Q24N – Electric Americas is an expedition whose main objective is to demonstrate that today it is possible to drive electric cars between Alaska and Argentina, along the well-known Pan-American Highway.
This journey has already been traveled in various ways: on foot, by bicycle, by car, by plane, but never a production electric vehicle, a car that anyone can buy and that does not have any special preparation.
Uruguayans Martín Canábal together with Oliver Umpierre and Tuti Iraola, and, of course, their two Teslas: a Model 3 Long Range and a Model X Long Range Plus traveled the 32,000 kilometers of the Pan-American, a network of roads stretching across the Americas, from Alaska to Argentina.
Except for a break of approximately 106 km (66 mi) across the border between southeast Panama and northwest Colombia, called the Darién Gap, the roads link almost all of the Pacific coastal countries of the Americas in a connected highway system.
In Costa Rica, the stretch of the Pan American from the border with Nicaragua in the north to Panama in the south is called the Inter-American that runs on Rutas 1 (north section) and Ruta 2 (south section).
The trip officially began on June 1, from Anchorage, Alaska, and concluded on December 29, arriving in Ushuaia, Argentina.
These two models have traversed the American continent in six months, overcoming completely opposite climates and terrain.
From Electric Americas, they maintain that zero-emission cars have responded very well to these conditions.
The main problem: energy replenishment. In order to charge the electric battery of the vehicles, they had to retrofit any source of energy to power their vehicles.
“The most difficult points to charge energy were Canada and Peru,” they recalled.
“The high temperatures have not been a problem, although the low have had an impact on the autonomy of the vehicle. At 30º below zero in Canada, autonomy has decreased to 50%. However, in the city We haven’t had any problems”, says Canábal.
In addition, at some points the electricity charge took more than 30 hours to complete the battery, whose average autonomy is 400 kilometers.
How the idea of uniting Alaska and Ushuaia in Tesla was born
Canabal, who lives in San Francisco, explained that the idea came about after buying a Tesla.
But to make his dream come true, he summoned his friend Oliver, who suggested that he record the trip and then publish a documentary of the adventure. In addition, the publications they made from the caravan’s social networks had a luxury follower: Elon Musk.
“I wrote a tweet saying that we did it, we made the journey in electric cars and after a while, arriving in Comodoro and when we had internet, my partner Olivier told me: ‘Elon Musk liked you’. I still can’t believe it, nor can the consequences that this has had, with almost 4 million reproductions and tweet comments, always positive. I can’t keep up with responding to everyone.
So we did it! We drove two electric cars, @Tesla, from Anchorage (Alaska) to Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego)! We just wanted to prove it was possible, and it is. It’s not easy yet, but soon this will be “normal”. @Electr_Americas pic.twitter.com/9m8xJ3DndS
— Martin Canabal (@martin_canabal) January 6, 2023
“And there was also, a few days ago, that the Tesla people put a ‘like’ on another tweet and They asked us for photos that they uploaded on their official Instagram account. For us it was touching the sky with our hands, it’s a confirmation that we did something right,” explained Canabal.
More on the Electric Americas trip here.
The Panamerican Highway
