Tesla driver breaks 1,000km-single charge long distance EV record

By Adam Westlake/

For a while now it's been a goal among electric car enthusiasts, especially Tesla owners, to set new records in how far they can drive their vehicles on a single charge. Tesla's Model S P100D has an official range of just over 500 kilometers/315 miles, but that's taking into account the natural factors of driving, like frequent stops, changes in speed, etc. But how far could it go if the driving was optimized for range?

That's exactly what a group of Tesla owners in Italy wanted to find out, and they ended up setting a new record in the process. The Tesla Owners Club Italia team managed to make a 1,078km/669.8 miles trip with a single charge in their Model S P100D. They not only broke the previous long-distance record by over 170km, they're also the first on record to drive a production electric vehicle over 1,000km on a single charge.

But before you go out to try this in your own Model S, you should be aware of the difficult conditions under which this trip was made. To start with, the record-setting drive took a total of 29 hours to complete. That's because they had to maximize the length of the battery by driving at a mere 40km/h (24.9mph). They also had to go without air conditioning, use low resistance tires, and rely on Autopilot when possible in order to keep their driving as smooth as possible.

While it will be quite some time before production EVs can reach these kind of distances with everyday driving, it was still an important milestone for enthusiasts and the electric car market as a whole. Hopefully as battery technology continues to develop, we'll start seeing leaps in range that bring us closer to long distance travel on a single charge.

VIA Engadget

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