Remember the two French guys in their Mitsubishi i (well, Citroen C-Zero)?
Their eight-month, 15,500-mile journey in the tiny electric car is just one of many long-distance EV publicity drives we’ve seen, but certainly one of the longest.
Naturally, they’re not the only people to have thought of circumnavigating the globe on in a production electric car–and now they’re being joined by French Tesla Roadster owner Rafael de Mestre.
Only Rafael isn’t so much joining the French duo as intending to beat them, snatching the record for first global journey in an electric car.
The C-Zero team of Xavier Degon and Antonin Guy might have started three months ago, but with a range of 50 to 60 miles on a charge, they won’t be making progress quite as rapidly as Rafael, who can potentially manage up to 200 miles between charges.
According to Clean Technica, de Mestre intends to complete his journey not in 8 months, but a Jules Verne-inspired 80 days.
Neither team will be the first to drive around the globe in an EV, but the winner will be the first to complete the journey in a production electric car, one with no special modifications above standard.
Both teams are currently in Asia, the Citroen duo Tweeting as they pass through Vietnam, and de Mestre commenting that he’s just received his Chinese licence plates to pass through the country. Given how quickly the Tesla has caught up, it’s only a matter of time before he passes the other team.
Tesla versus Citroen may not be much of a contest, but two things are clear.
One: Electric cars aren’t as useless over long journeys as some areas of the press might have you believe. And two: Both teams are almost certainly having a lot of fun, which is what road trips are really all about.
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