Electric-car enthusiasts eye world records in cross-country trip

In the Ride The Future Tour, a collection of electric vehicle enthusiasts aim to travel almost 3,000 miles east to west across the US, Ingram writes. Several Guinness World Records are up for the taking, including "longest journey on an electric scooter," "longest journey on an electric motorcycle," and "longest journey in an electric car."

|
Rebecca Cook/Reuters/File
A 2012 Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle is parked at the solar-powered electric charging station at General Motors Co's assembly plant in Hamtramck, Mich. Organizers of the Ride The Future Tour aim to lead a whole convoy of electric vehicles across the US, everything from regular electric cars to scooters, bikes and more.

It's human nature to push the boundaries of what one can achieve, a trait clearly illustrated every time an electric car owner embarks upon a huge journeyto prove it can be done.

Such a trip is almost a cliché now--a brave few have already taken an electric car around the entire world, after all--but people are still find ways to put a new spin on the theme.

One of those is the Ride The Future Tour, a collection of electric vehicle enthusiasts aiming to travel almost 3,000 miles east to west across the U.S.

The trip's aim is to lead a whole convoy of electric vehicles across the U.S, everything from regular electric cars to scooters, bikes and more. On the 43-day trip they'll stop at 43 cities across the U.S, both to raise the trip's profile and also to recharge. 

Several Guinness World Records are up for the taking, including "longest journey on an electric scooter", "longest journey on an electric motorcycle" and "longest journey in an electric car".

We're not so sure about the latter--several huge journeys in electric cars have already been undertaken--but the Guinness rules for the scooter trip stipulate certain criteria, so perhaps there's no official car record just yet.

The organizers hope to produce a full documentary out of the trip, so this will certainly be something to look forward to.

The Ride The Future Tour starts on July 4 from South Carolina, and ends at Google's headquarters in California. [Editor's note: The state where the tour starts was corrected.]

Full details of the trip including some of the vehicles competing and the cities on the route--plus how you can enter if you're interested--can be found on the official website.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Electric-car enthusiasts eye world records in cross-country trip
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/0507/Electric-car-enthusiasts-eye-world-records-in-cross-country-trip
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe