Why the fuel gauge arrow is one of motoring’s greatest inventions

Ford managed to do this back in 1989 for petrol-powered cars…

The history of the motor car is one of continuous innovation, with incredibly clever people relentlessly inventing new technologies to make cars safer, perhaps faster and generally better.
We’re talking inventions such as seatbelts, fuel injection, anti-lock brakes, airbags and power steering – and the little arrow on your fuel gauge that tells you which side of the car the filler is on.
Okay, that last innovation isn’t quite like the others. It didn’t require countless hours of research, development, engineering and testing: it’s just a sticker. But that simple innovation, dreamed up by Ford designer Jim Moylan in the 1980s, has surely made life immeasurably easier for countless motorists.
Moylan was filling up a company car on a rainy day and initially pulled up on the forecourt with the pump on the wrong side for the fuel cap. Suitably annoyed, he came up with a solution.
He suggested it to his bosses, and in 1989 th