Poor roads and rough terrain are apparently no match for the Tesla Model S. Neither is distance for the zero emissions electric vehicle.
Photo by EV World.
Two Louisiana natives, Randy Denmon and Dean Lewis, decided to drive Denmon’s Tesla Model S 85 from McAllen, Texas to the Panama Canal.
In a week when the media was buzzing about the two Tesla Model S cars planning a trip from Los Angeles to New York City, not many knew about the Louisianan somewhat spur of the moment trip.
Now the two are currently setting the world driving record for taking a car from the U.S. to the Panama Canal, all without support or a driving team.
“An Inconvenient Trip,” as it has been dubbed, has led Denmon and Lewis to adapt, finding power where they can and hoping the bad and sometimes dangerous roads don’t get in the way.
Yesterday Denmon told a friend they had their best day yet, driving 261 miles: “It was long, 13.5 hours from departure. 11 hours on the road, and then 2.5 hours to find a hotel to let us charge. We wired again directly to the 240 power without a plug.”
EV World, which covers the world of electric drive vehicle technology, caught up with Denmon and Lewis in Managua, Nicaragua after more than 2,000 miles was put on the car. Click here for the interview.
The online publication dug deeper, finding out why the duo decided to make the trip.
According to their mutual friend and impromptu point man, Marcus Morton in southern California, Randy has been wanting to make this trip for the last five years. After buying the 85kWh Model S, he started getting serious; enough so to order a spare tire for the car and collecting a score of plug adapters. That has been the extent of their preparation. They would simply cross into Mexico and head south and take each day as it came.
“This trip reflects one of the big advantages of using electricity as an automotive fuel, electricity is nearly universally available throughout the world, petroleum and in particular high quality petroleum is far less universal,” explained one reader comment.