A PORTHMADOG hotel allowed an electrical pioneer a short stay to recharge his batteries last week.

While travelling the entire mainland British coastline on a 23-day adventure in a Tesla electric saloon car, Stuart McBain stopped at the Royal Sportsman Hotel to recharge his Model S whilst he had his dinner.

Mr McBain used the hotel’s fast Tesla charger – one of three different types in the High Street hotel’s private car park – as part of his record bid to drive more than 3,000 miles without using single a drop of petrol or diesel and to bust myths about electric car ‘range anxiety’.

He left Liverpool on 17 March on his ‘Charging Around Britain’ quest, heading north on a clockwise tour of the UK.

He returned to Merseyside this week, having also stayed in Aberdaron on the Llyn.

Hotel marketing manager Ian Spindley said: “Stuart and his co-pilot were determined to demonstrate how their luxury Tesla, which can do 0-60mph in under three seconds, yet can travel up to 300 miles on its fully-charged battery, can use sustainable energy to travel long distances with the help of like-minded accommodations, businesses and individuals.

“Stuart is the sixth Tesla owner to use our specific chargers since we had them fitted, while owners of other brands of electric and hybrid cars have begun using our standard 13-amp socket one more recently.

“We request advance booking and it’s free for our guests with either food and/or drinks or a nominal fee for visiting customers,” added Ian.

Mr McBain, who runs an accounting solutions company, said: “We could have chosen any electric car, but driving a Tesla, which runs silently apart from the tyres on the road, definitely adds a ‘Wow’ factor to get people’s attention!”

He said he did much of his recharging along the way via generic household 13-amp sockets, costing as little as £2 a time in electric.

He stayed in local hotels and B&Bs rather than chain hotels to demonstrate an ‘affordable business opportunity’ for local accommodations to offer charging for electric cars.

Almost six years ago the Royal Sportsman Hotel became among the first in Gwynedd and North Wales to allow Conwy-based Carbon Zero to install two standard EV chargers, replacing one with two Tesla units last year.