Racing Around the World in Electric Cars, Dodging Minefields

The Project Evie team, from left: Jeff Bladt, Silvia Beltrametti, Jon Azrielant. (Bridgette O'Leary photo)

I'm not sure how I'm going to spend my summer vacation, but it won't be dodging through minefields on the South Sahara/Mauritania border. That's just part of the fun for Project Evie, an ambitious round-the-world jaunt in two electric cars. They have a GPS-aided minefield map--and let's hope it's been updated recently.

If the sponsorship money comes together, Project Evie will start on the South Island of New Zealand in June. That's a pretty benign place to start a tour that will take them through 68 countries on six continents, covering 66,540 miles. This is going to be the very first round-the-world tour by an EV, if Tesla doesn't do it first (see below). The makers of the Tesla Roadster have a head start.

Inspiration for this borderline foolhardy tour is the swashbuckling Peking-to-Paris tours in early gasoline cars at the turn of the last century. The young team says they were also sent on their way by such books as Way of the World, Into the Wild, The Motorcycle Diaries and On the Road.

According to co-founder Jon Azrielant, "We spent several months doing a very thorough analysis of every single road we'll be driving on, and every single place we'll be charging. It took months and months. This will be an adventure (or misadventure?) on a grand scale."

The good news: There is charging in Kathmandu, Nepal, because all the auto-rickshaws are now electrically powered. The bad news: The border between Morocco and Algeria is closed (even though 1,000 cars a day cross it illegally). More bad news: You can't travel through Arab countries if you have an Israeli stamp on your passport. Azrielant, who is an Israeli (with a background in both professional judo and as a nightclub DJ), says they're going to work around that.

You want yet more bad news? Try to find a charging station in the middle of Iran. But the grapevine says that the Iranians, who lead the Middle East in wind turbines per-capita, are welcoming. Actually, the charging stations will mostly be in the U.S. and Europe. In most places, Project Evie can tap into three-phase power at the world's ubiquitous industrial sites. With between 380 and 500 volts, these sites could presumably top off the project's two cars in an hour. But connectivity could be a bitch.

After New Zealand, the expedition travels to Australia, then to Singapore for a zig-zag around Southeast Asia before entering China (and visits to 14 cities). Then it's on to Tibet, up to the base camp of Mount Everest, then through Nepal and India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. In Istanbul, they'll cross the continental divide into Europe and a full tour there. Then it's back through Turkey through the Middle East and North Africa.

With a good deal of luck and the wind at their backs, Project Evie will circumnavigate the world in 18 months. The team is going after the Guinness World Records for first expedition around the world in a production electric car, first around the world in a plug-in vehicle (period), and longest distance traveled by an electric car.

The team has a supplier for the EVs, but it won't say what it is until next week. Suffice it to say that it's an international company planning U.S. sales in the next year. If they get funding, they will be able to become part of a documentary series that airs on the National Geographic Adventure channel.

As I said, Tesla could get there first. The company has teamed up with "avant-garde watchmaker" TAG Heuer (note watch in Tesla photo below) on a round-the-world tour called "Odyssey of the Pioneers" that kicked off March 18 in Paris. The route doesn't look quite as ambitious as Project Evie's, including 15 major cities, 150 small towns and 22,990 miles. The teams will be driving, what else, Tesla Roadsters. They've done 1,500 miles so far and are near Milan, Italy.

According to Tesla's Khobi Brooklyn, the tour heads to Budapest next and will be there on April 15. The tour will finish September 28 in Paris. The major city stops are: Zurich, Monaco, Milan, Budapest, Warsaw, Moscow, Delhi, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, London and Paris. You can check out the itinerary here.

Here's the video:

10 Cars That Will Define the Electric Market -- On the Brand New Popular Mechanics

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