Electric car powered by poo unveiled by Queensland sewage treatment company

A Queensland sewage treatment company has unveiled its latest electric car powered by human waste.

Four years after introducing an electric Mitsubishi hatchback powered by poo, the firm Urban Utilities has put its second electric car on the road and called it “Number Two”.

The Hyundai Kona electric SUV even has the registration plates “NMBR2S” (number twos is rhyming slang for poo, in case you weren't aware).

“On average, one person’s daily habits can generate enough electricity to make the car travel around 450 metres,” said a spokesperson for Urban Utilities, a wastewater treatment company in Brisbane.

The firm said the power used to charge its electric cars were produced when biogas from sewage treatment was fed into a cogeneration unit – described as a giant engine that generates electricity.

“They might not realise it, but more than 330,000 people in Brisbane’s south-west are helping to create fuel for our poo-powered cars every time they flush,” said a company spokesperson.

The company estimated that transforming poo into electricity was saving Urban Utilities about $1.7 million a year in operating costs.

“Last financial year we produced enough electricity to power the equivalent of nearly 4000 homes for an entire year,” said a company spokesperson.

“Poo power doesn’t only help keep our cars on the road, it also helps us run our two largest wastewater treatment plants at Oxley and Luggage Point. By harnessing the power of poo, we’re reducing our operating costs and helping the environment by using a more sustainable energy source so it’s a win/win.”

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