Planned Nissan EV Drive North-to-South Poles

[Rabbers]

I recently read about an imminent Nissan-sponsored attempt to drive an Ariya Pole-to-Pole taking in the entire length of North and South America, a journey that will require the batteries to be recharged an estimated 54 times.  Unquestionably an impressive feat of endurance if successful but perhaps a little less so if it is considered the car will be towing a special renewable energy unit with wind turbines and solar panels to generate electricity.  I’m not sure if this might not be considered cheating, but, then again, I don’t suppose any EV-charging stations are being planned for Antarctica in the near future. 

[NemesisUK]

3 hours ago, Rabbers said:

I don’t suppose any EV-charging stations are being planned for Antarctica in the near future. 

I imagine they will be pretty thin on the ground in Chile and Peru as well.

[Rabbers]

20 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

I imagine they will be pretty thin on the ground in Chile and Peru as well.

Quite so.  Even thinner, in some places, than the air itself. 

[malcolmw]

Is "pole to pole" a Battery joke?

[Rabbers]

12 minutes ago, malcolmw said:

Is "pole to pole" a battery joke?

No, it’s a conversation in Warsaw.

[Mr Vlad]

This is one thing I'm definitely gonna google to find out more to do with it.

[Linas.P]

I guess we need to put it in perspective.... The route is approximately 16-18k miles (using most direct roads between Sothern part of Chile, to most northern part of US/Canada), depends a lot by what they mean "driving" because I am sure there are several ferries involved... but the point is - that is ~the mileage average driver does in 2 years. Likewise just cruising that mileage is a lot lighter on the car than say city traffic, so for example taxi driver who is driving car in the city, not only covers more miles in single year, they as well cover much more harsh and punishing miles for the car.

So in principle the biggest part of this challenge is money - that is supply food and all the equipment, and cover hotels etc. for the crew. Simply said it will cost thousands to deliver the cars to where they should be, pay all the costs associate with visas, legal costs, insurance, security etc. So basically this is a challenge of throwing enough money at it. Second part of the challenge is, charging the batteries - so it is really less about reliability of the cars or anything like that (because as per above... average taxy driver punishes the car much more every year), but just having either charging points or generator to charge the batteries.

In the end - if they looking to complete this journey without burning ANY fossil fuels, then it is very challenging and will cause massive delays as I just can't see solar and small wind-turbine recharging the car in time. But if they simply slap diesel generator, drive 300 miles, stop and leave car charging for 12 hours every day... then it is not challenging at all (provided money is no object)... but that would be cheating... as that is no different from simply driving diesel car the same distance!

[Rabbers]

1 hour ago, Mr Vlad said:

This is one thing I'm definitely gonna google to find out more to do with it.

Sorry for not providing a link, Vlad, but the article I read was not in English.  I’m sure Google will be your friend though.

[dutchie01]

All marketing nothing else. Reminds me of the Camel Trophy Landrover thing from years ago.

[Rabbers]

20 minutes ago, dutchie01 said:

All marketing nothing else. Reminds me of the Camel Trophy Landrover thing from years ago.

Good comparison.  I think they stopped because people finally understood that smoking Camels was more dangerous than the event itself.