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CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

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Re: CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

#121
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're unlikely to succeed because if the massive tax on poor people (ICE bans) actually gets implemented, all of the poor people who are forced to buy an unaffordable EV will vote for populists promising to unwind the bans.

In much of the world, owning a car at all puts you above "poor people". While owning a car is sadly needed in some parts of the world to get to work or even the stores (US..), it's a massive financial burden for most people. If you care for poor people, thinking about how people can go about their daily lives without spending thousands of dollars each year on owning a car would be the way to go.

If a comment on hackernews seems like it’s only written about the US, then it probably is.

Re: CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

#122
post #87
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the tech takes off (pun intended) every major airport will need a SMR. Which is maybe good? But politically impractical today .

With the energy efficiency attainable by traveling in the upper atmosphere, this might be the greenest possible long range transportation. God such a tantalizing solar punk dream. I would love just to hear the inside of an electric commercial airliner at altitude.

Presumably they would use something like an electrically propelled ducted fan (basically the first stage of a high bypass engine). The noise I imagine would be reasonably similar.

Re: CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

#123
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have a choice because, on paper, we do have a choice in choosing those countries’ politicians. I know I’ll never give my vote to a politician keen on banning gasoline cars. It’s sadly also true that the technocrats actually taking those decisions are a lot less directly accountable, but nothing that a second “yellow vests” movement won’t be able to fix.

Why is it so important for you to be able to pollute a bit more when commuting?

Why is it so important to plant goal posts where parent doesn't?

Some people like to have the freedom to choose between things, it isn't about trying to be some kind of villain.

Re: CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

#124
post #13
post #5

Cool! What didn’t occur to me until I learnt it was that you get a multiplicative benefit with energy density when weight is a major factor (air transport, especially) because you need to spend less energy accelerating mass used by the battery itself.

For a battery of arbitrary weight you need to spend the same amount of energy accelerating its mass, irrespective of how much energy that battery contains.

[deleted]

Re: CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

#125
post #87
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the tech takes off (pun intended) every major airport will need a SMR. Which is maybe good? But politically impractical today .

With the energy efficiency attainable by traveling in the upper atmosphere, this might be the greenest possible long range transportation. God such a tantalizing solar punk dream. I would love just to hear the inside of an electric commercial airliner at altitude.

I doubt it would be classical music and whale song playing over a beautifully calm scene..

More like kids watching movies without headphones, over loud conversations and screaming babies if other public transport is anything to go by.

But we can dream!

Re: CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

#126
post #84
post #2

"CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg which it says will go into mass production this year" This is a lot more credible than most of the battery stories, because CATL is already producing a ton of batteries, lending them some credibility. This is a little under 2x the density of current batteries.

> battery with 500 Wh/kg Wow, that's amazing, creeping up towards the energy density of gasoline at around 1200 Wh/kg Of course you don't have to lug around the spent gasoline after you've used it, but that's really the problem too innit?

You're forgetting to take into account that an electric drivetrain (power electronics and electric motor) is several times more efficient than a gasoline drivetrain (ICE motor and gearbox). It also weighs less.

Re: CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

#127
post #84
post #2

"CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg which it says will go into mass production this year" This is a lot more credible than most of the battery stories, because CATL is already producing a ton of batteries, lending them some credibility. This is a little under 2x the density of current batteries.

> battery with 500 Wh/kg Wow, that's amazing, creeping up towards the energy density of gasoline at around 1200 Wh/kg Of course you don't have to lug around the spent gasoline after you've used it, but that's really the problem too innit?

Isn't it break even point, considering >60% of the gasoline energy is dissipated as heat, and <40% to make the wheels spin?

Re: CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

#128
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Also... kerosene gets spent. Pilots can also dump fuel in emergency when it's too heavy to land. Battery powered planes can't dump electricity, so I'd imagine some trade offs that have to be made.

Dumping batteries might be a thing? After all it is an emergency!

With parachutes, and you can reuse them.

You can also do this on regular flights just to save weight. It's SpaceX style reusability but on a commercial aviation scale.

Re: CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

#129
post #84
post #2

"CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg which it says will go into mass production this year" This is a lot more credible than most of the battery stories, because CATL is already producing a ton of batteries, lending them some credibility. This is a little under 2x the density of current batteries.

> battery with 500 Wh/kg Wow, that's amazing, creeping up towards the energy density of gasoline at around 1200 Wh/kg Of course you don't have to lug around the spent gasoline after you've used it, but that's really the problem too innit?

Various theoretical energy densities of batteries and gasoline:

    lead acid                  123 Wh/kg
    lithium ion                250 Wh/kg
    zinc-oxygen              1,084 Wh/kg
    sodium-oxygen            1,605 Wh/kg
    lithium-sulfur           2,600 Wh/kg
    magnesium-oxygen         6,800 Wh/kg
    aluminium-oxygen         8,100 Wh/kg
    lithium-air             11,140 Wh/kg
    gasoline                12,700 Wh/kg
from 2022, Asad A. Naqvi et. al., Aprotic lithium air batteries with oxygen-selective membranes, Table 1, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40243-021-00205-w

Re: CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg

#130
post #98
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not banning per se, just stopping sales of new. So there will still be plenty of used ICE cars knocking around for a good few years.

Will there be gas stations, though?

If it’s like how analog photography shops were going, no not really. Perhaps you will get specialized shops for fuel and biofuels?
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