A fully charged Telsa Model S should get you about 270 or 310 miles before you need to plug back in, depending on whether you buy it in the United States or Europe. But two Tesla fans recently pushed the P85D version of the Model S way past those limits in what appears to be a world record, reaching 452.8 miles (728.7 kilometers) before running out of electrons.
Bjørn Nyland and Morgan Tørvolt made the trip in Denmark by doing what's called "hypermiling." It's an (unpleasant) hobby of making your car run at maximum fuel (or in this case, electrical) efficiency. That means driving at a constant, slow speed, avoiding braking and full stops, and — most importantly — leaving the air conditioning off. Nyland and Tørvolt's 452.8-mile trip took them nearly 20 hours to complete (with one total hour of stoppage time) because they were traveling at an average of 25 miles per hour.
The duo could easily do 500 more
The new record is about 30 miles longer than the previous one, which was set by a father-and-son duo in Florida back in 2012. What's wild is Nyland and Tørvolt probably could have stretched it a bit farther, too. Early in the video, the two can be seen complaining about how poorly they planned the trip, and at one point they even get lost and wind up on a gravel road.
Verge Video: Riding in the Tesla P85D