Gadgetory

I have absolutely no idea where the hell to go I'm hungry it's going to get dark soon that was that's a deaf right last time we tried a road trip in an electric car it went very wrong so naturally we thought let's try this again but over a thousand miles and under intense time pressure that pressure will come courtesy of Mobile World Congress a huge tech show we absolutely must not miss the shows in Barcelona a thousand miles from where we work in London and we're planning to drive the distance in an electric car stopping at six charge points along the way with an overnight stop in the French town of a wrong that's a lot of driving but we're not attempting this in just any electric car Oh No meet the Tesla Model S and all-electric luxury saloon Tesla's loaned us the Model S 9 TD which packs all-wheel-drive auto-steer features cost nearly 100 grand and whips up to 60 in just 4.7 more importantly for us it's got a maximum range of 340 miles and can suck up to 170 miles with the power in a half hours charge we'll be using every trick of the car sleeve and learning more about the state of electric driving today let's roll our journey begins in rain-filled London with a night drive down to our first milestone the Channel Tunnel this feat of engineering connects the UK to France fire an undersea railway that took over five years to build and was opened in 1994 our cars going over on the Eurotunnel shuttle which moves an average of 30,000 customers in their vehicles across the sea every day welcome mr. Hoyle ticket acquired the cars parked up and Andy's promised to slap up breakfast in the convenient nearby cafe is it open Andy it doesn't open until 6:00 what time is it now five when what time did you insist on picking me up Andy I want you to look into the camera when you say it three not a great start but it's not long to wait until we're driving the model ass up onto the shuttle and enjoying the novelty of being in a car on a train that headed under the sea you ever gone there you're a tunnel when you were a kid I think I did once yeah I went on a school a school trip and that was and that was really exciting did you appreciate the feats of engineering that it is when you were that age no no I just appreciated that I was on a train and that was it but now the idea that I've driven onto a train and it goes under the sea is just mind-blowing five minutes later we're in France now our attention switches to the cars dwindling battery so Andy we're out the tunnel what are we doing now we are trying to find a charging point and I have absolutely no idea where the hell to go we're looking around charges we can't find Tesla's electric super charges but then we spot them nestled in a rainy corner of a hotel car park it's time to refuel the Model S if we can find the charging port it's on the other side give me a second that means it's charging it's hardly a dignified start but we've hit a major milestone we're in France and the car is charging only 900 miles to go what could go wrong we're gonna stop here for about 20 minutes give it a quick boost how was this happened where are we