McGregor and Boorman’s “Long Way Up” will use electric bikes

Fully-electric Harley-Davidson LiveWire is new official bike Long Way Up

The long-awaited third installment of the popular “Long Way” series of Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman will begin filming soon. However, there will be a big twist to it. This time around, the duo will be riding electric bikes — Harley-Davidson LiveWires to be exact.

Autoblog Argentina has spotted the duo and their crew arriving in Tierra del Fuego in Argentina with four Harley-Davidson LiveWires, two Rivian R1T electric pickup trucks, along with a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and trailer.

Like we mentioned before, the “Long Way Up” will entail a ride from South America, through Central America, and finally to the USA. In the past two installments, the pair have used BMW GS bikes with support crew on Nissan Patrols. This time, it seems, the pair want to reduce their carbon footprint by going mostly electric.

The idea to go electric came from Ewan McGregor who has confessed to a fascination for the promising new form of transportation. “It is exciting, and for sure it is the future. In 20 years we won’t be burning petrol in our engines anymore, we will be plugging them into the wall,” said McGregor to Scotland's Sunday Post.

The bikes - the Harley-Davidson LiveWire - will be fitted with hand guards and soft luggage. The LiveWire has an estimated range of 146 miles (235-km) in stop and go traffic and 95 miles (153-km) of continuous use.

Naturally, they will need a way to recharge the bikes as the “Long Way” series has purposely avoided roads and highways. It doesn’t help that there are close to no chargers for electric vehicles in South America. The LiveWire can be recharged through any wall outlet up to 80-percent in just 40 minutes. The crew may have to make regular pitstops to charge the bikes, but only for an hour or so.

For this need, the duo will be followed by a pair of Rivian R1T electric pickups. These American-made pickups boast of a 180 kWh electric motor, which produces over 760 PS and 1,120 Nm of torque. They also have a maximum cruising range between 370 km and 640 km.

They’re nothing like the average Tesla as they’ve been tested on extreme terrain and can even be outfitted with a tent and cooking equipment — something the crew will likely make use of frequently. The trucks can possibly be used to charge the motorcycles’ battery.

The crew also has a third backup in the form of a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van towing a trailer. Portable electric charging stations can be fitted into any of these vehicles to allow them to recharge both the bikes and the pickups whenever they stop.

Filming may not begin yet, as the crew will be conducting a shakedown run south of Buenos Aires, Argentina to Tierra del Fuego, which is the entry point to the famous Ushuaia tundra area: an ideal testing site. After this, the crew will head up north to begin filming.