Battery based vehicles of today and tomorrow pt 2

[ultrarunner]

I own many vehicles but my daily driver and the one I make 12 hour drive to Washington is a 2011 Corolla.

Sure I could drive the Range Rover at 1/3 the miles per gallon or the BMW with mpg close to the Corolla and a great road car but the touring has no trunk so whatever is inside is vulnerable…

The Corolla is one less thing to think about and it has Blue Tooth, Hands Free, etc…

Many purchase are driven by desire and not need.

Basically, I’m too cheap to spend EV money because I know down the road I will face the battery question… so economic for me… especially when I keep cars long enough they start appreciating…

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Enjoy your Tesla. Thank me and other taxpayers who will never buy an EV for your rebate. Never travel far unless you enjoy your charging time.
Prove to me and others EVs will lower Earth's temperature and the elimination of all petroleum burning cars, trucks, planes, boats, etc. will save the planet. It's a pipe dream.
Your turn to discredit everything I say, using "word salad".

Why does the existence of EVs intimidate you so?

Why keep tossing word salads?

Just buy the vehicle that works for your financial, physical and emotional needs.

 

[Grumpycat]

I've seen canadia's current prime minister, they're rampant with political terrorists up there. But that was a minor point. I want to be as off grid as possible, and unless I strike oil, the sun is my best bet.

I too want to have sufficient sources to be off-grid. More as something interesting to do and learn.

Started thinking this way many years ago about the prospect of making my own diesel. Learned it required a lot of external components and created a lot of waste.

Then when EVs started being possible I realized a PV array would create no waste, virtually no maintenance. PV/EV can be interesting!

Will see what I make of it in the coming years.

 

[Grumpycat]

I was thinking the other day. We often drive a vehicle until it's 20 years of age. Run them, maintain them, and after 20 years they are still great for someone else's first car. What will be the status of a 2015 Tesla in 2035? Will it be on the cusp of a $30k battery replacement? Will that happen prior to 2035?

You don't see it because not so many doing the work care to be YouTube Influencers, but there is a lot of shade tree work on dismantling and understanding Tesla automobiles. The more which are wrecked and totaled without being totally devastated the more gets in these people's hands to make something of.

We see a lot of reuse of the original Model S batteries. Contains 16 identical independent battery modules which are fairly easy to use for other projects such as home brew EV conversions and PV power storage. I had seriously planned on using the battery from my 2013 for PV storage but realized it would not survive the winter on my carport, and my sister wanted the car.

Back to my point, those who take cars apart for reuse learn how to repair. Ultimately "the battery" is a subsystem where one might replace the cells with something not from Tesla. Is a big box. Has a connector. Do whatever inside the box but make it behave on the connector the same as Tesla expects. With the popularity of the 3 and Y, I don't think 3rd party battery replacement is that far out of line. There will be too many cars on the road for Greedy Capitalist Pigs not to get their toes wet.

The Chevrolet dealer quoting nearly $30,000 to replace a Volt battery went viral. What "the press" didn't bother to research once they got sufficient outrage was that numerous independents would sell compatible and/or better replacement batteries for the Volt for $6,000 and reasonably DIY.

Adults will come to realize EV batteries are like tires, they are consumables, they wear, and new batteries can make an EV like new. Replacement isn't nearly as involved as a new engine.

After 10 years my Tesla battery was still at 93% of it's original capacity. The car went to my sister when it needed it's 3rd Drive Unit (motor). She paid for the new Drive Unit, I gave her the rest of the car which she promptly drove 590 miles home. Is a shame it is so hard to drive an EV long distances!

 

[shooterdon]

Not many $20k cars out there, period. With all the mandatory "safety" gadgetry now mandated I don't see that price point ever returning. Hard to find a decent used car for that anymore.
As far as your comments on the industry going the "wrong way", trouble is, new technology is expensive. People who buy econoboxes like the civic or corrola do so because they're relatively inexpensive basic transportation. You kind of need the deep-pocketed "gotta be the first one on my block to have the latest and greatest tech toy" base on board first, and they generally want something that stands out visually. Eventually, the technology will trickle down to the more entry-level vehicles but it takes time to get there.

There a few $20k ICE cars out there. And EV's are supposedly cheaper to make with fewer parts and less labor. There are economies of scale that a wider market segment offers that something like an EV pickup truck will not have. The R&D costs for selling 10k units are the same as for selling 250k units. It is one reason Ford is getting kicked in the butt with its Lightning. High costs, low volumes and a vehicle that does not, and cannot, meet customer expectations.

People buying an econobox will accept compromises more readily than a yuppie or a couple of DINKS spending over $75k to impress friends and family.

And the climate change activists who eat this stuff up are more likely to be in the demographics of first time car buyers who live in the cities and suburbs.

 

[WinterDeere]

The fastest light vehicle gasoline pumps (dispensers) in the USA pump 10 gallons/minute. So if you get one of these fast pumps (7 gallons/minute is more common) in 30 seconds you get 5 gallons.

You stop for gas every 5 gallons? Motorcycle?

The one thing I see routinely ignored in these conversations is total lifetime minutes or hours spent standing by a pump or charging station. If and when I own an EV, most charging will happen overnight at home, while I sleep. Yes, there will surely be rare occasions when I need to stop and "supercharge" on the road, but if this is one or two days out of 365, I'm still vastly reducing the amount of time refueling on the road over the course of a year or the lifetime of the vehicle.

More importantly than that, is the amount of time I've saved in driving to and from the gas station, as I almost never seem to be conveniently passing one in my daily travels. If I spend 20-30 minutes refueling an EV at a highway rest stop, while taking a leak and picking up a coffee, it could be considered a setback on that trip. But it's still vastly preferable and wasting less of my time each year, than driving across town and standing by a gas pump for 3-4 minutes once every week or two.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

US companies work to ramp up domestic rare earth manufacturing

It's good to national security is getting some attention.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

US companies work to ramp up domestic rare earth manufacturing

It's good to national security is getting some attention.

 

[fatjay]

I too want to have sufficient sources to be off-grid. More as something interesting to do and learn.

Started thinking this way many years ago about the prospect of making my own diesel. Learned it required a lot of external components and created a lot of waste.

Then when EVs started being possible I realized a PV array would create no waste, virtually no maintenance. PV/EV can be interesting!

Will see what I make of it in the coming years.

2 years ago I had zero interest in solar. Prices were astronomical, return took 20+ years, and mainstream battery tech was not good enough. That has changed with panels being almost free, battery tech moving to lifepo4, and increasing prices of electricty. In May of 2023 my power was 11c/kwh, one of the lowest in the country. It has since gone to 19c/kwh, nearly double, with random extra charges being thrown in each bill. This month it's Distribution System Improvement Charge. It's bs, build that into the electric rate, or eat the cost, it's not my job to improve your system.

I did the making diesel thing years back. And yes, it relied on lots of components I couldnt' source myself. I have 2 deli's in the family so I could source fryer oil for biodiesel, but the other components were at times a pain to find.

To be clear, I'm looking for a solution for myself, not for everyone else. I don't think there's a one size fits all solution, so what works for me may not work for you.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Supercharged loss: EV charger companies watch profits plummet as drivers pump the brakes​

Several electric vehicle charging companies are experiencing sharp declines in their share prices, with some projecting significant annual losses as sales for EVs level off and market leaders worry about the future of the industry and economy.

ChargePoint Holdings reported that its shares dropped 74% in 2023 and missed its initial revenue projections for the third quarter, according to the Wall Street Journal. Blink Charging and EVgo shares also have dropped 67% and 21%, respectively.

MSN