Long Way Up, all the electricity of the Pan-American Highway

The same roads that Ernesto “Che” Guevara travelled on the saddle of his motorcycle “La Poderosa” in the 1950s, and that the writer Bruce Chatwin walked down with his notebook in hand twenty years later. The Pan-American Highway, the route that crosses the South American continent along the slopes of the Andes. It represents the archetypal journey, an adventure experienced by many generations: straight roads that disappear into the horizon, saturated colors, and breath-taking sceneries.

In the 21^st century, these landscapes have also become the backdrop for another unprecedented challenge in terms of sustainability and technology. "Long Way Up" is a TV series produced by Apple TV that follows two Harley Davidson LiveWire electric motorcycles along the Pan-American Highway. The journey is entirely zero-emissions and spans for almost 21 thousand kilometers: from Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, to Los Angeles in the United States.

The first Pan-American electric corridor

An incredible adventure in electric mobility made possible by the charging stations installed by Enel X along the length of the entire route: the first corridor for electric vehicles that connects the North and South of the continent. The protagonists of this journey are two British actors, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, who previously starred in other two-wheeled road trips filmed for TV.

The television series is composed of 11 episodes. It premiered the first three episodes on September 18 on Apple’s streaming platform, which will air the finale in the week of November 9-15. The series will be available in 107 countries and has been dubbed into 40 languages. It will be a global event capable of transforming the choice of sustainable mobility into a spectacular and intriguing road trip. All thanks to Enel X’s technology, which made available its extensive network of charging stations, 220 chargers in more than 120 localities, some of which were quite remote, in 11 countries along the continent: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru. An infrastructure network that has given life to a road system along the spine of the Andes, which can now be travelled using e-mobility. A project that created for the first time the electric version of the historic route conceived in the early 20^th century to unite the entire American continent through a single road network. This undertaking confirms our Group’s commitment to the development of carbon-free mobility in Latin America.

“This long-term infrastructure project is proof of our commitment to promoting electric vehicles around the world, enabling the widespread choice of electric mobility even in places where the infrastructure to charge electric vehicles didn’t previously exist.”
Francesco Venturini, CEO, Enel X

An all-encompassing sustainability project

The charging stations installed are JuiceBox 1.0 models available in 6.6 kW or 8.8 kW versions. They are mostly identifiable along the route through the JuicePass app, which enables users to view the charging points’ locations on their smartphones. The infrastructure ensures a safe charge for electric vehicles. In this case, two Harley Davidson motorcycles were put to the test in an undertaking that looked at the future of technology and mobility, a field in which the motorcycle manufacturer is making substantial investments.

Thanks to Enel X, the adventure turned out to be an all-encompassing sustainability project: at the end of filming, in fact, the charging stations were handed over to the local populations of the places where they were installed. A tangible application of shared value creation, one of the ways our Group is contributing to the sustainable growth of local areas and communities where we operate.

The journey was also a challenge for the two actors, who were riding zero-emissions vehicles for the first time. “I think electric is the future,” concluded Ewan McGregor. Coming from the "Star Wars" actor, that is a guarantee.