After responding to an ad calling for “Brains, Beauty” & In 1922, Aloha Wanderwell set out from Nice, France, on a five-year journey using her Ford Model-T to become the first woman to circumnavigate the world by automobile. He traveled to places few Westerners ever visited, improvising along the way using kerosene as fuel, bananas as oil, and elephant fat as oil. Aloha is believed to have visited 75 countries on six continents, meeting celebrities, bandits and fellow explorers before returning to France in 1927. He was only 21 years old.

Aloha’s circumnavigation celebrated the possibilities of automobile discovery. It’s a feat that inspired Ford to create its own first, the first human to circumnavigate the world in an electric vehicle, by challenging adventurer and world record breaker Lexie Limitless. Under the watchful eye of independent judges, Chargearound the Globe will require Lexie to travel at least 18,000 miles across five continents on electricity alone. And the goal was to do it in just 90 days. Lexie drove her all-electric Ford Explorer out of Nice on September 8, 2023, with echoes of Aloha’s iconic ride.

The expedition got off to an excellent start: the roads in Europe were good, the charging infrastructure was working, and even the weather was nice. This helped Lexie settle into her adventure, getting the hang of the Explorer while enjoying ice cream in Italy and a sunset in Slovenia. But soon there were difficulties to be encountered. Lexie discovered that no amount of preparation could bypass bureaucratic delays at border control: Visa issues necessitated a 185-mile, two-ferry crossing to enter Turkey via Greece. Here, heavy rain and thick night fog made steep roads treacherous, requiring intense concentration and advanced driving skills he learned from Ford instructors before setting out.
The success of Lexie’s challenge depended on her endurance, Ford’s engineering, and the world’s emerging charging infrastructure. This unpredictable element required careful planning.