Cars, EV

YouTuber’s cordless Tesla with gas engine just managed 3500 miles without charge

  • This YouTuber was sick of stopping to charge his Tesla
  • Fitting a Diesel engine went some way towards solving this issue
  • However, taking the car out on a 3,500 road trip presented some issues

Published on Jul 08, 2024 at 3:57 PM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson

Last updated on Jul 08, 2024 at 8:32 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Tom Wood

A YouTuber who built a self-charging Tesla decided to hit the road to see how long he could go without needing to charge.

YouTube channel Warped Perception made some slight modifications to a Tesla Model S with a ICE generator.

Namely, they fitted it with an old diesel engine to charge the battery.

READ MORE: YouTuber tests whether you can fix a flooded EV by covering it in rice

How did the modified Tesla do on a cross-country road trip?

The team placed a 3.0L diesel engine in the front of the car, allowing to serve as an electricity generator for the Tesla’s battery.

Tesla
Warped Perception

Having learned from a previous attempt, the YouTuber, real name Matt Mikka, surmised that the increased airflow at the front would help the engine’s cooling radiator work better.

On a previous drive, the ICE generator in the back had proven to be an issue as it started to smell and produced a lot of noise.

Thanks to a tri-chamber exhaust system contraption, the noise and vibrations from the diesel engine were reduced.

Tesla
Warped Perception

All in all, the kitted-out car managed 3,500 miles – a round trip from the American Midwest to Atlanta, Georgia – without needing to be charged the conventional way.

That didn’t mean the trip wasn’t without its bumps in the road, so to speak.

From clogged fuel filters to oil leaks – and even pieces of road gravel puncturing cool hoses – there were a multitude of issues to contend with.

However, the experiment was successful in its main purpose, and avoided using EV chargers the whole drive.

That just meant that people had to contend with the noise generated by the Tesla being left to charge overnight in car parks.

Tesla
Warped Perception

It’s more than double what Mikka managed on a previous road trip, when he racked up 1,600 miles of road without a EV charger.

Whilst it may defeat the point to turn a Tesla into a gas guzzler, you have to admire the creativity regardless.

To check out more of Mikka’s work, head on over to his YouTube channel.

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Ben got his start in journalism at Kennedy News and Media, writing stories for national newspapers, websites and magazines. Now working as a freelancer, he divides his time between teaching at News Associates and writing for news sites on all subjects.