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An electric car completed the world's first-ever drive from the North to the South Pole (kinda)

www.engadget.com An electric car completed the world's first-ever drive from the North to the South Pole

Scottish adventurers Chris and Julie Ramsey completed their 'Pole To Pole EV' expedition with a Nissan Ariya electric car.

An electric car completed the world's first-ever drive from the North to the South Pole

Earlier today, Scottish adventurers Chris and Julie Ramsey were finally able to announce their completion of the nine-month, 17,000-mile "Pole To Pole EV" expedition, the world's first drive from the 1823 Magnetic North Pole to South Pole.

Other links:

https://expeditionportal.com/what-the-pole-to-pole-expedition-wants-you-to-know-about-long-term-ev-travel/

https://poletopoleev.com/

https://global.nissannews.com/en/releases/north-pole-to-south-pole-with-nissan-ariya

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3 comments

  • Pretty good except:

    • They started not at the magnetic north pole, not at the geographic north pole, but at the place where the magnetic north pole used to be in 1823 -- just about the furthest south it has ever been. They even started south of places where people actually live.
    • They dragged around solar panels and a wind turbine... but also a gas generator pulled by one of the two Ford F-350 diesel support vehicles which apparently they only used when it was necessary.
    • They clearly didn't drive the entire way because, you know, the antarctic ocean. But, they won't show a route map.
    • They probably didn't drive across the Darien Gap because, while it could be done, it's dangerous (but you know, no route map).
    • They had to modify the stock Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE EV to make the journey adding bigger tires in bigger wheel arches, "ice-friendly" mods and structural reinforcement. But, that added weight, which reduced the range.
    • The original car had a theoretical range of 216 miles (about 350 km) which dropped to 205 miles (330 km) if the all-wheel drive was used. With the car mods the need for AWD and the cold temperatures, the range was significantly reduced near the poles.
    • The 17,000 mile (27,000 km) trip took 9 months, meaning they averaged approximately 4 km/h or 1 m/s.

    I dunno, the whole thing feels a bit too much like a publicity stunt where they cut corners. Like, the wind turbine they dragged along was apparently a 5 kW turbine. But, the batteries on the car have a capacity of 91 kWh. So, under ideal conditions, they would have had to wait 18 hours for the generator to fully charge the batteries. Was that worth the weight and drag of pulling the turbine behind them? I'd bet the turbine was being pulled by one of the support vehicles most of the time.

    Also, claiming it was "pole to pole" when one of the "poles" was actually a place where 200 years ago the magnetic north pole had been, when it was at its most southerly drift in known history.

    They claimed 'the purpose of "Pole To Pole EV" is to prove that electric vehicles make a viable replacement for existing diesel-powered expedition vehicles in the polar regions', but if you need 2 diesel support vehicles, one of which is towing a diesel generator and tons of fuel which was necessary to charge your EV, can you really say you proved it?

    It's great that the car runs at all at -40 (both C and F), and it's great that the range on modern EVs is in the hundreds of km, making expeditions at least somewhat possible. OTOH, I think it will be a while before anyone completes a legit polar expedition in an EV without significant assistance from diesel-powered support vehicles.

  • Even more shocking, it was a Nissan