Matthew Gault
A group of friends in two different Cybertrucks are currently driving the electric vehicles through the Arctic Circle. The plan is for the trucks to light out from Dawson City, Yukon through the Northwest Territories to see the Arctic Ocean and back again. What’s wilder is that the group started the journey in Florida and has driven the Cybertrucks across both the U.S. and Canada.
The group has, of course, been posting the whole experience across multiple social media platforms and sharing updates as the EV chargers dwindle and the weather gets colder.
For those asking, here’s the situation…Point A is the start of the Trek pic.twitter.com/vdCwUBtkhr
— Bearded Tesla (@BeardedTesla) August 26, 2024
The group set up a website chronicling the journey, dubbed the Arctic CyberTrek and is selling T-shirts and stickers to commemorate and fund the adventure. Their videos are a fascinating journey through North America’s fledgling EV charging infrastructure. They also seem like a nightmare.
The team consists of Justin Demaree, known as the Bearded Tesla Guy, Tesla influencer couple Rafael Santoni and his partner Nancy, and Tesla investor Gary Mark. “I have been planning this for two years. What we’re about to do is going to make some history. We’re going to help fight the [Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt] and we’re going to show what electric vehicles can do today,” Demaree said in a post on X at the beginning of the journey.
Demaree’s video output is particularly interesting because he tends to film a video every time he stops at a charger. His specific chronicle is one that, to me, makes it apparent how much of a pain in the ass it is to traverse long distances in an electric vehicle. He’s stopping roughly every two to three hours to grab a charge and the charging times and processes vary widely from stop to stop.
Tesla’s proprietary superchargers are the ideal way to charge up for this journey, but they aren’t always available. And beyond a certain point in the north, they’re gone entirely.
Last Tesla Supercharger of the trip! It’s all roulette from here! pic.twitter.com/UGmhV8w1Tq
— Bearded Tesla (@BeardedTesla) August 27, 2024
“Welcome to Prince George, the last Tesla supercharger on this trip. Everything from here is public chargers like the FLO Network so, fingers crossed, everything goes well after this,” Demaree said in an August 27 video.
It did not go well.
The “no Tesla Superchargers” saga continues here in the Arctic north 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/J7aAPNI0w3
— Bearded Tesla (@BeardedTesla) August 29, 2024
“I am at the only charger within 150 miles,” he said in a video the next day after he’d reached the Yukon. “And um, up here, they have one stall. Just one. And that one stall is being used and I have 3%. So. I just gotta sit here and wait and hope that he finishes soon. I don’t even know where the guy is at.”
Nancy and Rafael aren’t faring much better. In an August 27 video from British Columbia, he walked viewers through the nightmare of charging the Cybertruck at a non-Tesla station. He shivered, complained about the cold, and had trouble getting the truck to even accept a charge.
“It’s finally charging after…five tries in three different stalls,” he said at the end of the video. “Oof, it’s cold.”
Third stop in BC. The chargers with CCS are a deterrent towards the transition to electric vehicles.
They’re bulky, heavy and half of the times fail. Not a great experience even when it works the first time.
Come join me for a short laugh. pic.twitter.com/6KwxufD3aB
— TesLatino (@TesLatino) August 27, 2024
Despite the problems, the groups appear happy in their videos. They’re on an adventure with friends. Rafael’s most recent video post is a 9-hour livestream of the group cruising down the Alaska Highway.
They stop roughly every two hours to charge up again. An hour and 30 minutes into the Alaska Highway video the group pulled off to charge both trucks. There was only one plug so they decided to daisy chain the trucks together and see if they could charge both at the same time.
It worked.
“What we’re doing right now is we’re charging my truck from the CCS charger here…and my truck’s 14-50 plug is being used to charge Justin’s truck. We’re basically daisy chaining charges,” Rafael said.
“You’ll be done in an hour and a half, I’ll be done in 14 hours,” Demaree said. He and Rafael laughed and Rafael promised to let Demaree plug his Cybertruck in first at the next stop.