Original Tesla Roadster Drives North to South in the UK in Record Time

Photo: @dpeilow

As an attempt to raise money for a clean energy-focused non-profit, one group of Tesla admirers in the United Kingdom (UK) has driven an original Tesla Roadster across the country in record time over the weekend.

A thread from @David Peilow shared throughout the weekend documented a trip in an 11-year-old Tesla Roadster driving from the UK’s most southerly location to its most northerly (via @TeslaOwnersUK).

The trip was intended to mimic the same trip, taken in a Roadsterone decade ago, and Peilow also set up a donation fund for the event, all of which will be given to the non-profit Zero Carbon World.

2011: 36 hours
2021: 21½ hours

The car, its battery, my jacket and t-shirt: Same

In 2011 we did 6 stops of 3+ hours each.

This time we went for a 9 stop strategy of around 30 minutes each to keep the battery in the fast part of the charge curve. https://t.co/WhScfWbFdn pic.twitter.com/MhjQO9apez

— David Peilow (@dpeilow) September 19, 2021

The trip as a whole took the crew 21.5 hours to complete and included a few charging stops to complete, with only one mild range scare. The crew also faced heavy rain for the last leg of the trip, lasting through roughly the last 30 miles.

The originally-designed Roadster performed the trip with a faster time than the original trip, which took place a decade ago.

The improvement is likely due to a variety of factors, with some of the most significant factors, including the increased deployment of electric vehicle (EV) chargers in the past decade, as well as steady over-the-air (OTA) updates to the old Roadster – which, like Tesla’s other vehicles, will steadily improve the vehicle’s efficiency over time.