German professional driver Tobias Wagner (a/k/a “Elektrotrucker,” with a big YouTube channel) says the idea of simply going around the world in 80 days, a feat first proposed by author Jules Verne in 1873, has already been done in various forms. Verne’s fictitious character Phineas Fogg did it in trains and steamships, and the odd elephant or two.In 1889, the intrepid American investigative journalist Nellie Bly made it around the globe in 72 days, six hours and 11 minutes, showing up Verne. Her conveyances included steamships, trains, ferries, rickshaws, and donkeys. British businessman Barry Weir was the first to make the 80-day trip in an historic sports car, in 2012, driving a 1954 Aston Martin DB2/4 across four continents and 22 countries.Wagner is taking the same basic 27,000-mile trip, but visiting as many as 35 countries, starting next September, and he’s doing it in a modified Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 electric truck, getting by on just 80 charges. He’s bringing a Honda electric motorcycle with him and, hopefully, also a dog, Krümelix. He plans to get around via the eTrucker app, which helps haulers find charging stations.Autoweek interviewed Wagner in Frankfurt, at the IAA Mobility press event ahead of the big IAA Transportation conference in September. He radiates confidence as he prepares to start his journey, which he estimates will take a year. “I think we’ve already proven that long-distance electric drives are possible. This is something more. And I need to get started as quickly as possible after the conference [where the truck will be displayed],” Wagner said. “Winter in Kyrgyzstan starts in December.”A charging port adapter for China.The prospect of driving through the snow in Kyrgyzstan, which is 90 percent mountainous with an average elevation of 9,000 feet, doesn’t seem to faze Wagner, nor the near-total absence of charging infrastructure in most places of that ilk. Remember, this truck carries 621-kilowatt-hour (590 kWh usable) LFP batteries in three separate packs that, plugged into local house current, would charge in, what, weeks? Wagner shrugs. “I’m not in a hurry,” he said.But there’s progress, including with infrastructure in Kyrgyzstan! Wagner take note: “The country’s first EV charging station was opened in the Boom Gorge, close to the Ak Zhol Café, along the main highway of our mountainous country. The station offers fast charging for electric vehicles and is open 24 hours a day.”The gaudily painted truck is a one-of-one, custom made by Bliss Mobil as something like a camper van for giants. The eActros line is meant to haul heavy-duty trailers, but this one has earth-tone living quarters grafted on the back, complete with bed, a wrap-around couch, microwave, stove, a bed that gets cranked up into the roof, and a closet. A small one. It also has charging ports with adapters for every standard, including Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) and the Combined Charging System (CCS). Wagner showed me his plugs for China.Barry Weir and his wife’s Aston Martin DB2/4.Mercedes guarantees 310-mile range, but Wagner has talked to regular users of the eActros 600 and thinks he can get more, during what he calls the world’s first global circumnavigation of the globe in a battery-electric heavy-duty truck. Records will be set!Barry Weir’s 2012 trip was part of the “Around the World in 80 Days Motor Challenge,” and the Aston Martin that he drove across four continents belonged to his wife. The great rally driver Sir Stirling Moss was at the starting grid in London and filed this report:“Keeping a fast car on the racetrack for three hours plus in a Grand Prix is no mean feat. It requires skill, concentration, and a car that’s up to the job. Change the scenario slightly and put an historic sports car on an 80-day timed rally around the world, and you have another great motoring challenge.“Competing in such a rally is not only a test of driving skills, but also one of stamina, organization, and total commitment. Readers who already know Barry Weir will recognize that when he takes on a challenge of any kind, he gives it 110 percent.I was privileged to be on the start line in London, and to be part of this historic motoring rally. What a colorful occasion it was as the entrants lined up on Tower Bridge to be cheered off on a journey that would take them through hugely contrasting countries and landscapes.The Around the World in 80 Days Motor Challenge was a truly ‘great race.’”Weir wrote a book called Driving Ambition about the whole thing. Here’s what he said about the final day, returning to London: “We stood on the podium shaking hands, and it was just the most fantastic feeling ever. I made it. 80 days around the world! And in an old Aston Martin Sports Car. A world record… Would I do it again? Yes. If I had the chance and [wife] Roma would lend me the car, I’d probably be off again as soon as it was ready. It wouldn’t take too long; it’s really running very well all things considered.”If my math is correct, and the eActros gets an average of 310 miles per charge, it could perhaps do the whole trip in just 54 station visits. So the 80 seems conservative, but just consider the obstacles Wagner is likely to encounter, and the terrain—it won’t all be smooth highways by any means. Helping the truck become an off-roader is an air-suspension system to level loads and change ride height.Jules Verne had Fogg travel through Paris, Brindisi (Italy), Suez, Bombay, Calcutta, Rangoon, Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Francisco, New York City, and back to London. Half these places have new names now. Wagner will traverse Europe, Southeast and Central Asia, North America, South and Central America, and then back into Europe. “Maybe we will do Africa next time,” Wagner said. He proclaims exuberantly, “From the lonely steppes of Central Asia to the metropolises of South America, we document the ultimate endurance test for man and machine.” You can track Wagner’s progress through the official website.The competition in The Great Race (1965), by the way, was New York to Paris, and played for laughs. The arch-rivals traveled through the American West, the frozen Arctic, and a fictitious European country.