Nordkapp, Norway - Polarsteps

Cape Saint-Vincent 🇵🇹 to Cape North 🇳🇴 9 countries 🇵🇹🇪🇸🇫🇷🇧🇪🇩🇪🇩🇰🇸🇪🇫🇮🇳🇴 5,887 km 70 hours 49 minutes 2 friends 1 electric car We did it! 🤩 We established the record time to cross Europe 🇪🇺 from Cape to Cape in an electric car 🚗🔋⚡️😀 We proved every naysayer wrong. Our job is done, now starts yours 😉 Share a link to this page to anyone that tells you that electric cars are not suited for long trips, that there aren’t enough chargers or that they take forever to charge 🔌 Here is an easy link to remember: ➡️ cannonball.TeslaStars.com Obviously, a Cannonball Run is not a pleasant way to travel. In real life, we make less charging stops and our car always waits for us ready to go before we have recharged our batteries 🔋 We did it to successfully prove a point 😀 Here is how we did it: • rule #1: don’t crash 💥 • our real time position and speed was visible during the whole trip on Glympse 🗺 • we published on Polarsteps 🧭 a picture of our car with its Cannonball stickers at each supercharger 📸 • a GoPro recorded a 4K timelapse of the entire run with a view of the Model 3 screen and the road seen behind the windscreen, here it is: timelapse.teslastars.com 🎥 • the entire trip has been logged on Teslamate, a fantastic open-source free data logger software running on a free Oracle server, from which we have published driving speeds, charging speeds, battery state of charge graphs 📈 • departure on foot, just after sunset 🌅 at 20:00 🕗 local time from the statue of Saint-Vincent at Cape Saint-Vincent 🇵🇹. We ran towards our car, Classic Le Mans 24 Hours Race start style 😄 • we aimed to drive at the legal speed limit for 99%+ of the time, only slightly exceeding it when required for safety (people tend to tailgate you when overtaking with a small speed difference) 🐌 • we used the speed indicated by the speedometer as this is what most people use to control their speed, not GPS based apps. Anyway, car makers have a duty to show an accurate speed that doesn’t exceed the real GPS speed. Tesla’s speedometer is usually correct within 1 or 2 km/h 😌 • we drove most of France 🇫🇷 under rain which then reduces the highway speed limit from 130 km/h down to 110 km/h. Sometimes the speed limits shown on the car are wrong and we exceeded them because the speed limit signs said otherwise and the Tesla navigation map data in Europe 🇪🇺 was full of errors 🤬 • obviously on unrestricted sections of the German 🇩🇪 Autobahns 🛣 , there is no speed limit, so… 🚀 • Autopilot 🤖 was a fantastic help during the run, handling most of the driving tasks and allowing us to concentrate on monitoring the road conditions and the behavior of other road users. This is a life-saving technology, especially on such a demanding road trip 😍 • we used the proven Electric Cannonball method to minimize charging time by charging just enough to reach the next supercharger with a low state of charge to maximize charging power ⚡️. On some instances we reached the Supercharger with 1% or even 0%. This was done on purpose. It’s so easy to control the arrival state of charge that it even became a game between us 🤣 • we tried to sleep in the car while the other was driving. This proved to be the hardest part 😴 • we arrived at North Cape 🇳🇴 just after sunset 🌅, we parked Aldébaran at the regular parking lot and ran towards the globe 🌍 which we reached at 19:49 local time ☺️ There is a one hour time difference between Portugal 🇵🇹 and Norway 🇳🇴 so the total time is 70 hours 49 minutes as follows: • running time: 3 minutes • driving time: 61 hours 7 minutes • charging time: 9 hours 39 minutes • average driving speed: 97.2 km/h • 31 supercharging sessions • average charging time: 18 minutes 40 seconds • average speed including charges: 83.8 km/h We showed that electric cars can do long road trips in short amounts of time 😊 The total time is a combination of range, efficiency, charging speed and charging infrastructure (locations and reliability) 🔌 We deliberately only used the Tesla Supercharger network during the entire run, as in our experience with several other networks, Tesla’s is the only one that is super reliable, with numerous stalls at each stations. Out of the 31 supercharging sessions we did during the run, only once the charge didn’t start and we just had to move to the adjacent stall to make it work ☺️ Now what? 🤔 Records are meant to be broken 😀 Already today, a 2021 Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor Long Range, which has about 80 km more range than Aldébaran, our 2019 Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor Long Range, should easily beat our time, especially if fitted with 18” Aero Wheels. Next year, a 2022 Tesla Model S Long Range with 19” Aero Wheels should do even better 🚀 So far it’s held by a Tesla but we’d love to see other electric cars attempt to break it as well. Fortunately the Tesla Supercharger network will be opened to other electric cars “soon” so that will make things easier 😉 The way we see it, this is not a competition. We are one team of humans fighting climate change by showing people they can move to electric cars for all their driving needs and stop burning fossil fuels 🛢 Let’s show that electric cars are so much better than fossil cars in so many ways, and that they keep improving, as well as the charging infrastructure ⚡️ Come to us, ask us for advice. We messed up a few times, we’ll tell you where you can improve our time 😄 Be prepared, because this is brutal, drive safely and beat that record 🏆 Electric cars are the future and the future is now 🤩 ——— You can reach us on Twitter: @TeslaStars & @TeslaOwls #EuropeanElectricCannonball ——— 5,887 km from Cape Saint-Vincent 🇵🇹 • 0 km to Cape North 🇳🇴 Leg #32 • 152 km • 2 h 15 mins • 195 Wh/km