3 March

The range of a horse and cart was way beyond what the cars and trucks that replaced them could offer. Unpacking the slogans and spin that now dominate our lives, nobody said ‘I can’t buy a car, what about the range?’ back then. Here’s a fun fact about cars. The fuel efficiency of cars hasn’t changed in over a century. 20 to 30 miles per gallon, in the old measure, is standard for a petrol car today, and was in the 1920s as well. (For those interested in the engineering it’s called the Carnot limit, the maximum efficiency of any internal combustion engine is 37%. Most don’t get above 20%.) An EV easily does more than 100 miles per gallon, if you convert to energy used. A petrol or diesel achieves its range by taking a fuel source with a huge amount of energy, and then converting only 20% of it to actual motion. 80% of that energy goes out the exhaust, as pollution. It’s criminally wasteful. Over 11,000 Australians also die every year breathing that pollution in.