Jeep’s Recon Isn’t Astronaut Diaper Rated. It’s Trail Rated.

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Back in 2007, an astronaut reportedly put on Maximum Absorbency Garment (aka MAG, a fancy name for the diapers astronauts wear on spacewalks), hopped in her car, and drove 900 miles straight from Houston to Orlando to assault her ex’s new girlfriend. While she says the media exaggerated the story (and that she didn’t actually wear a diaper), it was a completely wild story that gave us the phrase “astronaut love triangle.”

It also seems to have secretly become the standard by which automotive journalists judge electric vehicles.

Whenever a new EV comes out, reviewers immediately look at the absolute 100 to zero percent highway range. Anything that can’t rival Tesla efficiency on the highway and keep you driving for 4–6 hours is subpar.

Car and Driver just put the 2026 Jeep Recon Moab launch edition through its 80 mph highway test, and it managed 160 miles. Over at The Autopian, they’re already calling the vehicle a spectacular failure for having such poor highway range.

Oh man, I hope there’s a charging station at the trailhead –> tinyurl.com/jzmy2azs

— The Autopian (@theautopian.bsky.social) 2026-10-02T19:44:26.305Z

But, here’s the reality: Nobody actually drives like that. Unless you’re an astronaut trying to cross state lines without a bathroom break, you don’t drive an EV from a full charge down to zero in one single agonizing stretch. Whether you can replicate this test depends on whether you’re wearing Depends.

For some reason, too many EV writers seem to think we all drive like we have a diaper on and a vendetta to settle. While that would make for great media sensation, interstate travel is limited by both patience with your traveling companions and the size of the smallest bladder in the vehicle.

Pee isn’t the only limiting factor. Humans, we get stiff backs. We need to stop and stretch our legs.

If you’re driving across I-10 in Texas (which is exactly the kind of place you’d actually lock in at 80 mph for hours on end), 160 miles of total range means you can comfortably do 90-mile hops between chargers. At 80 mph, that’s just over an hour of driving.

For the Recon and its 94 kWh battery pack, that 90-mile hop translates perfectly to the 10 to 60 percent battery window and roughly matches the distance between the better charging stations between El Paso and San Antonio.

Keeping the battery in that specific percentage range is the sweet spot for road trips. DC fast chargers give you the most power when the battery is low. We already know the Recon can pull around 200 kW at peak speeds. If you roll up to the charger at 10 percent, plug in, and walk inside to use the restroom and grab a drink, you’re pulling maximum charging speed the whole time you’re away from the vehicle.

By the time you finish doing normal human things, the Jeep is back up to 60 percent and ready for the next leg. You completely skip the agonizing trickle charge that happens at the top of the battery pack. Perhaps more importantly, you’re not looking for a bush to hide behind when nature’s call can’t be ignored any longer.

Yes, the Recon is very inefficient on the interstate. It gets 1.7 miles per kWh on the highway because it’s shaped like a backyard shed on stilts. It’s got knobby 33-inch tires, over 9 inches of ground clearance, and a 15:1 final drive ratio in the rear for precise off-road torque.

The Jeep Recon isn’t built to set non-stop, bladder-busting, piss bottle-filling Cannonball records. It’s built to get you down the highway comfortably while preserving the ability to crawl over rocks when the pavement ends.

If Stellantis smoothed out all the corners and put it on skinny eco-tires just to score 300 miles on a highway test, it wouldn’t be a Jeep anymore. It’d lose the approach angles, the open-air capability, and the actual rock crawling performance people buy a Jeep to get and are willing to sacrifice efficiency for.

The Recon isn’t Astronaut Love Triangle Rated. It’s Trail Rated. And that’s exactly what a Jeep should be, whether it runs on cheap electrons or expensive gasoline.

Featured image by Jennifer Sensiba.

• Source: https://cleantechnica.com/2026/10/03/jeeps-recon-isnt-astronaut-diaper-rated-its-trail-rated/