There was a very good story to tell around a trip in an electric car, but Ford preferred to make it a heartbreaking series.
To promote its 100% electric Explorer, Ford called on Lexie Alford, alias LexieLimitless on social networks, a travel influencer who has millions of subscribers. Above all, we must salute the exceptional career of this young girl born in 1998 in Nevada City in California who holds two Guiness World Records: that of “youngest person to have visited all sovereign countries” and that of the “youngest woman to have visited all sovereign countries” at the age of 21 years and 177 days. If that doesn’t mean much to you, know that that represents 196 countries visited before the age of 22. We are far from the Club Med tour!
Ford therefore challenged him to become the first person to travel around the world in a 100% electric vehicle. No suspense, she succeeded by passing through 6 continents, 27 countries and over 30,000 kilometers. This journey gave life to a three-part series, “Charge Around the Globe” broadcast on Prime Video, which we took a curious look at. And it was not time well spent!
Ford misses the point
One of the inspirations for this trip was the feat of Aloha Wanderwell who became the first woman to circumnavigate the world by car between 1922 and 1927. An incredible challenge launched at the age of just 16 and accomplished driving a 1918 Ford Model T. Yes, just one Ford T versus 5 Ford Explorers used by Lexie. The latter in fact benefited from a brand new vehicle at each stage, offering short plane trips between each road trip. If Ford doesn’t really say it in the series, it’s obvious as the cars remain impeccably clean throughout the documentary. So Lexie really struggled to find charging stations, which by the way is not really reassuring for a future electric customer. But the height of the grotesque is reached when it arrives in the United States without an adapter for local terminals… An army of logisticians and technicians mobilized to forget this little detail is stupid.
If you want to discover magnificent landscapes and get to know Lexie Alford better, who is a sincerely endearing personality, far from the cliché of modern influencers, don’t hesitate to take a look at “Charge Around the Globe”. We judge harshly the substance, not the form of what is ultimately a beautiful travel documentary. It’s almost a shame that this adventure was financed by Ford…
If, on the other hand, you want to see real exploits in electric vehicles, we advise you « Field to Field » where explorers Chris and Julie Ramsey connected the magnetic North Pole to the South Pole in a Nissan Ariya with a distance of more than 27,000 km in Dantean conditions. It’s less well shot but much more authentic. If you are more two-wheeled, the exceptional « Long Way Up » by Ewan McGregor is a gem. The Trainspotting and Star Wars actor and his friend Charley Boorman travel the world on Livewire, Harley Davidson’s electric creation. The two men are not at their first attempt since in « Long Way Round » they had completed a 31,000 km world tour in a BMW R1150GS Adventure. It’s always authentic, funny, moving, everything that’s missing from poor Lexie’s Ford journey.
READ ALSO: The Ford Explorer now cheaper than the Tesla Model Y
