Ford and adventure traveler Lexie Alford have claimed a record for becoming the first to circumnavigate the globe in an electric vehicle, but “electric vehicle model” is more correct.
Alford holds the record for being the youngest person to visit every country on Earth at 21 years 177 days, according to Guinness World Records.
A Ford spokesman has confirmed to American Cars And Racing that five Ford Explorer EVs were used to complete the journey, which wasn’t a continuous one.
Ford worked with the Record Setter organization to establish a criteria for the record, which required Alford to cover 28,900 kilometers (roughly 18,000 miles) in a single direction around the globe, but not necessarily in a single trip. She also had to hit five continents and two antipodean points.
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Maps posted to the Ford-branded Record Setter website page show how the route was sectioned up across six continents, with the stretches across the United States from Los Angeles to New York and South America from coastal Chile to Buenos Aires the only two that went ocean to ocean. A total of 27 countries were visited during the six-month effort.
The use of multiple vehicles is not noted on the Record Setter page covering it or in Ford’s press release, which refers to it as “the vehicle Lexie used.” Neither Record Setter or Lexie Alford have yet responded to a request for comment.
Ford CEO Jim Farley personally congratulated Alford on the achievement upon her arrival in Nice, France, where from where the trip began.
The Ford spokesman said that all of the vehicles were of identical specification and the release says that the “the achievement proved just what is possible in an electric vehicle.”
Alford had to make it through several areas that lacked a charging infrastructure, which required the use of wall outlets and a portable battery pack, according to the release.
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The Explorer EV will not be sold in the United States, but starts around $50,000 in Europe and is available in a model rated at 374 miles (602 km) per charge on the European test cycle, which is approximately 20% more optimistic than the U.S. test.
Ford and Alford’s record stands in contrast to one recently set by Chris and Julie Ramsey, who became the first people to drive a single vehicle from the magnetic North Pole to the South Pole. They used an electric Nissan Ariya SUV that retained its factory powertrain, but had its suspension and tires modified by Arctic Trucks to handle extreme terrain.
Their 10-month trip covered 30,000 kilometers and was completed in one shot, broken only by boat ride between Panama and Colombia to circumvent the dangerous Darien Gap and a flight from the tip of Argentina to Antarctica.