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Whether EVs last longer is yet to be seen. The batteries are a huge flaw in their ability to last long term. Replacing the batteries are likely a $10k+ cost, me

Whether EVs last longer is yet to be seen. The batteries are a huge flaw in their ability to last long term. Replacing the batteries are likely a $10k+ cost, meaning that as cars get older it may not be worth doing. Imagine having a car worth $8k because it is 10 years old and needing to spend $10k on it to update the batteries. Would it make sense? Or would you just buy a car worth $18k instead? People willing to drop that on a "repair" would probably rather buy upmarket instead. Which leaves a lot of older EVs driving around with potentially really poor ranges and clogging up charger networks. We will have to see how it plays out. But they are lower maintenance.

gnicholas 3y ago
I imagine people will use cars with lower range as second vehicles. You’re not going to take it on a road trip, but it’s still good enough for driving around town.
bryanlarsen 3y ago
There are now Tesla's driving around with 300,000 miles on their original battery. You should be fairly confident of getting 200,000 miles out of a Tesla battery, which is about as much as you can expect from any car. You can hope for more, but you can't expect more. If you are really concerned about battery life, get a vehicle with an LFP battery. Those are estimated to have a 750,000 mile life.
- theturtletalks 3y ago
  That’s not exactly a fair comparison. My car can have 200K miles, but when I fill it up, I still get the same mileage. A worn down battery loses capacity with each charge and I’d be curious to see the milage per charge past a certain amount of cycles.
  - bryanlarsen 3y ago
    > but when I fill it up, I still get the same mileage. Really? I've never seen a 200,000 mile car with the same power or mileage as a brand new car -- the tolerances are not as tight. The loss might not be as dramatic as seen on a battery, but it's usually >5%.
acchow 3y ago
Replacing the battery is still too labor intensive. They need to simplify it and speed it up. Ideally, a machine does most of the work. In which you’re mostly left with the cost of the battery itself, which today is about $7k. But in 5 years will be $4k

gnicholas 3y ago

I imagine people will use cars with lower range as second vehicles. You’re not going to take it on a road trip, but it’s still good enough for driving around town.

bryanlarsen 3y ago

There are now Tesla's driving around with 300,000 miles on their original battery. You should be fairly confident of getting 200,000 miles out of a Tesla battery, which is about as much as you can expect from any car. You can hope for more, but you can't expect more. If you are really concerned about battery life, get a vehicle with an LFP battery. Those are estimated to have a 750,000 mile life.

theturtletalks 3y ago
That’s not exactly a fair comparison. My car can have 200K miles, but when I fill it up, I still get the same mileage. A worn down battery loses capacity with each charge and I’d be curious to see the milage per charge past a certain amount of cycles.
- bryanlarsen 3y ago
  > but when I fill it up, I still get the same mileage. Really? I've never seen a 200,000 mile car with the same power or mileage as a brand new car -- the tolerances are not as tight. The loss might not be as dramatic as seen on a battery, but it's usually >5%.

acchow 3y ago

Replacing the battery is still too labor intensive. They need to simplify it and speed it up. Ideally, a machine does most of the work. In which you’re mostly left with the cost of the battery itself, which today is about $7k. But in 5 years will be $4k