Ajax, Ontario — Rainer Zietlow recently drove a Volkswagen ID.4 electric vehicle across Canada, stopping just 18 times to recharge—a feat the adventure driver has won a Guinness World Record for.
Zietlow and his cameraman, Elric Popp, departed St. John’s, Nfld., on July 25, 2023. The pair traversed 7,133 kilometres across Canada, making just 18 stops at charging stations over the eight-day journey. They ended their drive in Victoria, B.C. on Aug. 1, 2023.
Zietlow is now the Guinness World Record holder for “crossing Canada with the fewest charges of an electric vehicle.” Now he’s making another journey, in the opposite direction, stopping at 145 VW dealers across the nation to spread news of his mission.
“I hope [my achievement] will provide Canadians with confidence in the long-distance capabilities of electric vehicles and the continuously improving charging infrastructure in Canada,” said Zietlow in a press release from VW.
“The Volkswagen family is thrilled to celebrate Rainer’s new Guinness World Record,” said Pierre Boutin, VW Canada’s president and CEO. “We are excited that availability of the ID.4 model continues to expand so more Canadians can take their own electric adventures around the country.”
The HelloSafe.ca gas consumption calculator says it would take approximately 16.6 refills to drive 7,300 kilometres in a gas vehicle with a mileage of eight litres per 100km (and a 55-litre gas tank).
When we asked ChatGPT how many times you’d have to fill up your gas tank if you were to travel the some 7,300 kilometres across Canada, the AI chat generator said it would take approximately 150 refills…When we asked it again on Friday, it corrected this answer to 13.27 refills to travel 7,300 kilometres, on average.
According to this post from 2020, two men drove a from B.C. to Nova Scotia in a Tesla Model 3, making approximately 40 charging stops along the three-day journey.
Click here to view photos and videos from Zietlow and Popp’s journey.
One Response
As usual, ChatGPT is ridiculous with numbers–less than 50 km for each of 150 refills–since 50 times 150 is 7500km, farther than they did. Non-artificial lack-of-intelligence, once you’re anywhere near math.
Anyway, I’m a major EV fan, graduating from a couple of Volt PHEVs, now to a Hyundai IONIQ 5, somewhat comparable, but rated better on almost all counts than that Volks ID4. The latter’s stated range of 400km on the 77kWh battery is 5.2 km per kWh. I often get more than 7, always at least 6.5 km per kWh, and that’s the AWD, in the middle of summer. But I’m sticking to just over the 80km/hr speed limit, whereas Zeitlow was probably more like 100 much of the time. Also against the prevailing west-to-east winds, but maybe they were lucky.
We made it from Toronto to the north end of the Bruce peninsula and back without recharging in about +8 weather early spring. The newer IONIQ 6, though less roomy, is at least as good at my speeds, and definitely better than anything reasonably priced at 401 speeds, including Tesla.
I’d strongly suggest people to look at all the possibilities, though availability may also vary between different manufacturers.
Congratulations to them. But you certainly need to stick to the Trans-Canada outside PQ, ON, AB, and BC. Even the northern route from Portage to Saskatoon is still pathetic for fast charging.