World’s first ‘superfast’ battery offers 400km range from 10 mins charge::Tesla, Toyota and VW supplier CATL says production will begin in 2023
Other challenges include access to battery materials and battery degradation, though CATL claims this second pain point is not an issue with its latest battery.
If true then that’s the real innovation for me. I don’t want a car that I basically need to replace 70% the cost of every 4-5 years.
Current batteries can do 1000- 3000 cycles before the capacity drops below 80%.
With ranges of several hundred km this gives us hundreds of thousands km of lifetime mileage, if not a million.
Most ICE cars don’t get that far either.
Most 4 cylinder ice cars will go 300,000 miles on the motor before the motor would need replaced if you take good care of them, and at that point you could drop a new motor in for $5,000 with labor.
These large batteries on the other hand are looking to cost triple that.
Also, there plenty of ice vehicles with original motors on the road that are well over 15+ years old and still run great (I own 3) but even with a new tech lithium battery that can stay good for 2,000 charge cycles, there is NO lithium battery getting cycles put on it or not that doesn’t go bad after about 15 years. You’re currently guaranteed to need a new battery after that long and since most vehicles are worth $10k or less after they’re 15+ years old that leaves the vehicles worth a bit more than scrap.
It may have changed in recent years but several years ago when I was more into EVs it was a reasonable concern. But I do somewhat question the legitimacy of this seeing as how quickly small electronics Lithium batteries degrade.