Cross Country EV caravan - Ride the Future Tour

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benswing

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2013
Messages
16
A group of EV drivers, including a Nissan Leaf, will be crossing the country starting in Charleston, SC on July 4th and finishing at Google HQ in Mountain View, CA. We'll break the Guinness World record for distance traveled in an electric car, electric motorcycle, electric scooter and electric-assist bicycle. We will be throwing town parties in 43 cities and towns across the US and would love to meet up with local EV drivers!

Our town parties will highlight electric vehicles, so it would be great to have local EV drivers meet up with us. You can follow along with the tour at http://RideTheFutureTour.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or http://www.facebook.com/ridethefuturetour" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . We plan to arrive in each city in the afternoon and have the party that evening around 6-10pm. If you can meet up with us, please send us a message on our facebook page.

Hope to see you on the road! These are the dates we will be arriving in each city:
3-Jul - Charleston, SC
4-Jul - Columbia, SC
5-Jul - Greenville, SC
6-Jul - Athens, SC
7-Jul - Atlanta, GA
8-Jul - Calhoun, GA
9-Jul - Chatannooga, TN
10-Jul - McMinnville, TN
11-Jul - Nashville, TN
12-Jul - Natchez Trace State Park
13-Jul - Whiteville, TN
14-Jul - Memphis, TN
15-Jul - Brinckley, AR
16-Jul - Little Rock, AR
17-Jul - Oden, AR
18-Jul - Ft. Smith, AR
19-Jul - Henryetta, OK
20-Jul - Oklahoma City, OK
21-Jul - Clinton, OK
22-Jul - Shamrock, TX
23-Jul - Amarillo, TX
24-Jul - Tucumcari, NM
25-Jul - Las Vegas, NM
26-Jul - Santa Fe, NM
27-Jul - Albuquerque, NM
28-Jul - Grants, NM
29-Jul - Sanders, AZ
30-Jul - Winslow, AZ
31-Aug - Flagstaff, AZ
1-Aug - Grand Canyon
2-Aug - Seligman, AZ
3-Aug - Kingman, AZ
4-Aug - Las Vegas, NV
5-Aug - Baker, CA
6-Aug - Barstow, CA
7-Aug - Big Bear Lake, CA
8-Aug - Corona, CA
9-Aug - Newport Beach, CA
10-Aug - Santa Monica, CA
11-Aug - Santa Barbara, CA
12-Aug - San Luis Obispo, CA
13-Aug - Big Sur, CA
14-Aug - Sunset State Beach, CA
15-Aug - San Gregorio, CA
16-Aug - Google Headquarters, Mountain View, CA

* If you live in Northern California, you can ride with us from San Gregorio, up to the Golden Gate Bridge, then back down to Stanford and finally to Google HQ. The whole day will involve about 94mi of driving, and we plan to recharge during a stop at FIsherman's Wharf.
 
I noticed that the OKC-Barstow segment largely parallels old route 66. Is the caravan going to drive as much of the original road as possible (where it doesn't involve backtracking, or punishing your EV on roads not maintained since it was decommissioned), or will you stay on the interstate the majority of the time?

Whichever you do, happy electric motoring!
 
Excellent !

But how is it you will be breaking distances driven in an electric car, given the fact that two Frenchmen did a round-the-world tour in a C-Zero and one guy did it in a Tesla Roadster nearly simultaneously ? And before them a Tesla Roadster went NYC (Atlantic) to LA (Pacific) in their "Renew America Roadtrip" (TM) ? And before them ... the Zero Race ... and before that ....

( I guess, maybe those others didn't think to have official Guinness Book personnel along ... :( )
 
We'll mostly be on non-highway roads, which means we'll see a LOT of America! Each night we're throwing a party to invite local people to check out the vehicles and there will be a singing contest, local vendors, etc.

In terms of world records, the others apparently didn't set it up with Guinness World Records. I've been following Terry Hershner and he's going 21,000 miles on his electric motorcycle. However, I'm not sure he has officially contacted Guinness to be in their records.

To me, one of the main things that we are doing is bringing EV's to the people, especially in the Midwest where there aren't many.
 
benswing said:
In terms of world records, the others apparently didn't set it up with Guinness World Records. I've been following Terry Hershner and he's going 21,000 miles on his electric motorcycle. However, I'm not sure he has officially contacted Guinness to be in their records.

To me, one of the main things that we are doing is bringing EV's to the people, especially in the Midwest where there aren't many.


Terry right now is in Idaho coming to the Peace Arch State park tomorrow to begin our rally. Whether he contacted Guinness or not, the fact remains he was and will always be the first electric motorcycle from coast to coast in the USA.

It frankly doesn't matter what Guinness records. I think Terry could enter the Iron Butt Rally (11 days, 11,000 miles)... They don't put that one in Guiness either.
 
TonyWilliams said:
Terry right now is in Idaho coming to the Peace Arch State park tomorrow to begin our rally. Whether he contacted Guinness or not, the fact remains he was and will always be the first electric motorcycle from coast to coast in the USA.

It frankly doesn't matter what Guinness records. I think Terry could enter the Iron Butt Rally (11 days, 11,000 miles)... They don't put that one in Guiness either.

That's cool that you'll see Terry & his bike. He was supposed to visit us here in NJ, but got hung up in Atlanta for a bit.

I would imagine that he probably has his sights set on the Iron Butt Rally at some point.

Again, the point of our rally is to bring another spotlight on EV's of different types (car, motorcycle, scooters, electric-assist bicycles) and local media love to cover world record attempts. So the Guinness thing is primarily a way to help promote EV's.

We hope you'll follow along with our adventure. Going at a more modest pace will give us a better flavor of the cultures to be found across the US than trips that take only a few days.
 
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Cool!! Looks like fun. Reminds me of the EVOdyssey trip a dozen years back when we took the two EV1s from Santa Monica to South Carolina.
 
benswing said:
TonyWilliams said:
Terry right now is in Idaho coming to the Peace Arch State park tomorrow to begin our rally. Whether he contacted Guinness or not, the fact remains he was and will always be the first electric motorcycle from coast to coast in the USA.

It frankly doesn't matter what Guinness records. I think Terry could enter the Iron Butt Rally (11 days, 11,000 miles)... They don't put that one in Guiness either.

That's cool that you'll see Terry & his bike. He was supposed to visit us here in NJ, but got hung up in Atlanta for a bit.

I would imagine that he probably has his sights set on the Iron Butt Rally at some point.

Again, the point of our rally is to bring another spotlight on EV's of different types (car, motorcycle, scooters, electric-assist bicycles) and local media love to cover world record attempts. So the Guinness thing is primarily a way to help promote EV's.

We hope you'll follow along with our adventure. Going at a more modest pace will give us a better flavor of the cultures to be found across the US than trips that take only a few days.

We did see Terry... for the entire event; he ended up in second place at the conclusion!!!

Our event also brought in outside the "EV cocoon" media; I did TV interviews in Medford, Oregon and San Franciso, California, plus we got various print mass media (modern term for newspaper).

Obviously, we got plenty within the cocoon exposure, also. Good luck; let's us know when you get near SoCal and we will get a welcoming party. I've test ridden a few of the electric bikes now, so maybe I'll own one by then.





BC2BC-2013 Results:

The BC2BC-2013 All Electric Vehicle Rally began with all vehicles departing from the Canadian border at the Peace Arch State Park, Saturday, June 29, 2013 with 1508 miles / 2427km driven to Mexico.


Overall Results, Final Tally, BC2BC-2013, All Electric Vehicle Rally
Posted July 7, 2013 at 8pm

Rally #---Time points / Card points ---Model

1st) Car #43 ----- 1 / 1 --- Tesla Model S
2nd) Bike#5 ----- 3/5 --- ZERO motorcycle
3rd) Car #8 ----- 4/4 --- Tesla Model S
4th) Car #1 ------ 7/3 --- Toyota Rav4 EV
5th) Car #6 ----- 5/7 --- Tesla Model S
6th) Car #45 ---- 6/6 --- Tesla Roadster
7th) Car #4 ----- 8/- --- Nissan LEAF
8th) Car #3 ----- 9/- --- Nissan LEAF
9th) Car #2 ----- DNF --- Mitsubishi iMiev
 
Thanks for posting the photos and following along. We've met some Leaf owners in Atlanta and Chattanooga so far. Looking forward to meeting some more!

Zero is not sponsoring the event, but I have met some of their guys and they are supportive.

I always ask before bringing my motorcycle into a hotel. People have been very gracious and generally let me charge in the foyer or the room without. Second thought. It surprised me at first, but now it has happened so often that I'm getting used to it.

We had an amazing visit to McMinnville and talked to a lot of interested people.
 
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