With only a handful of Tesla Model 3s delivered to regular customers during the last few weeks of 2017, the electric sedan is already starting to break records. The first one to fall prey was the time in which an EV completed a cannonball run, with a Model S holding the previous best result.
The successful attempt took place on Thursday, December 28th, and came to an end two days later on the East Coast. The two drivers, Alex Roy and Daniel Zorrilla - the latter being the Model 3 owner - set off from the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California, heading for the Red Ball garage in New York City.
The time to beat was 51 hours and 47 minutes set by a Model S four months ago, and doing it in the holiday season might not have been the best idea. Not only are the roads more crowded as people travel to see their families or to their holiday destination, but the colder air of the winter is also not helping an EVs range whatsoever.
Despite all that, the two managed to reach their destination in just 50 hours, 16 minutes and 32 seconds, beating the previous time by just over half an hour. The lure of holding a record will undoubtedly spur others to try their hands at it, but we'll probably only hear about the successful ones.
Perhaps the most incredible part of the whole trick was how much the two spent on "fuel." Covering a distance of 2,860 miles (4,602 km) in a vehicle equipped with an internal combustion engine normally means you'd have to fill up the gas tank several times. Translated into dollars, it would make this trip a pretty expensive one.
The Model 3, on the other hand, only needed a fraction over $100 to cross the country from one coast to the other, which is nothing short of fantastic. A Model S, on the other hand, could do it for free as the larger sedan still has free unlimited access to the Supercharger network (when bought through the referral program).
The two made a time-lapse video of their road trip which suggests the heater might not have been used in an attempt to maximize the vehicle's range and reduce the number of stops.
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