When are you going fully electric?

Soldato
Joined
30 Dec 2004
Posts
3,421
Location
Worcestershire
The future will see cassette battery packs, in a similar way to the cassette that contains waste water in camper vans. You pull out the cassette, go into the petrol/energy station and carry a fully charged one back out and insert it.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
3,321
Location
Birmingham
The future will see cassette battery packs, in a similar way to the cassette that contains waste water in camper vans. You pull out the cassette, go into the petrol/energy station and carry a fully charged one back out and insert it.

No way. Manufacturers can’t even decide on a plug let alone a battery pack design. Too many different shapes/sizes/configurations/voltages etc. And battery ownership, what if the pack you get is old and has reduced capacity? Or then you have to lease the battery and that model hasn’t proved popular.

The batteries are also HUGE. They’re literally the entire chassis floor of the car, there’s going to be no usable range in something an adult can carry/move around.

Tesla did a battery swap station but closed it through lack of use. Much easier to plug in for 20minutes at the charger next door.
 
Associate
Joined
22 Jun 2018
Posts
1,582
Location
Doon the watah ... Scotland
I'd go fully electric when there is a battery tech that retains its charge and doesn't degrade over time.

If I buy a car that does 200 miles range .... i'd still want it to be doing 200miles range in 5 to 10 years time ... in t he same way I fill a tank today and get 400miles out of it, i'll still get 400 miles out of it by filling it in 10 years time.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Oct 2011
Posts
21,592
Location
ST4
I'd go fully electric when there is a battery tech that retains its charge and doesn't degrade over time.

If I buy a car that does 200 miles range .... i'd still want it to be doing 200miles range in 5 to 10 years time ... in t he same way I fill a tank today and get 400miles out of it, i'll still get 400 miles out of it by filling it in 10 years time.

You know, was only talking about this with a friend earlier today. Came to the conclusion that there's going to be a lot of really ****** off people in a few years when their batteries start to degrade and begin to lose charge quickly.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2006
Posts
23,372
You know, was only talking about this with a friend earlier today. Came to the conclusion that there's going to be a lot of really ****** off people in a few years when their batteries start to degrade and begin to lose charge quickly.

And the bill to replace them means the car will likely be scrapped long before a petrol one. Yay for progress.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,232
Except degradation is negligible in a well managed pack (e.g. that has both heating and cooling).

Suggest reading back through this thread, it’s been covered 5 or 6 times already.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 May 2008
Posts
3,757
Location
North Wales
Yeah i'm sure we'll all be crying when we have to scrap a car with only 200-300k miles on it and 15 years old as the battery only holds 80% of it's original range and has cost us massively less than a petrol car along the way. Boo hoo

Or in fact someone will happily take a car off you that 'only' does 120 miles instead of 160 and costs next to nothing to run.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,150
Location
West Midlands
Yeah i'm sure we'll all be crying when we have to scrap a car with only 200-300k miles on it and 15 years old as the battery only holds 80% of it's original range and has cost us massively less than a petrol car along the way. Boo hoo

Or in fact someone will happily take a car off you that 'only' does 120 miles instead of 160 and costs next to nothing to run.

Just for a laugh, 200k miles at 50mpg with an average cost of £1.28 per litre would cost you £23,244, but fcharging an electric car with an efficiency of 4mpkWh, would only cost £7,500 at an averaged cost of 15p kWh. So only a saving of around £15,700, I'd rather spend the £15k on a new battery pack, than give it to oil companies to be fair.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 May 2008
Posts
3,757
Location
North Wales
Yeah, plus you should end up paying way less than 15p per KWh if you have a home charger on a decent tariff, plus the much cheaper servicing along the way with no oil changes, hardly ever needing brakes and the like.

I think it will change how we view old cars, in say 15 years time it might be fine to buy a 200k+ car and get the battery changed as there may well be 3rd party people doing battery pack swaps by then. Im sure i've seen somewhere a company doing bigger battery packs for the original Leafs.
 
Associate
Joined
20 Feb 2007
Posts
1,094
Just for a laugh, 200k miles at 50mpg with an average cost of £1.28 per litre would cost you £23,244, but fcharging an electric car with an efficiency of 4mpkWh, would only cost £7,500 at an averaged cost of 15p kWh. So only a saving of around £15,700, I'd rather spend the £15k on a new battery pack, than give it to oil companies to be fair.

Octopus Energy have an EV rate of 5p per kwh overnight. So that £7,500 could be £2,500 on the appropriate tariff.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,150
Location
West Midlands
Yeah, plus you should end up paying way less than 15p per KWh if you have a home charger on a decent tariff, plus the much cheaper servicing along the way with no oil changes, hardly ever needing brakes and the like.

I think it will change how we view old cars, in say 15 years time it might be fine to buy a 200k+ car and get the battery changed as there may well be 3rd party people doing battery pack swaps by then. Im sure i've seen somewhere a company doing bigger battery packs for the original Leafs.

There are several options be explored to maximise the life of a vehicle and the battery cells used in the packs. One of the best and most obvious ideas coming forward is trade-in against a new pack should you wish to change it, with the majority of the cells from the packs being re-purposed into battery storage solutions. Even a pack with 70% of the original capacity can last 10-20 years in a battery storage solution like a Powerwall, or a commercial environment with much larger packs that are charged and discharged much less often.
As I suggested to someone previously with solar, they could buy a 'cheap' original Leaf and use that as a V2H battery, and a pootle to the shops car with the limited journey they did, thus maximising the life of the car, the cells, and the solar etc.

As for the original comment, I used an average of 15p kWH to factor in the usage of some non-home charging, and peak time charging. You could probably drop that to an average of 10-12p depending on the skew of the charging used.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2006
Posts
23,372
When have you seen a battery last over 10 years though? These are similar batteries to those in laptops and we know they dont last that long before they stop holding their charge. With active cooling you might get a few more, but the massive bill is inevitable. Its not just the battery packs either but the high voltage circuitry. It will make older EVs unsellable.

All we have atm is the manufacturer's word.
 
Last edited:
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
When have you seen a battery last over 10 years though? These are similar batteries to those in laptops and we know they dont last that long before they stop holding their charge. With active cooling you might get a few more, but the massive bill is inevitable. Its not just the battery packs either but the high voltage circuitry. It will make older EVs unsellable.

All we have atm is the manufacturer's word.

Why don't you look at Prius forums. It's a hybrid but it still has battery tech, etc.

They have been around for ages and you should be able to see how many of them lasted over 10 years.
 
Back
Top Bottom