For the purpose of showing that the electrics were as fully capable of traversing the average country roads and climbing hills as the “higher powered” gas cars, two electric machines left New York City on a day in September 1910 on a long distance tour of 1,000 miles through New England, under the auspices of the Touring Club of America, according to journalist Harry Ward. Supposedly it was the first ever tour of such magnitude. A Detroit electric and a Bailey electric set off with each having a new Edison storage battery. The tour lasted 12 days with an average of close to 100 miles covered on each day – the longest day’s run was 152 miles.

A little over a month later a news story proclaimed that the longest day’s run for an electric pleasure vehicle on one charge in Southern California – and maybe in the United States – had just been made in a jaunt from Los Angeles to Redlands and back in a Waverley roadster driven by W.A. Evans, who was the California agent for the Waverley company.

EV distance records were toppled one-by-one in the early 20th century.