It’s not surprising that no one yet has driven an electric vehicle from the North Pole to the South Pole. It’s a difficult journey and there’s likely long stretches without convenient charging stations. And, given the abundance of oceans, it’s probably a lot simpler to just take a boat.
But next year, British adventurer Chris Ramsey is going for it. He and his team will set out from the magnetic North Pole in a tricked out, all-electric Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE and cross 14 countries over about 17,000 miles. The team plans to travel through North America and South America before crossing over to Antarctica.
Given the variety of terrain and temperatures, ranging from -20 to nearly 90 degrees fahrenheit, Ramsey’s Nissan will be modified with a custom rugged exterior with upgraded wheels, tires and suspension. A second, unmodified Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE will act as a support vehicle throughout the Americas.
This isn’t Ramsey’s first time covering a lot of ground in an electric vehicle. In 2017, he and his wife, Julie, finished the Mongol Rally, a roughly 10,500-mile intercontinental race that starts in London and ends in Russia, in a Nissan Leaf. That took 56 days so it’s reasonable to believe that the Pole-to-Pole expedition could last at least three months.
Ramsey said that his mission with this upcoming adventure is to show that “electric vehicles can tackle the harshest of environments – from the bitter cold of the poles to the hot and humid jungles of South America, and illustrate that they are exhilarating to drive whilst meeting the daily demands of drivers around the world.”
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