Members of the Cross Country Rally team celebrate the completion of their 3,400-mile trek across the U.S.
It took two Tesla Model S sedans nicknamed after bad weather – Thunder and Lightning – to ward off a slew of bad weather and a team of 15 three days to finish setting a new world record on Sunday in New York.
Spurred on by the recent effort of John Glenney, 62, and his 26-year-old daughter, Jill, a father-daughter team who drove from New York to Los Angeles in five days, the aptly named Cross Country Rally team set a goal of just three days to accomplish the 3,464.5-mile trek using only Tesla’s Supercharger network. Superchargers are also faster than regular charging: they replenish half a charge in as little as 20 minutes.
They completed the trip from Los Angeles to New York City in just 76.5 hours, and recorded the lowest charge time – 1,197.8 kWh – for an electric vehicle traveling across the country, which is now being assessed for recognition by Guinness World Records in London. The process can take as long a six weeks.
The team may have chosen one of the most difficult times to set a record as much of the United States has been experiencing record colds, snows and other storms. In fact, the snow storms did force the team to re-route a few times during their trip, but they managed to shave nearly two full days off the Glenney’s initial effort.
(Tesla team charges across country to set new EV record. For more, Click Here.)
Tesla staffers Sara Eslinger and Jalpan Patel drove the final stretch to New York’s City Hall with Tesla CTO JB Straubel on board for the final leg from Newark, Del. Tesla CEO Elon Musk greeted the team after it crossed the finish line.
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Much like the Glenney’s trip, devotees of the company followed the Cross Country Rally team via blog entries and Twitter posts during the trip.
The team was met by fans at several Supercharger stops, including in Worthington, Minn., Macedonia, Ohio, and Newark, Del., with coffee and words of encouragement, according to the company. Not wanting to disappoint, the team handed out t-shirts and took time to answer questions while the vehicles recharged.
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The Tesla team was comprised of Tesla employees who were directly involved with the construction, operation, and deployment of the Superchargers – a rapidly expanding network that is a crucial part of the company’s mission to accelerate the transition to sustainable transportation.