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Washington Couple Plans 1500 Mile LEAF Road Trip

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1500 Mile LEAF Road Trip

The Havemans’ Nissan LEAFs in front of their solar array. (Photo: Tyrel and Trish Haveman)

Here’s a novel concept: you and your significant other take a 1,500-mile road trip down a good chunk of the West Coast and back and it only ends up costing you around $20. No, we’re not talking about first getting a time machine and making this road trip in 1919. This is the plan for Tyrel and Trish Haveman, who intend to drive their Nissan LEAF from their hometown of Bellingham, Washington down to the California-Oregon border and back without spending much more on fuel than one single, scowling, green face of Andrew Jackson.

From The Havemans’ blog, Doin’ That Green Thing:

This is not a race, it is just an opportunity for us to take time away from the daily grind, explore a small corner of the world, and show that it can be done in a LEAF. We’ll be camping almost every night. After we completed a similar trip last year, we decided it had to be done again, since it was so much fun!


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Indeed, the couple completed a similar trip around this same time last year, but they are intent upon crossing the 1,500 mile mark without ever paying for a gallon of gas. Their total fuel cost comes entirely from their $19.99 monthly subscription to the AeroVironment West Coast Electric Highway charging system along Interstate 5.

1500 Mile LEAF Road Trip

The 1500 Mile LEAF road trip all mapped out at zeroadtrip.com. (Photo: Tyrel and Trish Haveman)

If you’re interested in following the Havemans’ trip, which will pause on September 6 for a visit to the Southern Oregon Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Show, then you can visit ZERoadTrip.com and track their location and battery charge level. You can also like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter for day-to-day updates, or await lengthier posts over at Doin’ That Green Thing as the trip continues.