Tesla Model X stranded in Atacama saved by 287W hood solar
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- Sandro van Kuijck, an Oregon-based YouTuber driving his Tesla Model X "Beluga" across the Pan-American Highway, ran out of battery south of Calama, Chile, with 37 km of range showing and the nearest charger 42 km away
- Van Kuijck's 287-watt hood-mounted solar array fed a 2 kWh EcoFlow Delta 2 house battery, adding just 1–2 km of range per hour at 180–200 watts of input — enough to keep the high-voltage battery from fully shutting down
- Five tow truck companies refused to drive 30 km to his location; a nearby road construction crew eventually let him plug into their industrial generator at a trickle of 6 amps
- A tow truck eventually brought him 30 km to Calama for $135, where a Copec fast charger pulled 36–40 kW and got him back on the road within two hours
- Tesla launched its Supercharger network in Chile in late 2024, and in early 2026 Tesla and Copec announced a partnership to deploy additional Supercharger stations at Copec's main service stations, with four charging points at up to 250 kW each
- Van Kuijck's Tesla navigation still thought he was in Mexico and could not locate Chilean chargers, leaving him without route-planning assistance in unfamiliar territory
- Chile has set a 2035 target to allow only new EV sales, but long-distance charging infrastructure across the country's vast geography remains years behind that ambition
Why it matters: For EV drivers tackling routes like the Pan-American Highway through the Atacama, charging infrastructure is dangerously sparse — five tow companies refused to drive 30 km to rescue a stranded overlander. Tesla's late-2024 Supercharger launch in Chile and the early-2026 Copec partnership are progress, but Copec itself operates over 90 fast chargers nationwide and remote desert stretches remain uncovered. Until that gap closes, the only real lifeline for a stranded EV is a solar panel and the kindness of a construction crew.
