By taking 63 hours 35 minutes to cross Europe from southern Portugal to the North Cape in Norway in an electric car, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 did much better than the previous record in a Tesla Model 3.
Aside from the price, the main obstacles to purchasing an electric car today still remain range and charging time. And it is true that moving to zero-emission mobility requires changing your travel habits. Particularly during long journeys where while waiting for charging infrastructures to continue to flourish on the roads, it is better to find out in advance about the terminals available on the journey.
While waiting for the 400,000 charging stations desired by the government by 2030, the milestone of 100,000 was reached last May. No offense to the most refractory, more than enough to travel peacefully across France. And the rest of Europe is no less well off (probably better sometimes) as proven by the YouTubers from the EV Channel and their friend from Weelyke who have just crossed the Old Continent from the south of Portugal to the north of Norway by electric car. More precisely in a Hyundai Ioniq 6. With a new record to boot!
The gap with thermal is narrowing
Code name : Electric Transeuropean. The goal ? Break the record for crossing Europe in an electric vehicle. It is therefore from Cape Saint Vincent, in the Algarve region that the three testers set off a few days ago, Friday September 15, 2023, for their journey. And after taking turns at the wheel to cover the 5,665 kilometers of road, they reached the North Cape, in Norway, this Monday, September 18. That’s exactly 63 hours and 35 minutes.
It is therefore a new record which has been achieved since the previous one, called European Electric Cannonball, had required seven hours more, 70 hours and 49 minutes. It was behind the wheel of a Tesla Model 3 Long Range and above all, it was in 2021. The charging network was not as extensive as today, even that of Tesla with its Superchargers. And besides, the latter often need to travel a few kilometers more to reach them, the journey at the time had required 222 km more, or 5887 kilometers.
Above all, it is a great performance which no longer has much to envy of journeys in a thermal car, because as relayed by our colleagues from Numerama, a search on Google Maps allows you to see that the planner plans a 59-hour drive , while ViaMichelin adds two hours for a forecast of 61 hours of travel.
An average of 17.9 kWh/100 km
In detail, which can be seen in their logbook published on Polarsteps, the crew stopped in total no less than 23 times at fast charging stations. Here again, this is much less than the previous record, during which the drivers had to stop around thirty times to recharge, which is undoubtedly due in particular to the fact that the Hyundai Ioniq 6 is equipped with an 800 platform. volts, which allows it to recharge much more quickly.
Without having more than that information on the Ioniq 6 used, we can imagine that it is the Propulsion version, whose autonomy is greater than the four-wheel drive version, but also less powerful. With its 168 kW or 229 hp (compared to 239 kW or 325 hp), it offers a maximum range of 614 kilometers on the WLTP cycle, and a recharge time of only 18 minutes from 10 to 80%.
While waiting to discover this very beautiful record on video, we already know what the average consumption of this Ioniq 6 is on the journey from north to south of Europe (with three adults on board): 17.9 kWh/ 100km! So, who said you can’t travel electric?