Aussie Tesla breaks electric car distance world record

A Tesla Roadster run in this year's Global Green Challenge between Darwin and Adelaide has smashed the record for the longest distance travelled by an electric car on a full charge, but it had to be driven at an excruciatingly slow pace.

No skullduggery here.
(Credit: Internode)

The left-hand drive Tesla Roadster driven by Simon Hackett, managing director of ISP Internode, and Emilis Prelgauskas managed 501km on a single charge. For the record run, they travelled two-up, driving south from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory before crossing a roadside marker 183km north of Coober Pedy in South Australia.

To achieve this record, Simon and Emilis switched the air-conditioning off, left the windows and canvas roof up, and drove at a very sedate 55km/h for over nine hours, stopping every two hours to switch drivers. Trust us, with the next corner some 30 kays away and each kilometre melting into the next, the legal limit of 130km/h is itself excruciatingly slow, even with the tunes cranked up to 11 and the air-con set to Arctic.

The previous world record of 390km was held by another Tesla Roadster. That car was driven by a Tesla employee in the Rallye Monte Carlo d'Energies Alternatives in April this year. However, according to reports, that Roadster ran at more normal speeds. During its run, it achieved an average of 90km/h on motorways, 60km/h on trunk roads and 30km/h in mountainous regions, for an overall average 45km/h.

In contrast, the highway between Alice Springs and Coober Pedy is both straight and flat. The Global Green Challenge that's currently being run is an evolution of the World Solar Challenge, which now incorporates non-solar cars, including electric cars, the Ford Fiesta Econetic and the gas guzzling HSV Maloo R8.