Ewan McGregor Drove 13,000 Miles on an All-Electric Motorcycle

A lot of overlanders balk at pure-electric powertrains, positing limited battery range makes them impractical adventure vehicles. But not adventure motorcyclists Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman. They just did a 13,000-mile trip up the planet on electric motorcycles.

McGregor and Boorman traveled for more than 100 days through 16 border crossings and 13 countries, including Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and up through Colombia, Central America and Mexico, keen to prove electric powertrains are the transportation technology of the future.

The duo started from the city of Ushuaia at the tip of South America traveling solely on Harley-Davidson all-electric Livewire motorcycles.


Harley-Davidson Livewire. | Photo: Harley-Davidson

Harley-Davidson Livewire. | Photo: Harley-Davidson

Before you suggest that they were supported by fossil-fuel burning support rigs, you should know that directors David Alexanian and Russ Malkin followed the the Livewires in pure-electric Rivian trucks.

The third installment Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman’s globe-traversing trilogy, “Long Way Up” is coming to Apple TV+ on September 18, 2020. The first three episodes of the series drop on the first day. The remaining episodes will go live weekly.

I don’t know about you, but I will be glued to my screen for the entire series. I was a big fan of both their previous adventure shows, “Long Way Round” and “Long Way Down.” I will be quite excited how the boys fare, especially on pure-electric power.


Header image credit: Apple TV+

Written by Nick Jaynes. You can follow Nick @nickjaynes

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