Sebastopol man and his Tesla begin 80-day trip around the globe

Thursday at 4 a.m. California time, Sebastopol resident Alan Soule embarked on a trip in his 2012 Tesla Model S.

His trip is 15,534 miles long through 20 countries and across three continents - around the world in 80 days.

Soule and 11 other electric vehicle teams from seven countries are in Barcelona to begin a trip demonstrating that electric cars can be sustainable means of transportation.

Called “80eDays,” the teams will cross mountains (Alps and Rockies), deserts (the southern part of the Gobi) and plains, idle through huge cities, and traverse Asia and Europe before reuniting Sept. 4 and driving together across the finish line at the Arco de Triunfo in Barcelona.

It’s a journey that’s been a year in the making for Soule, a 66-year-old retired commercial building contractor.

“I have always been interested in alternative energy for vehicles,” he said. “I had a car that ran on propane back in the ’70s, and then when General Motors came out with the EV1, I leased one of those, and that was in 1999.”

When Tesla first came out with its Roadster in 2008, he snatched one up, too, and in 2012, took it down Route 66.

“From all the research that I’ve done, I’m almost positive it’s the first electric vehicle to drive Route 66,” he said.

After purchasing his 2012 Model S the year of its release, he was emboldened by a Spaniard he met while getting his car serviced in Menlo Park. The man told Soule he was trying to take his Tesla Roadster around the world in 80 days. Rafael de Mestre didn’t make it in the allotted time frame, but he and Soule kept in touch, and now, four years later, de Mestre is giving it a shot again. Joining de Mestre and Soule are two Swiss and two German teams, along with one each from China, Hungary, Czech Republic and Austria.

In March, he did a shorter drive, a test run across the western half of China over the course of five days, to see what charging might be like, especially across vast rural stretches. He charged 10 times.

“I think in much of the rest of the world, liability isn’t a big issue to them,” Soule said, “so what we would do is we’d drive up and see a tire shop, and we would just ask if they would mind if we connected (our portable charger) to their circuit breaker. We never got turned down.”

Preparing for the trip has been a full-time job, Soule said, such as lining up visas for China, Kazakhstan and Russia, and making sure the cars will have all the charging adapters they need - something that changes country by country.

Over the course of the trip, Soule will have a rotating crew of five co-drivers who are friends and friends of friends who will meet him at various junctions, and planning the route took time as well.

“I originally wanted to go through Turkey because I like Turkey, but there are problems there,” Soule said. “And I’ve been told that Belarus has a lot of gangs. And the southeastern portion of Ukraine is where the Russians are trying to make a stronghold. But if you go up through Latvia, that’s an extra 600 miles, and we don’t want to do that, so we’re going to take a chance and go through northern Ukraine and see what happens.”

The route from Barcelona leads southwest to Lisbon, Portugal, where the teams have chartered a plane to take their cars to Halifax, Nova Scotia. From there, they head west to New York, Chicago and Denver. Making their way to Los Angeles they’ll again hire a cargo plane to ship their cars to the southeastern edge of China in Guangzhou, where they’ll continue their westward trek, traversing Asia and Europe before, hopefully, making it back to Barcelona within the 80-day stretch of time.

“There’s a rule saying we cannot drive during the dark, so given the time of year and when the sun comes up, we will probably start no later than seven in the morning and drive for maybe three hours and charge for maybe five hours and then drive for another three hours to a hotel,” Soule said.

Additionally, GPS monitors in each car will track the drivers’ progress, ensuring they hit specific checkpoints and travel the prescribed route.

Soule thinks he’ll be OK when it comes to language barriers. He’s been taking Chinese lessons, and, most of Europe speaks at least a little English. The only two questionable countries are Kazakhstan and Russia. And for those, he has a plan.

“I rely on Google Translate a lot, and for those two countries, I’ve gone to a translation service to get cards that say “I’m driving this electric car around the world, and would it be OK for you to allow me to plug it in?”

Kazakhstan and Russia are also the two legs of the trip Soule is most excitedabout. He’s never been before.

“My friend knows a Kazakh person, and he set up a conference call with her and I asked a lot of questions,” Soule said. “What can I expect here? And what should I know to do? And so on and so on, and she said, ‘You know, don’t be surprised if when you’re stopped in the city a family invites you to come over for dinner.’

“And she said it’s not an unusual custom in Kazakhstan to serve the honored guest (a sheep) eyeball. So, that’s the sort of thing I’m really excited about.”

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.

Thursday at 4 a.m. California time, Sebastopol resident Alan Soule embarked on a trip in his 2012 Tesla Model S.

His trip is 15,534 miles long, through 20 countries and across three continents - around the world in 80 days.

Soule and 11 other electric vehicle teams from seven countries are in Barcelona to begin a trip demonstrating that electric cars can be sustainable means of transportation.

Called “80eDays,” the teams will cross mountains (Alps and Rockies), deserts (the southern part of the Gobi) and plains, idle through huge cities, and traverse Asia and Europe before reuniting Sept. 4 and driving together across the finish line at the Arco de Triunfo in Barcelona.

It’s a journey that’s been a year in the making for Soule, a 66-year-old retired commercial building contractor.

“I have always been interested in alternative energy for vehicles,” he said. “I had a car that ran on propane back in the ’70s, and then when General Motors came out with the EV1, I leased one of those, and that was in 1999.”

When Tesla first came out with its Roadster in 2008, he snatched one up, too, and in 2012, took it down Route 66.

“From all the research that I’ve done, I’m almost positive it’s the first electric vehicle to drive Route 66,” he said.

After purchasing his 2012 Model S the year of its release, he was emboldened by a Spaniard he met while getting his car serviced in Menlo Park. The man told Soule he was trying to take his Tesla Roadster around the world in 80 days. Rafael de Mestre didn’t make it in the allotted time frame, but he and Soule kept in touch, and now, four years later, de Mestre is giving it a shot again. Joining de Mestre and Soule are two Swiss and two German teams, along with one each from China, Hungary, Czech Republic and Austria.

In March, he did a shorter drive, a test run across the western half of China over the course of five days to see what charging might be like, especially across vast rural stretches. He charged 10 times.

“I think in much of the rest of the world, liability isn’t a big issue to them,” he said, “so what we would do is we’d drive up and see a tire shop, and we would just ask if they would mind if we connected (our portable charger) to their circuit breaker. We never got turned down.”

Preparing for the trip has been a full-time job, he said, keeping busy lining up visas for China, Kazakhstan and Russia, and making sure the cars will have all the charging adapters they need - something that changes country by country.

Over the course of the trip, Soule will have a rotating crew of five co-drivers who are friends and friends of friends who will meet him at various junctions. Planning the route took time as well.

“I originally wanted to go through Turkey because I like Turkey, but there are problems there,” Soule said. “And I’ve been told that Belarus has a lot of gangs. And the southeastern portion of Ukraine is where the Russians are trying to make a stronghold. But if you go up through Latvia, that’s an extra 600 miles, and we don’t want to do that, so we’re going to take a chance and go through northern Ukraine and see what happens.”

The route from Barcelona leads southwest to Lisbon, Portugal, where the teams have chartered a plane to take their cars to Halifax, Nova Scotia. From there, they head west to New York, Chicago and Denver. Making their way to Los Angeles, they’ll again hire a cargo plane to ship their cars to the southeastern edge of China in Guangzhou, where they’ll continue their westward trek, traversing Asia and Europe and hopefully making it back to Barcelona within the 80-day stretch of time.

“There’s a rule saying we cannot drive during the dark, so given the time of year and when the sun comes up, we will probably start no later than seven in the morning and drive for maybe three hours and charge for maybe five hours and then drive for another three hours to a hotel,” Soule said.

Additionally, GPS monitors in each car will track the drivers’ progress, ensuring they hit specific checkpoints and travel the prescribed route.

Soule thinks he’ll be OK when it comes to language barriers. He’s been taking Chinese lessons and most of Europe speaks at least a little English. The only two questionable countries are Kazakhstan and Russia. And for those, he has a plan.

“I rely on Google Translate a lot, and for those two countries, I’ve gone to a translation service to get cards that say, “I’m driving this electric car around the world, and would it be OK for you to allow me to plug it in?”

Kazakhstan and Russia are also the two legs of the trip Soule is most excited about. He has never been before.

“My friend knows a Kazakh person, and he set up a conference call with her and I asked a lot of questions,” Soule said. “What can I expect here? And what should I know to do? And so on and so on, and she said, ‘You know, don’t be surprised if when you’re stopped in the city, a family invites you to come over for dinner.’

“And she said it’s not an unusual custom in Kazakhstan to serve the honored guest (a sheep) eyeball. So, that’s the sort of thing I’m really excited about.”

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com.

On Twitter @SeaWarren.