Team Adventure: Mehari vs Tesla
James Walshe finds out if a Tesla is faster than a plastic Citroën named after a dromedary
James Walshe races a Tesla to the south of France – in a Méhari!
With the previous century dominated by the internal combustion engine, it’s easy to forget how electric propulsion pre-dated it. From the arrival of Thomas Parker’s 1884 electric car on the streets of Wolverhampton (complete with massive steam powered generator to charge it) to NASA’S Lunar Rover scampering across the moon’s surface, electric vehicles have made occasional appearances in the past 150 years but they have never really made a significant impact – until now.
They’re still flawed, of course. Along with relatively short ranges compared to diesels and a limited charging infrastructure, electric cars remain something of a trip hazard with their cables flopped out all over the street. However, technology is changing so quickly, no doubt some kind of exciting new wireless charging innovation is just around the corner. My pal Darren Arthur agrees. ‘I drive a Tesla Model X to the south of France regularly and it trounces anything with an engine!’ Hmmm. Really? One minute later and we had challenged each other to a race.
But, what to drive? If I wanted to win hands-down, thus providing evidence of my meagre carbon footprint whilst marking a last gasp of superiority from the internal combustion engine, I’d use the £350 diesel-powered Volvo S80 I bought recently. With its 51.8mpg average and range of just over 1000 miles, I’d be feet-up on a St Tropez veranda slurping on a glass of wine half a day before the Tesla made it anywhere close. But that would be far too easy. Fuelled by foolishness and exuberance, I concluded that I could beat Darren’s expensive humming Muskmobile in a Citroën Méhari – a lightweight plastic-bodied 2Cv-based vehicle named after a racing camel, which is celebrating 50 years since launch. Furthermore, the race should be to the Mediterranean, so I would have all of France in which to humiliate the Tesla’s pilot.
Contenders ready!
Finding a Méhari in the UK is hard enough but tempting owners to venture out on such a ridiculous trip might have been a challenge were it not for Méhari registrar of the 2CV Club of Great Britain, Paul Brice. He put me in touch with a nutter named Justin White who immediately offered the services of his immaculate example. ‘Just bring a raincoat and some wellies’ he warned. ‘Mine has a roof, but it’s a lot like one of those rubbish festival tents you get at service stations’. It is otherwise an exceptionally cunning piece of design work, created for Citroën by a French WWII fighter pilot called Count Roland de la Poype, whose expertise as a plastics industry pioneer led to the development of this rugged all-terrain vehicle based almost entirely on the 2CV/ Dyane platform. Citroën sold 145,000 of them (including 4x4 versions) and ours is a fully restored ‘Plage’ model – the pride of Justin’s fleet, which includes a couple of special edition ‘James Bond 007’ 2CVS, among others.
Fast forward to the day of departure, at the 2CV Shop in a drizzly Wiltshire, and the Méhari’s terrible rain protection becomes quite apparent. Squeezing through the its tiny (removable) doors and peeling back the plastic windows, a stream of water goes straight down the back of my neck. We glance across at the gullwinged behemoth that is the Tesla Model X, occupants guffawing. Both cars fully fuelled and our mobile phone tracking apps activated, the clock starts and we’re off. Out on the rain-soaked A303, with Stonehenge barely visible through the mist, we had already lost sight of our electric rival. With Justin’s foot flat to the floor and all 29 horses being called for, we’re buffeted by wind and rain, the Méhari progressing about as well as a marquee in a gale. Victory at this point feels utterly impossible. The tracking app tells us that, infuriatingly, our competitors are already humming onto the M3 motorway. However, the grim mood is lifted as I punch some numbers into my old GCSE