Tesla is the midst of coast to coast rally from LA to New York

Just a few days after the last Tesla Superchargers were in place, allowing a coast to coast trip from Los Angeles to New York (via South Dakota), the company has decided to test this is practice.

Tesla has staked its reputation on getting 98 percent of the country within the coverage of a Supercharger station by 2015 and the first major milestone was the completion of what we'll call The Supercharger Trail, a series of overlapping charging station locations that would allow one to take a trip from New York to LA.

Just past midnight on Thursday, January 30th, a Tesla Motors team left Los Angeles in two Model S sedans bound for New York City. The Tesla team is estimating that it'll take them about three days to complete the trip. Barring some force majeure we already know the trip can be done, but Tesla here is aiming for a Guinness World Record for the lowest charge time for an electric vehicle traveling across the United States.

Tesla
The route will take the team north, up through Utah and South Dakota, with the rest of the trip going all the way to New York along Interstate 90.

As the map above suggests, the Supercharger trail can probably be called the Northwest Passage since it's not exactly a direct path, adding some 500 miles to the more straightforward route along the south, going through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. But it's a start, and since the Tesla Model S has received an EPA rating of 265 miles between fill-ups of electricity the team will have to really stick to the route and avoid any detours for sightseeing.

The Tesla Model S team isn't racing anyone since the recharge time is approximately an hour at each location, and due to the fixed location of the superchargers there's no point in maxing out the Model S' range to 300 miles by cruising at 55 mph, but the team will have to be careful nonetheless not to deplete the batteries in unpredictable traffic and weather. There may be some close calls in terms of distance between charging locations, such as the leg between Flagstaff, Ariz., and Blanding, Utah.

We had a feeling that a cross-country trip like this would happen soon after the installation of the 69th and 70th superchargers made the trip possible, as part of Tesla's goal of covering 98 percent of the continental United States by 2015. Just days prior Tesla Model S owner John Glenney had completed the first coast to coast trip relying only on Superchargers, arriving at the Tesla factory to a standing ovation. The trip took Glenney and his daughter Jill five days, covering a distance of 3,400 miles, going through 16 states and using a total of 28 Supercharger locations throughout the journey. Tesla's record attempt will aim to beat their time by about 48 hours.

By Jay Ramey