so much better.”
Tesla’s West Coast Supercharger Corridor is now open. Two Model S owners left the San Diego, on October 30, on a 1,500 miles trip to Vancouver BC. They utilized Tesla’s Super Charger stations, now strung out every 200 miles along the I-5, in a leisurely 5 day drive to Vancouver.
The Tesla Model S drove into New York City at 2:20 am, Eastern Time, this morning. That was when Peter Soukup tweeted, “If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere and we made it! Electric Road Trip S successfully finished in NYC, final mileage 4887!” They came the long way: driving south from Portland to LA, across the Southern states to Georgia and then north along the Atlantic Coast to New York. Peter Soukup, Tina Thomas and Luba Roytburd have proven it is possible for an EV to drive across the United States and, in the process, set a World Record for road trips in an EV.
They started that final day in Ashland, North Carolina, about 600 miles South of New York. Not long after they left, Tina texted, “Shout out to James & Terry at Ashland #KOA for being the nicest staff w/ the best campground on our #Tesla tour!” Their other tweets read like a drum roll:
According to recent tweets on their blog, Peter Soukup, Tina Thomas and Luba Roytburd slept in Athens, Georgia, last night. That’s point G on the map above. They have driven over 4,000 miles and should arrive in New York city on Sunday (or Monday, at the latest). Their trip shatters any misconceptions about taking road trips with an EV, at least in a Tesla Model S.
The first entry in their blog was made by Peter, who caught a 3 Am flight from Washington, DC, to Portland, Oregon, on Christmas eve. He picked up his Tesla Model S at the local dealership and met Tina up at the airport. They didn’t leave until the following day, had Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Corvallis, then drove on to Ashland on the California border.
A Tesla Model S has driven more than half way across North America. Tina Thomas and Peter Soukup left Portland, Oregon, on December 25 and their last tweet, posted twenty hours ago, states “And into Alabama as the sun sets :).” They are expected to reach New York City by January 7th or 8th.
They picked up a friend close to LA. Ruba Loytburd wrote, “This was my first day on Electric Road Trip S, but day 5 for Tina and Peter. After leaving Erin and Dave’s (thanks again, guys!) we headed out to Tesla’s supercharger at Hawthorn CA for a quick charging “top off.” A supercharger charges up the battery to full in about an hour as an opposed to about 8 hours on regular 50amp stove outlet. So I started out the trip pretty spoiled.”
