A bunch of electric car enthusiasts who call their outfit Plug In Adventures have decided to enter Mongol Rally 2017 in a specially-prepared Nissan LEAF AT-EV (All Terrain Electric Vehicle). This Nissan LEAF Rally Car is supposed to drive 10,000 miles / 16,000 km from the UK to Mongolia in summer 2017.
That seems like an awfully long way and a painful trip in a car that runs out of juice every 100 miles or so and then takes hours to recharge. You would think they have fitted the Nissan LEAF Rally Car with some special batteries or super fast charging at least. But you’d be wrong. They have kitted-out the car for rough terrain, but the powertrain is a standard 30kWh unit.
As for the rally mods the AT-EV benefits from, the list includes Speedline SL2 Marmora wheels and Maxsport RB3 narrow tyres, welded plates to the underside of the wishbones, braided brake lines, mudflaps and a 6mm aluminium sump guard, modified roof rack with a Lazer Triple-R 16 LED light bar to produce 16,400 lumens of supplementary low-voltage forward lighting, rubber floor mats and rear seats delete.
Chris Ramsey, founder of Plug In Adventures, said: “The Mongol Rally is our most challenging electric vehicle drive to date, but it’s one we’ve been planning for a number of years. Not only will we face a dwindling number of EV chargers the further east we go, the terrain also becomes more difficult to navigate.
