On August 16, adventure driver, Rainer Zietlow celebrated his newly achieved Guinness World Record for crossing Canada with the fewest charges of an electric vehicle at a special celebration with employees at Volkswagen Canada Headquarters.

Zietlow and his cameraman, Elric Popp, departed St. John’s, NL in a Volkswagen ID.4 EV on July 25, 2023, and together in their ID.4, they traversed 7,133 km over seven days making just 18 charging stops along the way before concluding their journey on August 1 in Victoria, B.C.

Rainer is currently making another cross-country journey in the opposite direction of his Guinness World Record trek to stop at all 145 Volkswagen Canada dealers along the way and share the exciting details of his trip. That included a visit to Volkswagen headquarters in Ajax to celebrate with employees there.

The ideal companion

“The Volkswagen family is thrilled to celebrate Rainer’s new Guinness World Record,” said Pierre Boutin, President and CEO of Volkswagen Canada. “Our ID.4 SUV proved to be the ideal companion for this adventure, providing the comfort, space and range necessary to tackle the thousands of kilometres separating the country’s east and west coast. We are excited that the availability of the ID.4 model continues to expand so more Canadians can undertake their own electric adventures around the country.”

“It is special to celebrate this achievement with dealers and Volkswagen employees by making a second coast-to-coast trip across this beautiful country,” said Zietlow. “I hope it will provide Canadians with confidence in the long-distance capabilities of electric vehicles and the continuously improving charging infrastructure in Canada.”

In 2024, Volkswagen will add the ID.7 sedan and ID. Buzz to its lineup, broadening its EV portfolio as it strives to make fully electric vehicles available to even more Canadians.

You can see details and some amazing photographs of the entire journey at vwid4-canadatour.com.