Think back to only six years ago. It was 2011. Barack Obama was president and Donald Trump was a reality game show host. Hillary Clinton was writing emails from somewhere. And the range for electric vehicles was bad enough to rightly cause range anxiety. The Tesla Model S was still nearly a year away from launching, so the best one could get was a first-generation Nissan Leaf with a 73-mile EPA tested range. Fast forward to the end of 2017 and much has changed.

The US Department of Energy (today headed by a former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant, just saying) has released some new data comparing 2011 EV median range to today. In short, 73 miles was the median EV range six years ago. Today that median range is 114 miles. That's a 56 percent increase in just six years. Amazing what happens when there's an industry-wide technology push. Here's what the DOE wrote in last week's 'fact of the week': "In model year 2011, there were just three different models of all-electric vehicles (AEV) available and their ranges on a full charge (according to the Environmental Protection Agency) spanned from 63 to 94 miles.

"By model year 2017, the number of AEV models increased to 15 and the available ranges expanded as well, from a minimum of 58 miles for the smart fortwo Electric Drive Coupe to a maximum of 335 miles for the Tesla Model S 100D. From 2011 to 2017, the median of the AEV ranges increased by 41 miles – from 73 to 114 miles." Now that you're aware of this, think what's going to happen to EV tech within the next five years. By 2021, a mere decade after the first Leaf, it'll be normal, if not outright expected, for EVs to have a minimum 300-mile range. The base model 2018 Nissan Leaf has a 150-mile range while the Chevrolet Bolt offers more than 200 miles of range anxiety-free driving. Welcome to the powertrain of the future today.