On July 16th this year’s Mongol Rally starts at the Goodwood Racing Circuit in Chichester in the UK and finishes in Ulan-Ude in Easter Russia (this is not fake news!).  With support from Nissan Retail in the UK,  Plug In Adventures will enter the Rally in a slightly modified 30kW Nissan LEAF Acenta – the back seats have been ripped out, suspension’s been raised, improved underside protection and a roof rack added.

Mongol Rally LEAFIt’s a non competitive event with a  journey time of 6 – 8 weeks. It’s been run since 2004. This year there are over 330 entrants in various petrol and diesel vehicles taking part. This is not a rally about nice roads, fixed routes, marshals, time trials, backup support or supervision – this is a Bear Grylls type of Rally covering approximately 10,000 miles (16,000 kms) with no set route and no rules – make your own way and survive! It has a 70% completion rate. Those cars not making it are usually sold where they die – participants cannot simply abandon the vehicles as they will forfeit a deposit left with the organisers (The League of Adventurists International Limited).

Chris Ramsey, the founder of Plug In Adventures, with his wife riding shotgun aims to demonstrate that a production EV can complete this long distance, gruelling challenge. Chris has already travelled John O’Groats to Lands End (and back) in a LEAF and Edinburgh to Monte Carlo and back in a BMW i3. With a passion for EVs and adventure Chris has raised over $5,000 for the trip and will be supporting two charities, WWF Scotland and CoolEarth.

“We want to dispel the myths and challenge people’s notions about electric vehicles.” You can hear Chris talk about the rally in the video below. We bid them godspeed.