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I would be okay with a modest battery pack with 250km to 300km of range in a Miata or Lotus in exchange for some lightness. I can’t remember the last time I dr

I would be okay with a modest battery pack with 250km to 300km of range in a Miata or Lotus in exchange for some lightness. I can’t remember the last time I drove more than 200km in a single trip in my Miata, and it’s my daily driver.

VLM 5y ago
I suspect if EVs ever get cheap enough for "regular joes" to drive, there will be hot rodders ripping out batteries to make them go faster. A Tesla model S battery is something like 1200 pounds. The entire car weighs something like 4500 pounds. If the range is 370 miles but I personally never drive more than 40 miles round trip to work, I could rip out 90% of the battery while maintaining 100% of the car's functionality to me, so I could drop the 0 to 60 time to possibly under 1.5 seconds due to lower weight. Should see a similar boost in handling performance. Out at the track I could trivially outperform any stock unmodified Tesla S with the simple mod of ripping out 90% of the useless-to-me batteries. Its not like I ever voluntarily sit in a car for 370 miles at a time, LOL. I wouldn't be into the likely staggering effort to rip out the batteries, but I know hot rodder car mod type people who would be all into shaving off 25% of your 0-60 time. Maybe, if "Everyone" had EVs, and I bought a second hand used car with a dead worn out battery, I would intentionally replace the giant 400 mile battery with a mere 40 mile battery just so I can gain incredible performance, AND the battery would be 90% cheaper than a full size battery, a win-win for me... I know its a stereotype of boomers that they have severe range anxiety and can't buy a car unless it can drive more than 20 hours continuously between "refuelings" but by the time "everyone" drives EVs the boomers will be gone, most likely. I'm not going to miss "range anxiety" complaints about EVs.
- jagger27 5y ago
  > so I could drop the 0 to 60 time to possibly under 1.5 seconds due to lower weight. Should see a similar boost in handling performance. If only this were the case. 2 seconds is pretty much the hard limit for a street car with the best tires you can get. Anything beyond that requires those giant funnycar tires that deform on acceleration to add grip. Or a rocket. > Maybe, if "Everyone" had EVs, and I bought a second hand used car with a dead worn out battery, I would intentionally replace the giant 400 mile battery with a mere 40 mile battery just so I can gain incredible performance, AND the battery would be 90% cheaper than a full size battery, a win-win for me... I think, as other commenters have mentioned in this thread, that having a lot of cells isn’t really negotiable. You need both voltage (cells wired in series) and amperage (cells wired in parallel) to push the car forward. If only it were so simple. The trade off with fewer cells is pretty much necessarily performance and range.
- throwawayboise 5y ago
  Pretty good comment except for the last paragraph.
  - VLM 5y ago
    Eh. Car people tend to be more generational than tech or computer people. My generation certainly has its own amusing peculiarities as we replaced our muffler exhaust tips with clothes dryer vents. We're not going to get mass market EVs due to range anxiety and thats not going away until the boomers go away, just kinda how it is.

VLM 5y ago

I suspect if EVs ever get cheap enough for "regular joes" to drive, there will be hot rodders ripping out batteries to make them go faster. A Tesla model S battery is something like 1200 pounds. The entire car weighs something like 4500 pounds. If the range is 370 miles but I personally never drive more than 40 miles round trip to work, I could rip out 90% of the battery while maintaining 100% of the car's functionality to me, so I could drop the 0 to 60 time to possibly under 1.5 seconds due to lower weight. Should see a similar boost in handling performance. Out at the track I could trivially outperform any stock unmodified Tesla S with the simple mod of ripping out 90% of the useless-to-me batteries. Its not like I ever voluntarily sit in a car for 370 miles at a time, LOL. I wouldn't be into the likely staggering effort to rip out the batteries, but I know hot rodder car mod type people who would be all into shaving off 25% of your 0-60 time. Maybe, if "Everyone" had EVs, and I bought a second hand used car with a dead worn out battery, I would intentionally replace the giant 400 mile battery with a mere 40 mile battery just so I can gain incredible performance, AND the battery would be 90% cheaper than a full size battery, a win-win for me... I know its a stereotype of boomers that they have severe range anxiety and can't buy a car unless it can drive more than 20 hours continuously between "refuelings" but by the time "everyone" drives EVs the boomers will be gone, most likely. I'm not going to miss "range anxiety" complaints about EVs.

jagger27 5y ago
> so I could drop the 0 to 60 time to possibly under 1.5 seconds due to lower weight. Should see a similar boost in handling performance. If only this were the case. 2 seconds is pretty much the hard limit for a street car with the best tires you can get. Anything beyond that requires those giant funnycar tires that deform on acceleration to add grip. Or a rocket. > Maybe, if "Everyone" had EVs, and I bought a second hand used car with a dead worn out battery, I would intentionally replace the giant 400 mile battery with a mere 40 mile battery just so I can gain incredible performance, AND the battery would be 90% cheaper than a full size battery, a win-win for me... I think, as other commenters have mentioned in this thread, that having a lot of cells isn’t really negotiable. You need both voltage (cells wired in series) and amperage (cells wired in parallel) to push the car forward. If only it were so simple. The trade off with fewer cells is pretty much necessarily performance and range.
throwawayboise 5y ago
Pretty good comment except for the last paragraph.
- VLM 5y ago
  Eh. Car people tend to be more generational than tech or computer people. My generation certainly has its own amusing peculiarities as we replaced our muffler exhaust tips with clothes dryer vents. We're not going to get mass market EVs due to range anxiety and thats not going away until the boomers go away, just kinda how it is.