Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.

[3930dave]

Better batteries will be the next major inflection point for EVs.

Lots to juggle though - performance, stability, longevity, and not the least - Cost.

One of the reasons that Pb-acid batteries have been a workhorse for so long is Cost. Low cost to produce, and relatively easy to recycle. (Saying that, while well aware they aren't in modern EVs....).

I'd hope that any high-volume battery product today is designed with recycling in mind - but when I see complex packing and exotic compounds in consideration, I'd like to see the process breakdown plans and costing........ The product performance may be there, but EV costs won't be dropping quickly if the cost of Lithium skyrockets....

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Autonomous Taxi Goes Rogue, Escapes From Rescue Crew

This Full Self Driving non EV story is somewhat humourous the way it's told.

 

[3930dave]

Always liked the (ur) Westworld line....

What Could Go Wrong......... Go Wrong.....


Thanks for the chuckle Gayle

Rgds, D.

 

[Grumpycat]

Another (Proof of Concept) battery advance
by Harvard researchers

Researchers design long-lasting, solid-state lithium battery

Harvard researchers have designed a stable, lithium-metal, solid-state battery that is far more efficient than lithium-ion batteries.

news.harvard.edu

A dynamic stability design strategy for lithium metal solid state batteries - Nature

A multi-layered electrolyte, in which a less stable electrolyte is sandwiched between two electrolyte layers that are more stable, can inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites in highly pressurized solid-state lithium metal batteries.

www.nature.com

Thats nice and all that. But those are exactly the kind of "breakthrough" announcements which occur every few weeks the past 10 years.

"Scientists" magically solve all the world's issues, in the laboratory, but their perfect designs fail to work in mass production.

40+ years ago my materials professor said some genius somewhere is always discovering a cheap material in the laboratory with something outrageous like 500,000 PSI shear strength. The piece he finds under the microscope really is 500,000 PSI. Just can't grow a grain into something of useable size.

For a classic EV example go research large cell NiMH. Cobasys patented, Chevron/Texaco purchased. Was never able to produce more than prototype quantities, at exorbitant prototype prices. Toyota/Panasonic did successfully build large cell NiMH in the 2000s, used in the very limited production Toyota Highlander Hybrid. Affectionately known as the HiHy.

Seeing the writing on the wall Toyota/Panasonic settled. Agreed not to use large cell NiMH in a motor vehicle. Then rushed off to work on the more promising lithium battery technology.

Chevron grossly overpaid for the large cell NiMH "technology" (which the owner/developers could not make work) believing it was essential to the future of EV and hybrids, that all would bow before their great patent. Believe Chevron was shocked how Toyota/Panasonic would surrender by abandoning the technology. "Everyone said!" an EV must have big cells for big batteries! Then Elon Musk and Tesla kicked "everyone's" bottom using thousands of small, long-C cell, 18650 sized cells.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Traffic cones confused a Waymo self-driving car. Then things got worse.
While FSD has made progress clearly it has not arrived. Tesla is not dropping back to camera vision only without good reasons. It could be decades before I get on the streets in a car without a steering wheel.

 

[grsthegreat]

I see another a Tesla on autopilot struck a parked police car in wash state today. Ya, I trust that technology.

 

[drssg]

I see another a Tesla on autopilot struck a parked police car in wash state today. Ya, I trust that technology.

I find it strange that Tesla is the only one making the news about autopilot crashes, even though other manufacturers have the same functionality. Mercedes, Cadillac, and probably others have it, but I have NEVER read about these vehicles crashing while on their version of autopilot.

Did the other companies implement it better? Or are Tesla owners more "special"?

 

[drssg]

Traffic cones confused a Waymo self-driving car. Then things got worse.
While FSD has made progress clearly it has not arrived. Tesla is not dropping back to camera vision only without good reasons. It could be decades before I get on the streets in a car without a steering wheel.

I haven't been following Tesla for quite a while, but I hadn't heard that they are dropping back to camera vision only. I don't see that as a positive step. They started out that way, with bad results.

 

[3930dave]

I find it strange that Tesla is the only one making the news about autopilot crashes, even though other manufacturers have the same functionality. Mercedes, Cadillac, and probably others have it, but I have NEVER read about these vehicles crashing while on their version of autopilot.

Did the other companies implement it better? Or are Tesla owners more "special"?

I'd say some of it comes down to just Elon. He is still running a major company, not much differently than a Startup.

A GM or Benz..... much more likely to do conservative Safety and Legal reviews, before releasing a product to Production.

Both approaches have Pluses and Minuses associated.....

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Here Comes the Biden Administration’s Generous Tax Credit for Buying Electric Vehicles | National Review

Until something is signed into law I consider this subject mostly noise. Tesla's production through the 4th of July is already sold out without tax incentives.