Such is what Car and Driver found in its hilarious review of the new, electric Mazda MX-30.  And that’s not an outdated EV that ought to be consigned to the garbage right now. The automobile is the 2022 model.

To give some history, the MX-30 is intended to be an electric vehicle (EV) for the typical American worker who commutes to work. It is intended for a daily commute of around 30 miles in typical city/suburb terrain (so there are no significant inclines), with options for charging it at both ends of the daily trip, according to Mazda.

If your job isn’t too far away, it might be suitable for commuting, but as Car and Driver discovered, it’s completely inappropriate for anything else, as the car was running short on charge after a terrible 70 miles.

Despite having an EPA range estimate of 100 miles between charges, the review claims that on a road test at 75 mph, it only traveled a very underwhelming 70 miles.

The review might have put the car’s failure to go more than a negligible distance in even harsher terms, saying:

The argument can be made that the average owner doesn’t need more than 100 miles of range, but we aren’t going to make it. It’s 2022—we’re seeing 500 miles from electric cars, and 200 miles should be expected. The MX-30 offers an EPA-estimated 100 miles of total range; we made it only 70 miles in our 75-mph highway test. Even worse, the MX-30’s 76 MPGe for those 70 miles of highway driving is less efficient than far more powerful EVs. The Model S Plaid got 91 MPGe in the same highway test, for example. Recharging at a Level 3 charger, it can get 80 percent topped up in 36 minutes; this takes 2 hours, 50 minutes at a Level 2. Our ride from home to the test-drive site and back wouldn’t have been a possible round trip in the MX-30. Mazda does offer 10 days of no-cost loans of other vehicles from its fleet for the first three years of ownership, but who wants to swap cars any time you want to leave your neighborhood? Read more