About
The first electric vehicles capable of long-distance travel are here. As you read this, an electric motorcycle is making its way south, on an epic journey on a Pan American highway.
Join us as we tell the tale of the longest-ever ride on an electric motorcycle: a 12,000-mile journey from Philadelphia to Patagonia -- meeting people and sharing energy along the way. By telling this story, we aim to awaken the imaginations of people across the Americas about the potential of electric motorcycle travel. Your support helps us do it.
THE DOCUMENTARY: With your help, the Electric Powered Odyssey team will make a documentary about the first electric motorcycle to travel from USA to the tip of South America, featuring escapades, adventures and conversations with people along the way -- many of whom are seeing an electric vehicle for the first time in their lives.
With your generous support, we will be able to share more of the story. We are aiming to do a 20-minute documentary on the budget of $15,000, but if we manage to raise $25,000 we will make a 40-minute documentary.
The 12,000+ mile journey began in March 2015 in Philadelphia, and will conclude in October in Patagonia, at the tip of South America.
Traveling long distances in vehicles has become a matter-of-fact, lonely, and isolating experience -- but we want to prove there’s another way. We live in societies that are becoming less about human interactions and more about interacting with machines at gas stations, supermarkets, border crossings and airports -- but it doesn’t have to be that way. We know there’s something else, because we’re living it right now.
As a longtime motorcycle rider, I wanted this journey to be about genuine interaction and exchange of energy: electric and other. The odyssey and the documentary are about the forgotten art of being vulnerable, of trusting and asking a fellow human being to share a glass of water, share their time, or a bit of (literal and physical) energy.
As this journey progresses, we are documenting the steps necessary for a long-distance electric ride and spreading the news about electric vehicles in places that have never seen an electric vehicle before. It is an amazing experience to see the smiles on people’s faces as they see an electric vehicle for the first time.
While the first electric motorcycle was patented in 1895, only in the last several years have these vehicles gained popularity. Only very recently have they begun competing with their combustion-engine brethren. Still, more needs to be done to prove their reliability, ruggedness, and of course, their ecologically-sound output.
Electric motorcycles produce 95% fewer emissions, their motors are much more efficient, they require no gas, no oil, no filters, and they don’t pollute the environment with exhausts or noise. In Latin America, there are about 8 million motorcycles, and their numbers are exploding. We want to show young people across the Americas that they too can make the switch to cheaper, cleaner electric motorcycles.
Electric vehicles are coming into their own, and while some people heard about them, most people don’t know much about them. When they get to see one up close, they get animated; they ask questions and start fiddling with the bike. I love that feeling of sharing and spreading the news. If the prospect of new, better modes of transport excites you, this project needs your support. If the idea of sharing information one-on-one is something you love to see happening, this project is also for you.
I have traveled 7,200 miles to Colombia, in what is now the longest ride on an electric motorcycle in history. That’s a huge feat, but traversing South America will be even a greater challenge. While we have spent a lot of effort getting to this point, the hardest part is just ahead: finding support to fund the documentary. What’s more, the most interesting and most challenging part of the journey lies ahead. See where I am currently by visiting our website (www.electricpoweredodyssey.com) or Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ElectricPoweredOdyssey)
In the hundreds of places I have charged the electric motorbike, no one has ever said “no” when I ask them if I could charge the bike at their place. Most people not only welcome me into their place of work, but invite me to share a meal and an insight into their lives. I’ve charged the motorbike at both ordinary and bizarre places, in urban places and alongside desolate highways: at libraries, fire stations, post offices, schools, police stations, coffee shops, restaurants, banks, museums, even at an ice cream truck in Beaufourt, SC and at a casino in Biloxi, MS.
Electric energy is something we take for granted, but that energy has an amazing potential that only we can decide how to use. What we choose to do with electric energy is our decision: we can light up our rooms, cook our meals, charge our phones -- and now people can choose to power the vehicles that take us to places we want to go.
It’s a thing of wonder now, but what is a one-of-a kind journey today will be just another way of traveling in 10-20 years. When you support this project, you’ll be helping us to create a documentary about this first electrical rite of passage.
Please become a member of the Electric Powered Odyssey team and help us to make this journey into a documentary. Find the reward you like and spread the news of our project to your friends. We are thankful for any and all contributions, and will send you any promised rewards promptly. We plan on the awards being shipped in January 2016.
HOW THE MONEY WILL BE SPENT: While we have been making short video clips along the way, we need to hire several professional film crews to make the best quality documentary possible: in Ecuador, Chile and Argentina. We’ve already put in hundreds of hours preparing the project, including riding, shooting on the road, editing, but without your help we cannot turn this project into a full-fledged documentary worthy of submittal to international documentary film festivals. We need the funds to hire professional editors for post editing and music for the documentary. That is why we need your help.
Risks and challenges
Traveling long distances on a motorcycle, let alone an electric motorcycle has elements of risk built into it: breakdowns, accidents, theft. So far I have traveled 7,200 miles and I am around 45% of the way there. If we cannot raise the full amount for the documentary, we cannot tell this amazing story to a wide audience. I will do all I can to complete the journey, but the Electric Powered Odyssey team is counting on you to help us tell this amazing story.
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Funding period
- (33 days)