The Tesla Model 3 has faced a torrent of bad publicity lately thanks to its on-going production problems. The situation is slowly improving as Tesla continues to sift through its backlog of orders, though Elon Musk has admitted that the automaker failed to meet the Model 3's delivery goal in Q4 2017. 1,550 Model 3s were delivered in the last three months of 2017, falling short of the 4100 expected by industry analysts. In brighter news however, a Tesla Model 3 customer car recently set a new EV record for the Cannonball Run.

As reported by The Drive, the record was set by automotive journalist Alex Roy and Model 3 owner Daniel Zorrilla. They both completed the famous cross-country drive using the Model 3 in 50 hours, 16 minutes and 23 seconds. The Model 3 that set the record was equipped with aero wheels and was one of the first customer delivery cars.

Starting from the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California, they completed the official 2,860-mile Cannonball Run reaching their final destination at the Red Ball garage in New York City. Their journey was documented in a time-lapse video showing a GPS-tracked version of the entire trip. Since Roy and Zorrilla embarked on the cross-country road trip during the peak of winter, it also served as a real-world test for the Model 3's range and reliability. It performed well during the record-run, though Roy admitted on Twitter that extreme cold "negatively affects" the Model 3. It's still an impressive achievement, though, particularly as the cold weather would have affected the EV's range.

Also impressive is the fact that the total charging costs also only came to $100.95 over a distance of 2,860 miles. While it's not clear how fast they drove throughout the journey, Autoblog reports that the finish time indicates an average speed of around 56.9 mph. According to Teslarati, the last EV Cannonball Run record was set unofficially last October by an orange-wrapped Model 3, which did the run in 51 hours and 17 minutes. Prior to that, the previous EV record was 51 hours and 47 minutes set by a Model S 85D.