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Why horsepower needs to be retired

The Mercedes EQC electric SUV (shown) produces a total output of 300 kilowatts. Referring to the vehicle as having 402 hp is pointless. (Dai mler AG – Product Communic/Daimler AG)
November 07, 2018 05:00 AM

The time has come to ditch a beloved old anachronism of the Industrial Revolution: horsepower. With the mass-market introduction of electric vehicles, the term has outlived its usefulness and eventually it may even become a relic of a bygone era. Fundamentally, the unit is an expression of work performed over time, a quantity in physics that describes how much energy is needed to move a certain amount of mass a certain distance over a certain period.

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