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They are simple powertrains fueled by complex and heavy battery chemistry. I think affordable for everyone will happen with the next generation of solid state b
by toddmorey 3y ago
They are simple powertrains fueled by complex and heavy battery chemistry. I think affordable for everyone will happen with the next generation of solid state batteries.
- stavros 3y agoWhat's complex about it? Isn't it 18650 cells welded together?
- user_7832 3y agoI'd also love to hear what's the complexity about. To me the high costs are a side effect of EVs still being seen as luxury vehicles, and not specifically because EV tech is inherently costly.
- stavros 3y agoI build RC planes as a hobby, and I regularly have to weld such batteries myself. Obviously the requirements in a commercial product are different, but I can't see what's so complicated about Li-ion batteries and their lifecycle. They seem an order of magnitude easier than all the tight-tolerance moving parts of an ICE that need a complicated computer controller just to fire properly.
- Tade0 3y agoI suppose it's the chemistry that's going on in there. In principle it's all simple, but what exactly happens inside is not as well studied as combustion engines. Case in point: this year researchers found out that a type of tape used in li-ion batteries is actually not chemically stable in this environment and replacing it with a different material increased lifespan by 10% and decreased self-discharge by 70%: https://techxplore.com/news/2023-09-tape-lithium-ion-batteries-battery-degradation.html https://techxplore.com/news/2023-09-tape-lithium-ion-batteri... Plenty of other stories of this type - one of them brought LFP batteries into the limelight, because researchers figured out how to close to double their capacity.
- stavros 3y agoHuh, interesting. We've used Li-ion batteries for decades, so I wouldn't have guessed we'd still have such fundamental things we didn't know about them.