Series Review: “Long Way Up” Episodes 1-4
[Oct. 13, 2020]
You may have heard about the Apple TV+ series “Long Way Up” starring Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman. If not, the basic premise of the series is going from the southern tip of South America to Los Angeles. “Big deal” you say. “That trek has been done dozens of times, and even further.” It’s true – the journey from Tierra del Fuego to Point Barrow, Alaska, has long been a favorite marathon slog for adventurer-seekers. Armed with plenty of advanced planning, fuel, food, provisions, etc., it is a grueling, but eminently possible adventure. However, McGregor and Boorman are throwing a twist into the plot by attempting the adventure on electric motorcycles.
The pair received two specially equipped Harley-Davidson Livewire electric bikes, supported by two Rivian R1T support vehicles. The attempt could be seen as either incredibly naïve, brave, or foolhardy, considering the rudimentary-at-best charging infrastructure in the remote regions of South America. To help aid the journey, Rivian promised to build a network of charging stations along the route. Even with the additional chargers installed, the two found themselves in a charging predicament more than once, having to resort to either Level 1 wall charging, or a backup mobile diesel generator to get sufficient charge.
Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman ride electric Harleys through Latin America in the Apple TV+ series “Long Way Up.”
Along the way, McGregor and Boorman are welcomed by locals with food, lodging, and characteristic Latin America hospitality. Without giving away the plot of the rest of the series, it is a heartwarming tale of joie de vivre, challenge, and MacGyver-like ingenuity and improvisation.
Although the series proves the nascent state of the EV charging infrastructure and battery technology, it gives a much more hopeful view of the future of electrified transportation than the dystopian, corporate conspiracy view offered by “Planet of the Humans.”
The challenges and headwinds faced by EVs are real. I will never try to downplay this fact, and am frank in my conversations with EV cynics and doubters that much work needs to be done. When making that statement, I usually get two kinds of reactions; acknowledgement that the technology and infrastructure is still in its early stages and will inevitably improve, or cynical and derisive fear, uncertainty and doubt, and boasts of the superiority of gasoline and diesel as vehicle fuels in terms of portability and time-to-fuel. Those last two points are hard to dispute, and will likely be the case for at least another decade.
There are two ways we can face the current situation with EVs. Throw up our hands faced with the current challenge as insurmountable and not worth the effort, and stick with the “tried and true” of internal combustion and hydrocarbon fuels, or rise to the challenge of creating a transportation future that has much less environmental impact, even in the face of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
(Images courtesy Apple TV+)
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