Around the World in an Electric Car

It started off as a fantasy in a Chicago bar. Nursing beers as they kvetched about their job prospects, three recent college grads - Andrea Fjeld, Jeffrey Bladt, and Jon Azrielant - had a crazy idea: wouldn't it be great to circumnavigate the globe in an electric car?

Thus was born Project EViE, the first ever attempt to drive around the world in an all-electric vehicle (EV). In six short months, the trio's flight of fancy has become a journey of epic proportions.

To call the trip ambitious would be something of an understatement: The 70,000-mile route, which starts in New Zealand and ends in New York, will pass through 70 countries on all six continents. The catch: their ride will have maximum range of just over 200 miles on a single charge. The EViE crew will be on the road for a year and a half. If all goes according to plan, they will hit the road this June.

The project aims to do a couple of things. First, to quell the public's range anxiety with the ultimate field test. "We want to demonstrate once and for all that EVs can do anything a gas guzzler can, without destroying the planet," says EViE executive director Jon Azrielant.

The second goal is to rebrand EVs, which are currently viewed as a niche product for a niche market. "That's not based in any kind of fact about EVs. It has more to do with how they are branded," says Azrielant. "We think that an expedition that takes four cool young kids to some of the most exciting places in the world could help drive the associations of freedom and independence that are so deeply entrenched in American ideals of car ownership."

Planning the trip's logistics has been a daunting task. A team of 12 people has spent months researching the intricacies of scoring visas for all 70 countries, road and weather conditions on every leg of the route, ferries, political instability, you name it. They've tracked down and mapped out every last charging point they'll be using along the way. According to Azrielant, this list includes all currently announced EV charging stations in the world.

The team plans to announce their chosen vehicle, and their list of sponsors, on April 1st.

Project EViE has already generated enough buzz to land Bladt and Azrielant a book deal and a role on National Geographic's Odyssey show - a 13-episode series, each an hour long, covering the entire expedition. They've insisted, of course, that the trial vehicle also be electric.

Photo credit: Frankh