A 22,000 km road trip

James and his Timmy's coffee after crossing into Canada
James and his Timmy’s coffee after crossing into Canada

James Locke, the President of the Vancouver Island Tesla Owners’ group freely admits, “I’m a little nuts.” When it comes to road trips in their Teslas, both James and his wife Lisa are the champions! Where most of us would do 400-600 kilometres a day, they often double or triple that distance on their road trips.

James recently reported in after completing the first segment of an epic road trip as he arrived in Calgary, Alberta from Charlottesville, Virginia – taking a mere 3.5 days. After taking delivery of a new Tesla Model 3 in Calgary, you will see by the map that he is just getting started on what he expects will be a 37-day road trip around North America and into Canada’s north during October, covering some 22,000 kilometres!

Map of 22,000km road trip
Map of 22,000km road trip

His report is below:


As many of you noticed I just drove 4,637km from Charlottesville, VA to Calgary, AB in 3.5 days. This is the first leg of what will be, by far, my biggest road trip to date.

On Tuesday I pickup our Tesla Model 3, once I get winter tires installed and 3m Paint protection installed I am completing a road trip totalling approximately 18,608km from Calgary, and I’m doing it all in the month of October.

On Thursday September 27th, if all goes as planned this week, I leave Calgary to go back to Charlottesville, I’m home with my family for 7 days and on Sunday October 7 I drive 4 days to Fremont, CA for a Tesla Owners Club leadership summit. I am in California until Oct 13 when I drive back with friends (who are joining me in California) to Victoria, BC for a couple of nights. Oct 16th or 17th I drive to Calgary and from there I will possibly drive our Model 3 to Hay River, NWT for 10 days or so of work. This will depend on weather conditions to the North.

On approximately October 28th or 29th I leave Hay River and drive all the way back to Charlottesville, VA to finish the road trip that will exceed 22,000km in ~37 days.

I’m doing this 100% electric and I’m doing this to show just how much you can do with an EV and not worry about a thing. I will have to have zero maintenance done, I will not spend anything on power and I will probably get home and be happy to do more driving.