Tesla CEO Elon Musk almost certainly appreciates Tesla devotees like Bjorn Nyland.
Nyland, a Norwegian auto enthusiast and Tesla (TSLA) owner, has posted dozens of Tesla videos to YouTube and earlier this month won himself a brand new Model X when he got 10 people to buy a Tesla in one week, all by word-of-mouth, as part of a new Tesla referral program. Back in 2013, he drove his Model S 233 miles in 21-degree weather.
Now Nyland has done it again. Driving with his friend Morgan Torvolt, Nyland drove a Model S (affixed with a “Slow” warning sticker on the back, reports Engadget) 452.8 miles on one charge. The accomplishment is, as Nyland notes in the title of his own YouTube video, a world record. To pull it off, he had to drive at an average speed of 24.2 miles per hour. The charge lasted 18 hours and 40 minutes. Engadget writes that it “throws down the gauntlet” to any other Tesla obsessives who might wish to step up next.
Nyland and Torvolt did their record drive in the P85D edition of Tesla’s Model S, which has the biggest battery that Tesla currently offers. (The next version will reportedly have a slightly bigger battery.) The previous record was set in 2013 by David and Adam Metcalf, who got 423.5 miles out of their Model S. Thus Nyland beat the record by nearly 30 miles.
Readers may recall a much-discussed controversy over the capabilities of the Model S back in February 2013 when the New York Times wrote of a disastrous test drive, and Elon Musk responded harshly. Since then, Tesla has released new iterations and seen a 470% rise in its stock price.