13 June

It’s worth letting this graphic sink in, to let basic science and engineering inform car choice, rather than the pissing contest of branding. How much the fabled range of petrol and diesel cars is bought at the cost of an astronomical waste of energy. (Which you pay for, out of your wallet.) To get 1000 km out of a petrol or diesel car, you put about 5000 km worth of energy in it. 80% of it goes straight out the exhaust, unused. To get 1000 km of range out of an EV, you put 1000 km worth of energy into it. And 15.4 kWh per 100 km isn’t even a great EV. I get closer to 10 driving to Bathurst. Petrol and diesel engines are rubbish technology. They were rubbish when they were invented, and basic physics means they’re still rubbish today. Hopelessly inefficient, gutless (why they need gears), belching toxic exhaust gases, noisy. The noise they make, which many mistake for ‘grunt’, is the noise of that 80% of unused energy going out the exhaust. It’s the sound of puny.