A family in a Tesla Model 3 managed to beat the EV cannonball record, which consists of crossing the US from east to west in an electric vehicle as fast as possible, by 2 hours.
The record was beaten by a Swiss family who has made their Model 3 Long Range RWD (US version, VIN 32XX) travel a lot.
They bought it from the US in January 2018 and imported it to Europe.
At that time, Tesla had yet to launch the Model 3 in Europe.
The car drove it in Europe until last month when they imported it back into the US to do the cannonball run:
“Starting in New York City at “Red Ball Garage” on 31st and 3rd Avenue on Friday, July 12th at 11:02 pm EDT, they arrived at the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach at 08:12 pm PDT on Sunday, July 14th, making the 2’835 mile (4’562 km) trip in 48 hours and 10 minutes. To our knowledge, beating the previous record time for EVs by 2 hours and 6 minutes. The average speed of 58.9 mph (94,8 km/h) included 19 stops at Tesla Superchargers on the way. The overwhelming majority of the trip was driven by using the Tesla Autopilot, including the “navigate on autopilot” functionalities. The drive was documented with a start-to-finish time-lapse video and with the time-stamped supercharging protocol.”
There were three of them to drive the Model 3: Lars Thomsen, his wife Betty Legler, and their 18-year-old daughter Robin Jedi Thomsen.
Throughout the trip, they consumed 832 kWh of energy — averaging 293 Wh/mi (182 Wh/km):
“On the trip, we consumed a total of 832 kWh of energy, averaging 293 Wh/mi (182 Wh/km). The trip was driven with three drivers, cabin temperature set at around 70 degrees, AC on at 100% of the time. Throughout the run car carried about 840 lbs (380 kg) payload in passengers, luggage and supplies. The total charging cost amounts to US $ 136.26.”
They released a video timelapse of the trip as evidence:
Electrek’s Take
I am not a fan of cannonball runs because it generally involves driving really fast while trying to avoid getting speeding tickets.
However, an electric vehicle cannonball doesn’t necessarily involve excessive speeds and a quick look at the timelapse seems to show that the Thomsens weren’t driving that fast.
With an electric vehicle, you want to manage efficiency and charging in order to keep the car on the road.
To beat the record, they used the most efficient long-range electric vehicle, which happens to be the Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD.
On top of that, the most recent update to the charging speed at Supercharger V2 stations was mostly the biggest difference in beating the record in this case.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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