LONDON, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- A team of British engineers says it is near the end of a 16,000-mile mission to drive the length of the Pan-American Highway in an electric car.
The team from Imperial College London departed Prudhoe Bay in Alaska in July and, after driving across 14 countries, is due to reach Ushuaia in Argentina Tuesday, NewScientist.com reported.
The team of graduate engineers built the car, called SRZero, last year. Powered by a pack of lithium iron phosphate batteries, it has a range of almost 250 miles per charge.
In an e-mail from Rio Gallegos in Argentina, 340 miles from Ushuaia, team member Andy Hadland told New Scientist the car has stood up well to the journey.
"Driving the open-top car at night with tropical rainstorms pounding away, and disintegrating roads, was certainly a challenge, and slightly nerve racking knowing you're sitting on 550 volts," he said.
"But the waterproofing measures worked and the car survived," he said.
The car, which has the largest battery pack of any U.K. road-legal vehicle, was built from a chassis donated by Radical Sportscars, based in Peterborough, United Kingdom.
