When people used ask me what my favorite car is, I always replied: “The next one.”
Back in 2020, when the lease of my Jeep Grand Cherokee ended, I shopped around a little bit for what our next car could be, but was uninspired by the choices. During the same time – since both my wife and I are big fans of the Scottish actor Ewan McGregor (“Star Wars”, “Trainspotting”, “Moulin Rouge”) – we learned about an interesting documentary titled “A Long Way Up” starring Ewan that aired on Apple TV+.
The British television series documents McGregor and and his best friend Charley Boorman as they travel through South and Central America on prototype electric Harley-Davidsons. The journey – covering 13,000 miles over 100 days through 16 border crossings – takes them through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Central America, and Mexico before ending in California.
We were instantly fascinated by Ewan and Charley’s journey through the glorious and underexposed landscapes of South and Central America in their challenging expedition, and watched all of the 11 episodes that were released on a weekly basis. Moreover, we became obsessed with the beautifully designed electric pickup truck from American car manufacturer Rivian that was used as a camera truck and crew transport to film the duo’s adventures that accompanied the two on their journey from Argentina to Los Angeles.
As we learned later on, the Rivians used in the docu series were test vehicles (R1T model) that suddenly had to make a 13,000-mile trip over unknown terrain, sometimes in cold weather. Rivian also agreed to install about 140 charging locations along the route to keep the vehicles on the road.
In addition to the pleasure of watching this entertaining and educational show, I realized that I really wanted to own and drive a Rivian myself, and that it was time to switch from decades of owning fossil fuel powered cars to to an emission-free adventure vehicle.
Since we are not big truck fans, we ordered the Rivian R1S – and the rest is history!
P.S. Since Ewan McGregor and Charley agreed to use a prototype electric Harley-Davidsons in order to contribute to the sustainability of the planet, our admiration for them has only grown since then.
