UPDATE History by Ordinary People: Father-Daughter Pair Doing 6-Day Electric Car Coast-to-Coast

(h/t to the insideevs.com electric vehicle blog, for alerting me about this story)

On Tuesday, John, a 62-year-old man from Kentucky, posted this laconic message on the Tesla owner online forum:

Heading cross country! myfastlady@aol.com | January 21, 2014

Drove from Kentucky to New York last week to pick up my daughter in Hoboken for my co- pilot. As I was exiting the freeway for JFK, I hit something in the road that blew out a tire and bent the rim. Called tesla service at 7:am Monday morning. They had a new tire and rim on by 9 am. Left JFK supercharger at 9:45. Stopped in Hoboken and on to Newark, De. Full range charge and left with 258 miles. Pulled into Somerset sc with 11 miles rang left. Somerset to Macedonia in 3 hrs. It was snowing so the leg to Maumee, Ohio was slow. Got in at 2:30 am and couldn't get to the supercharger because of the snow that hadn't been plowed. Went to a Hampton inn 1/2 mile away and called Tesla. The guy told me to get some sleep and he would see what he could do. I went back to the sc at 8 am and it was clear. Are these guys the best or what! Headed out to Mishawaka with temp at 6 degrees. I'll keep you up to date if there is interest.

"If there is interest..." Talk about modesty when embarking upon something never done before, and potentially as momentous as the first coast-to-coast in a car, or in a train.

The abbreviation 'sc' stands for Superchargers, a network of free charging for Tesla owners which makes this trip possible. It was long believed Elon Musk, Tesla's flamboyant owner, would want to be the first to coast-to-coast it - but he was scooped by one of his customers :)

John and his 26-year-old daughter, Jill, share the driving, as is customary in the Great American Road Trip. They are slated to complete it in 6 days - a feat that was unimaginable as recently as a year ago.

It was less than a year ago that NYT auto reporter John Broder published "Stalled Out on Tesla's Electric Highway." Per Tesla's invitation, Broder took one of their demo car to a DC-to-Boston drive. Due to extreme winter conditions and his own carelessness, he stalled a few miles short of a Supercharger station, and turned his story into an anti-EV screed concluding the the Model S is more vanity toy than real car.

Well, what a difference a year makes. Tesla sold about 25,000 award-winning Model S cars since then, its stock value has soared - and now people in the auto industry are talking about their eventual joining of the "Big Four". More broadly, EVs have become much more mainstream, with nearly 100k plug-in cars sold in the US in 2013, and EVs becoming so popular in Norway that “rekkeviddeangst” (range anxiety) was chosen as #2 in Norway's 2013 "Words of the Year" list, while the Nissan Leaf was the 3rd-best-selling car there for the entire year among all cars.

A few days ago, Tesla's Supercharger network - stations that replenish the Model S's 200+ mile range within 30-40 minutes - completed its first viable coast-to-coast route. For each Model S sold, $2k are set aside specifically for building this network - hence its rapid expansion with stations opening up literally every day. By the time Tesla launches its more affordable models slated for 2016-2018, the network should be very dense.

It was thought no one would dare do a full coast-to-coast on it in the depth of winter (EVs are said to lose up to 30% of their range in deep-winter temperatures). But John and Jill have set out, driving through snow-covered Midwest, Plains and northern Rockies. This morning they have driven out of Silverthorne, Colorado, and hope to make it to the West Coast by tomorrow evening.

As of now, only the Tesla and broader green-car community have been following. I wonder if that will change by the time they reach California. Follow John and Jill's updates live (they post something every couple of hours), watch history in the making, and send them your blessings directly.

------------ 11:25 AM PST UPDATE:

Thanks for the rec-list! I had a feeling this story would get some love here, and maybe Kossacks can help it go viral.

John just posted his latest update, a sweet and somewhat longer one [w/my added whitespace an comments]:

myfastlady@aol.com | January 24, 2014 new

Just charged at our 20th supercharger (JFK was #1) in Grand Junction. Speeds now 70-80mph and I rarely check the range.

Thanks to our Leaf friends for joining [haha, that includes moi who chimed in with greetings from "a lowly Leaf driver"]. We are natural allies in the revolution. Perhaps when the model e [a.k.a. The Affordable One] comes out you can trade the Leaf and join us on the Elon superhighway. [That's my plan too]

I have been withholding judgement about the model s as a touring car but now that we have logged 2500 miles (3400 since Kentucky) I think we can draw some conclusions.

First, it is very comfortable, no backaches or any soreness. Second, the infotainment system is awesome. We have listened to music and audiobooks from our I-phones. Music, news and podcasts from internet radio and Jill watched a movie on the I-pad (margin call) and we streamed the sound over the speakers. I had seen the movie so I just listened.the only thing we haven't listened to is am or fm radio, the staple of road trips for decades. Since the car is so quiet,we can have audio relatively low and hear it fine.

Third, the amount of space is over the top. Elon may disagree with 5 small children in the car [like with the wagons of years bygone, you can put a back-facing 3rd row in the Model S for a total of 7 passengers] but he may just need a screen shielding the drivers cabin.

Fourth, have I mentioned that I haven't had to pay for fuel. I would give the model s 5 stars as a touring car.