After just over six months on the road, two Teslas have driven around the world powered by electricity – including an entire family, with 3 young children, in a Tesla Model 3. But for one of the drivers it’s nothing new, as this was actually his fourth round-the-world trip in an EV – the first being way back in 2012.
80edays is the brainchild of Rafael de Mestre, the aforementioned owner who just finished his fourth round-the-world journey in an EV.
It started in 2012, when he heard about a pair of engineers navigating around the world in a Citroen C-Zero, a rebadged Mitsubishi i-MiEV, one of the early EVs of the modern era. de Mestre, however, owned a Tesla Roadster, the car that jump-started the modern EV moment, and thought there’s no way he was going to let a Citroen be the first around the world.
So, off he set in a self-declared “race” against the other team, wanting to beat them and be the first. After plenty of trials and drama, in a time when there were scarce public charging locations to be found even in advanced nations, and before Supercharging existed, de Mestre ended up winning the race and becoming the first to complete an electric circumnavigation of the globe. You can still find his driving and charging route here.
Despite the lack of infrastructure for his first race, and still-lacking infrastructure in many parts of the globe since, de Mestre likes to say “wherever there is light burning, you can find a charge” – and he carries a comically-crowded trunk full of custom charge adapters to make sure he can do this anywhere around the globe.
Since then, de Mestre has achieved the feat multiple times, often recruiting teams to go with him. In 2016, the trip included 9 Teslas, 1 Denza (a BYD/Daimler joint brand) and a Hungarian-made electric bus – though de Mestre drove a much more comfortable Tesla Model S that time, rather than his tiny Roadster.
In 2022, he set off again in his Roadster, and we caught up with him as he passed through California. This journey was notable for including what de Mestre believes is the first zero-emission transatlantic trip by car, as he shipped the Roadster in the cargo hold of a wind-powered cargo ship, which barely fit due to the car’s exceptionally small size.
And in 2024, he and a Czech family – Zdenek, Hanna, Max (11), Damian (8) and Laura (6) Martinek – took their Model S and Model 3, respectively, around the world. They started on April 24 of this year, and finished on November 3 under the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona – where de Mestre, who was born in Catalunya, has always started and ended his trips.
They were joined at times by other drivers who took on parts of the route, like a Kia Niro which joined to Morocco, but these two cars were the only finishers of the entire circumnavigation.
The most significant achievement of this trip was the inclusion of an entire family of five this time, all within a single Tesla Model 3. In 2016 a father and his adult daughter finished the trip, but there hadn’t been any full families or children on previous instances of 80edays until now. The trip set an Official World Record for first round-the-world trip in an electric car by a family, and longest trip in an electric car in a family.
Now, the Model 3 is a fine-sized car, with plenty of room for five passengers and impressive cargo space for a mid-size sedan… but then add all of their stuff, and send them around the world, and it’s quite impressive that that was all possible in a single normal-sized car. The car used an additional cargo box attached to the tow hitch, but this was lost due to border difficulties in China, so the family had to manage with just the car’s default cargo space (so much for the Americans who think their chihuahua needs an entire third row for itself…)
de Mestre also set a record for longest-driven trip in an electric car, at 42,015km, crossing 36 countries along the way. And each of his EVs have now done two trips around the world, seemingly the only two EVs to have done not just one, but multiple circumnavigations. The latter of which, the Model S, started the trip with over 600,000km (372k miles) on the odometer.
Along the way, the group met with local Tesla clubs in many areas, and with friends around the world from previous trips de Mestre has taken. They also gave presentations about EV driving in some places that are a little more off the beaten path, particularly central Asia.
On this trip, we also caught up with the crew briefly for lunch when they passed through Los Angeles and gave them a quick ride in a Waymo, which was everyone’s first time in a truly driverless vehicle and inspired some fun reactions from the kids. (Read more about a tougher test we gave Waymo on a chaotic Venice Beach weekend here)
The group was in good spirits at the time, but was about to hit the lowest point of the trip – significant difficulties with both shipping and customs getting the cars to China. Due to customs, they had to give up a lot of their luggage, including the Model 3’s external cargo holder. One of de Mestre’s repeated goals with this project is to create a more open world, with fewer borders, and freer movement and more cooperation across them, after experiencing so much frustration during his various trips.
Between these troubles and the international nature of climate change, de Mestre has largely decided that borders are a roadblock to solving many of the world’s problems. When two countries are polluting across borders, rather than working together to solve the problem, what will often happen is that each one blames the other and does nothing to improve the situation – all the while, the global problem continues, and everyone is worse off for it. Cooperation is the answer, not isolation.
And speaking of climate change: on the same day the group finished their trip in Barcelona, the city felt the devastating effects of climate-affected storms which have been hammering Spain’s eastern coast recently, and came to Barcelona yesterday with floods that have disrupted transportation and have killed hundreds in the region over the past week. Not only were these storms made more common by climate change, but their intensity was increased, with more precipitation which overloads infrastructure that was built for a more normal climate, which we as humans are rapidly moving away from due to the combustion of fossil fuels.
Which puts a point on this whole exercise: despite that this is obviously an unnecessary, fun thing to do, it’s still making some important symbolic points. We have cleaner transportation options available to us today, and we are only making them harder to implement by putting up borders and reducing cooperation between nations. de Mestre and the Martineks have shown us all, once again, that there are better options available to us – we need only start taking them.
And finally, I’ll ask the same question I’ve been asking since 2012, with more and more evidence building every day: Who says you can’t roadtrip in an EV?
You can learn more about the trip and see pics & vids on instagram at @80edays_official, find Zdenek and his family at @tesloukolemsveta (mostly in Czech language), or support the project (which had significant cost overruns due to border processing issues) through Rafael’s Patreon. There’s a writeup of the trip here, and more info on 80edays’ website.
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Based on the excellent Hyundai IONIQ 5 N platform, Vanwall gives its Vandervell H-GT a high-performance aesthetic makeover inspired by the classic Lancia Delta HF Integrale. But what makes this body kit a genuine “high-performance” upgrade isn’t the way it makes the car look: it’s the 500 lb. weight savings!
Developed by Austrian racing team ByKOLLES Racing and invoking the name of a 1950s Formula 1 team, the Vandervell H-GT is essentially a new Hyundai IONIQ 5 N in aggressive, Lancia Delta-inspired carbon-fiber bodywork that the company claims gives the car an, “unprecedented weight optimization in this vehicle category.”
The H-GT’s new “thin wall” carbon fiber body slashes the car’s weight by over 230 kg (507 lbs.), which means ByKOLLES’ new Vandervell can do anything that Hyundai’s “special” IONIQ 5 N hot hatch can do. Only faster.
Raw carbon, raw performance
Mechanically identical to the IONIQ 5 N and packing the same 641 hp (with N Grin Boost) and 568 lb-ft of torque. That’s enough to launch the Hyundai version of the hatchback from a standstill to 60 mph in just 3.0 seconds.
After its 500 lb. crash diet, it’s even quicker.
The car was first announced in 2023 (along with the renderings shown, below), when ByKOLLES was competing in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with what used to be called an LMP car – but they keep changing the names of these things so it could be a Daytona Prototype, Hypercar, or even a 24 Hour LeMans Wonkavator by now.
The important part, however, is that a few of these cars have now broken cover, with ex-Formula 1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, having been seen trying the new-age Lancia on for size.
The Vanwall Vandervell website still shows the same €128,000 ($145,405, as I type this) price tag and specs it did in 2023, which either means they haven’t updated it in a while, were really, really good at pricing the thing in the first place, or both.
That’s presumably on top of the IONIQ N’s already hefty $66,100 price tag.
Electrek’s Take
This isn’t the first time my weird love of Lancia models from the 70s and 80s has been highlighted on these digital pages, but even my biased sensibilities can see that this is a unique, ultra-luxury statement piece that offers supercar levels of performance with the sort of daily driver dependability that Hyundai has offered for years.
It’s an incredible machine – and the only thing they did wrong, in my book, was not show one in Martini colors on its debut.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Vanwall Vandervell; CarExpert.
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I had the chance to drive the new 2025 RS Audi GT e-tron for a few hours in the Nevada desert and for a few minutes on a race track.
Here are my thoughts.
Audi has stepped up its EV game in a big way with its new electric vehicles based on the PPE platform. Over the last year, I drove both the Q6, an electric SUV based on the PPE, and the A6, an electric sedan based on the same platform, and I came out extremely impressed.
I think those vehicles are going to take Audi to the next level when it comes to EVs.
But they are not the EVs pushing Audi’s limits; that’s still its flagship Audi GT e-tron, now with a top-performance RS version launched with the 2025 model-year refresh.
The new GT e-tron, which is built on the same platform as the Porsche Taycan, is more than a model year refresh; it’s a mid-cycle update, but not a normal one. While mid-cycle updates often focus on design changes and adding a few features, the 2025 GT e-tron looks very similar to the previous version, but it’s significantly different under the hood.
The design has been slightly updated with a honeycomb grill, a few new wheel designs, and a very cool new motorsport-inspired rear reflector.
I think that the rear diffuser with vertical reflector looks sick on the RS GT:
It still looks like the same sporty vehicle, but more refined, especially the RS version.
Speaking of the RS version, it’s now the most powerful Audi ever with almost 1,000 horsepower (912hp). That’s thanks to new motors with increased copper density, resulting in more power and lower weight:
An added bonus is that they can also regen at a higher rate of 400kW, which quite impressive. I prefer the regen modes in the Q6/A6, but the 400kW capacity has some incredible stopping power. That’s 0.45G at max deceleration.
It’s useful when you launch the RS GT e-tron from 0 to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds with launch control is engaged. I did a few quick acceleration and fast launches in the desert and on a small racetrack outside of Las Vegas and you need to make sure your head is firmly on the headrest.
Audi also has a “push-to-pass” power boost button on the steering wheel that unleashes an extra 94 hp (70 kW) for 10 seconds. The German automaker emphasized that this is repeatable. I didn’t test that, but I can say that I tested the RS GT e-tron on the racetrack after a dozen people did with the same car, and I was impressed by the capacity at about 50% state-of-charge.
Now, if you look closely at this launch, you might have noticed how the front end of the vehicle adjusted itself down after shooting up from the launch.
That’s thanks to the new advanced adaptive air suspension with with damper control.
It’s extremely fast and impressive. I am pretty sure they could make the car jump and down with the suspension if they wanted to, but they don’t.
The suspension is so advanced you don’t need an anti-roll bar. It adjust so fast that it is able to keep the vehicle solid and balance even in high speed corners. It felt effortless driving somewhat aggressively on the desert roads outside of Las Vegas, but Audi enabled a very cool test on the track.
They had me do a lap without the active suspension’s cornering compensation activated and then I did the same lap with it enabled. It was night and day. In fact, it felt like cheating. I’m no track driver, but the second lap felt incredibly easy, almost as if the car was on rails.
Here are the different suspension profiles:
The new 2025 GT e-tron also has 12% more battery capacity resulting in up to 51 more miles of range depending on the configurations and wheel choices. It results in 278 miles of range mac for the RS and 300 miles of range for the S.
As usual, one of the most impressive things about Audi’s EVs is the fast-charging capacity, and the new 2025 GT improves on that thanks to the updated battery pack:
That results in 10 to 80% charging in about 18 minutes.
All that performance doesn’t come cheap. The S e-tron GT starts at $125,500, and the RS e-tron GT Performance starts at $167,000. The version that I tested with closer to $180,000 with options.
Electrek’s Take
This was actually my first time driving an Audi GT e-tron so I can’t compare it to the previous version, but I came out impressed.
With Audi, I love their quiet, comfortable luxury with the A6 and Q6. This is not that. It’s a performance vehicle, but it’s still a 4-door, 4-seater, with decent space in the back, so Audi clearly also focused on comfort, and you can feel it.
I can see this being a great daily driver even though the cabin wasn’t as quiet as the previously mentioned vehicles and you could feel more vibration.
The Audi GT e-tron really shines when you start driving more aggressively. Like I previously said, the active suspension’s cornering suspension is truly impressive and makes things easier.
Though I’d note that, unlike the active suspension in the latest Taycan, the one in the Audi GT does allow a bit of roll to give you some road feedback. I appreciated that.
I also appreciated the vehicle’s steering. Again, I can’t compare it to previous versions, but the ratio was reportedly reduced and it did feel short and precise.
The lower weight and higher battery capacity are also appreciated as it can be hard for people to buy an electric vehicle at $100,000+ with fewer than 250 miles of range, which was the case before this 2025 update.
Now, to be fair, Audi put me in a fully loaded RS GT e-tron Performance that cost closer to $200,000. It was incredible, but I don’t know how the car performs with the base S GT e-tron. I’m sure you can have fun with it too and you get more range.
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A Unifor union rep at the Ontario production facility where GM builds the all electric Chevy BrightDrop van is temporarily halting production of the commercial EV due to slow sales – but with massive discounts, Costco member programs, and state and utility incentives driving costs well below its diesel competitors, it might still be the best EV deal you can get.
Donald Trump’s planned automotive tariffs may have been put on hold, but the uncertainty they caused just from being threatened has caused waves of damage across a dozen industries – and that’s causing companies like GM to expect more pain in the near term.
To that end, GM says it’s making, “operational and employment adjustments to balance inventory and align production schedules with current demand,” at the CAMI Assembly plant in Ontario, Canada, where it makes BrightDrop vans. The layoffs will begin on April 14, according to the union, when production will temporarily cease until October 2025.
During the downtime, GM says it plans to retool the plant to prepare for production of the (presumably updated) 2026 model year BrightDrop vans.
“(The production pause is) a crushing blow to hundreds of working families in Ingersoll and the surrounding region who depend on this plant,” said Unifor National President, Lana Payne, in a statement. “General Motors must do everything in its power to mitigate job loss during this downturn, and all levels of government must step up to support Canadian auto workers and Canadian-made products.”
GM reported sales of just 274 BrightDrop vans in the first quarter of 2025. That’s up about 7% from the 256 sold in Q1 of 2024 – but still really. Definitely. Not. A lot.
When production resumes in October, the plant will operate on a single shift, which will result in reduced manufacturing rate for GM’s commercial vans and the indefinite layoff of nearly 500 union factory workers, according to Unifor.
Electrek’s Take
We’ve covered the $30,000-plus discounts currently available for Chevy BrightDrop customers. Those discounts are already enough to take the $84,235 BrightDrop 400 eAWD EV all the way down to $52,985 – and that’s before utility incentives like ComEd’s commercial EV rebates (which the Chevy van qualifies for) can bring it down even further.
ComEd is offering up to $30,000 in rebates (per vehicle) if you snap up the Class 3/11,000 GVWR version … meaning Chicago area fleets can electrify their delivery operations for much, much less than they probably think.
Check your state and local rebates at this link to see what a BrightDrop might cost you in your state, then let us know if you can think of a better EV deal in the comments.
SOURCE: Unifor; via Reuters.
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