There is no road from the North Pole to the South Pole, but an adventurous Scottish couple is driving it anyway.
Chris Ramsey of Aberdeen, Scotland visited Rendez-Vous Nissan in Hawkesbury on Saturday, March 4 to promote his Pole to Pole Electric Vehicle Expedition. He is planning to make the trip in a specially outfitted Nissan Ariya, which is a new SUV being introduced by the automaker in North America after already being sold in Europe. The special modifications were made in Iceland by a company called Arctic Trucks and includes 39-inch wheels with specially made tires.
“I’m an electric vehicle enthusiast basically,” Ramsey said.
That enthusiasm began 10 years ago when Ramsey decided to test out the UK’s electric vehicle infrastructure by driving a Nissan Leaf across England, Scotland, and Wales. He travelled 2,897 kilometres/1,800 miles at a time when there were only 60 electric vehicle charging stations across the entire UK.
“I was dangling extension leads (cords) out of hotel windows,” remarked Ramsey.
In 2013, Ramsey left his job in the oil and gas industry and became a full-time adventurer. Again behind the wheel of a Nissan Leaf, he and his co-driver wife Julie drove in the Mongol Rally from London, England to Ulan Ude in southern Siberia in 56 days.
A long drive
No one has ever driven from the North Pole to the South Pole before, let alone in an electric vehicle. After the new Ariya underwent significant modifications in Iceland, it was put aboard a ship to Halifax. Ramsey is driving it from there to Edmonton where he will meet Julie. From Edmonton, they will drive north to Cambridge Bay Nunavut and then to magnetic north out in the Franklin Strait where the trip south will begin.
“Eighty per cent of the drive will be on sea ice,” said Ramsey.
At night, the couple will camp in tents on sea ice.
Keeping an electric vehicle charged where there is no electrical grid is a challenge. Ramsey is hopeful solar panels and a small five-watt wind turbine they are carrying with them will do the job.
“The idea of that is so we can generate as much of our power as possible when we’re up in the arctic,” he said.
The expedition will need to be out of the arctic by April 6 because that is when the winter ice road season ends. All of the supplies for the trip are being taken in by Ramsey.
“We’re not flying anything in,” he noted.
Ramsey will travel south through Canada, the United States, Mexico, and various countries of Central and South America. Conditions will not permit entry into Antarctica to reach the South Magnetic Pole until the beginning of December.
“The whole expedition is going to take us 10 months,” Ramsey said.
In total, the long drive will be about 27,000 kilometres and travel through 14 countries. Ramsey is hoping it sets a Guinness record.
Along the trip, Ramsey plans to make the expedition a source of education for geography and science. He will be stopping at schools to give presentations.
“Our expedition has got to have purpose,” he remarked.
To read more about the Pole to Pole Electric Vehicle Expedition, go to https://poletopoleev.com/.
