is called Lexi AlfordBut after receiving Guinness record At the age of 21, she became the youngest woman to visit every country in the world „Lexi Limitless”. He is 25 years old and in 2022 he started planning with the authorities Ford of EuropeA new journey around the world, but this time it has another purpose: to do so by visiting representative countries of all regions to demonstrate the potential of electric mobility.
It was called Adventure „Charge Around the World”That means cargo around the world, and launched A stringIn the south of France, in September 2023. This vehicle is a pre-series unit New Ford Explorer Electric, which will be released in Europe later this year. The goal is to travel more 30 countries from six continentsAnd while the idea is to demonstrate that long distances are not a barrier to a 100% electric vehicle, the trip will make it possible to survey the infrastructure of different countries and the lack of compliance in other countries, even with critical charging networks.
The idea came by chance, when Two Argentinian engineers started working for Ford UK (United Kingdom), was looking for plans to build and came across the discovery story Aloha VanderwellAt the age of 16, he embarked on a trip around the world in 1922 that visited 43 countries and ended in 1927. That wonderful journey was once made. Ford dThis prompted these two Argentines to try to replicate it with an electric vehicle.
Following the fame that Lexi Limitless achieved with her world tour, being in charge of a 100% electric tour seemed like a great idea to her, so they contacted her and got the wheels turning.
„From the moment I learned about this trip, it was one of those moments where I knew it was going to be tough. But of course, especially being inspired by Aloha Vanderwell's adventurous spirit and seeing all these amazing things she's done, I knew I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't say yes. We must participate in this journey,” he said Lexi Alford Taking advantage of his time in Argentina, at a press conference organized at the Pacheco Industrial Center in Buenos Aires.
“We did 21,000 kilometers until reaching Argentina We still have 9,000 kilometers, maybe a little less than 9,000 to go. Hopefully, it will take us a few We have 50 days to go before we arrive in France. Where do we begin? The world record is 28,900 kilometers, and that mark is one to cross. When they were building the Ford Explorer EV and looking at its range, they thought about how many prejudices people have about their ability to drive electric vehicles. What if there are not enough chargers? The world is not yet ready for electric vehicles, so they came up with ideas on how to break some of these prejudices, and this trip was great,” he said.
The journey began in Europe, where electricity infrastructure was not a problem, even in countries where this technology was less developed. But then they came Africa and Asia, and there the real adventure began, not only because of the distance between charging points, but also because of other issues like food and customs. While Lexi isn't new to everything, the team that accompanies her on this adventure is.
There is a team It consists of 10 people, many of them are filmmakers, because in addition to making the trip, they are making a documentary that will be broadcast when it is finished. They have a security person, a doctor, a Ford EV technician and a mechanic who has all the tools and spare parts in case something happens on the road.
“Once I started going to places like Zimbabwe, I ran into dead ends with no infrastructure for electric vehicles. No. Zero. That means For every 450 km drive, stop for 30 hours. So two days, 30 hours. So it turned out very slowly, which was sometimes very tiring and frustrating. But the experience came that there were a surprising number of EV chargers in India, but since I was actually driving a pre-production model of the vehicle, the chargers there were not compatible with the EV. So Charging infrastructure is not working in IndiaIt was crazy because we were there, but we couldn't capitalize on it,” Alford said.
“So again we had to revert to domestic load. It took a long, long time. When you talk about a home charger, the cable you have is the emergency cable. This is not a home charger with a wall box. It's just a cable. And then as soon as I cross the border Butane, the charging infrastructure worked perfectly. In fact, Bhutan has taken several initiatives to electrify all its public transport. It is a beautiful country. Their goal is to be carbon negative, so they have invested a lot in electric vehicles,” commented Explorer.
In South America He had to face other additional difficulties. Entered through Chile came from AustraliaBut when he started his journey north, he found large areas without electricity charges and high temperatures.
„It was very challenging in Chile because we were It goes up from the coast and crosses the desert. I had to drive very slowly. I had some when I drove through the Atacama 35°C temperature. That's the hottest we've ever been. But to extend autonomy across these truly open and desolate areas without chargers, I had to turn off the air conditioning. ok So, the experience was very uncomfortable. But I think the electric vehicle revolution definitely has a long way to go, but I think a lot of countries are interested in it, not only because of concepts like sustainability, but also because of the economic aspect. Very cheap,” he said.
“We have one 'just in case'Probably used three times in total during the trip, which is a Small battery called environmental flow. I can slow down more and more and use it if that's not enough. We always like to have a distance of 50 kilometers or more between my autonomy and my destination to play it safe. But we have these portable battery packs that you plug in just like your cell phone. Charging every hour only gives about 2 km With them, it is not ideal. At one point, this happened for the first time in South America. truly, Another 40 km to reach the next charger. That's why I'm so worried about burdens. But after crossing the hills, on the way down, the car covered over 120 kms, some of the biggest ups and downs I've ever come across. I went over 100 km before I got to the charger,” he said.
„It's been a very strong learning curve. I don't think I had any experience driving electric vehicles before this trip. And it's a completely different driving style. You have to be more aware of how much you accelerate. You have to be more aware of your surroundings because of the ups and downs of the terrain. will have a very strong effect on vehicle autonomy,” Lexie concluded.
He Ford Explorer It was put on a plane and flown to America, where the adventurer spent two days relaxing at his family home in California. Once you cross the entire country NYIt will be sent back by air Norway, starting the last leg of the journey, ending back in Nice. In North America you will encounter much lower temperatures and another network incompatible with European chargers. This is part of what the world needs to unite to be more friendly to those who decide to adopt electric propulsion. This is one Biggest challenges in the industry.
