When Elon Musk said a while ago that a 100kWh Model S can go over 1,000 kilometers on a charge, few believed. Now, a team of pizza/pasta/macaroni-eating hypermilers from Italy (of course), went as far as 1,078km, or 670 miles.
The EPA in the US had previously estimated a 335-mile range for the same Model S 100D. The Italians’ average speed has been 25 mph (40km/h) and they went a boooooring 29 hours. The Model S was stock except a set of low-rolling-resistance tires, and of course air conditioning was off, which I think was the toughest part, considering the summer temperatures in Italy.
“The driving was made simple by the semi-autonomous driving system, which helped us to keep a constant speed in the middle of the lane,” said Rosario Pingaro, one of the five brave Italians who took on this journey.
The battery had depleted after it consumed 98.4 kWh of electricity – now that is an incredible efficiency. Compare that with gasoline or diesel and you will not drive one of those again – if you have some spare to buy a Tesla.
Now some may say this was all a marketing hoax, but the charger lid has been sealed by a public notary and checked for validity after the trip ended – so it’s official.
Even Elon Musk himself twitted about it:
Officially verified as the first production electric car to exceed 1000km on a single charge! Congratulations Tesla Owners Italia!! https://t.co/r8fFZIFEP2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 5, 2017
In 2007, when I started writing green stuff, all the hype was about the second generation Prius. There were hundreds of hypermilers doing this kind of stuff and going about the same distance in their newly-acquired hybrids, on full tanks (about 6 gals).
Back then, electric cars were so exotic that you could find only converted ones on the market, were using lead acid batteries and sold for a small fortune. Tesla had only begun showing off its Roadster prototype.
Now it’s all about the Model S/X/3, right after Consumer Reports tested the “disappointing” range of a Model S 75D which did 24 miles less than they expected, while the Chevy Bolt exceeded expectations by some 12 miles. Unimportant, I say – the trend is what matters, and that electric vehicles are becoming more mainstream each year.
Or, as they say, “your mileage may vary.”
[via autoblog]
Proud to be a part of this “Pizza Pasta Macaroni” Record!
so cool!
That’s not a very useful test….’cause at 25 mph you are going to get clobbered…unless you only drive in school zones! We just returned from a 4,700 mile drive to Banff from SoCal in which our 2014 Model S 85 averaged just 291 Wh per mile. That is good enough for most travel.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c7e2a044cbbffab8af8bdc9941ed244b2dfe0306a00e235704c8a79dd5d7a4d.png
There are a lot of better-performing batteries in the labs that will find their way into production soon. When this happens I think range issues will go away, followed by electric cars becoming very cheap.