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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

#471
post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is surprisingly difficult to get numbers on how much oil is used to extract, refine and transport oil. Not to mention the socialized costs of all the wars, military spending and human lives spent to secure stable sources of fossil fuels. If you actually break down the numbers and applied some basic ethics, I doubt fossil fuels have been cost competitive for decades.

We will still have those same wars after EV's. Oil has been a good incentive, but let's face it - the U.S. loves us some wars.

We're already looking at the human cost of some of the components needed for the batteries, like lithium and cobalt. That's what we'll be fighting wars over after we exhaust the supply of oil.

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

#472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting that battery stories generate so much opprobrium when battery performance has increased so dramatically over the last couple of decades.

What about the last decade? My guess is that iPhone battery density hasn't improved at all.

Looking at currently available 18650s, they are the same ones I was buying for my e-cig in 2015. Which were already a year or two old at that point.

However the prices seem to have come down a bit despite all the inflation since then.

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

#473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“No week goes by without a revolutionary battery technology” - Engadget, circa 2010

And that is why batteries have become so much better now than they were 20 years ago.

Eh, not really. Most "battery breakthrough!" press releases are about some new exotic chemistry while most mass produced battery improvements in the last 20 years have come from incremental improvements to existing chemistries and better packaging.

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

#474
post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hybrids that emit carbon will still have a huge effect on global warming, simply because there are so many cars. There isn't a huge amount of headroom for efficiency increases, so you're only going to get anywhere near "net zero" by charging from a renewable grid nearly all the time.

According to this chart, road transport sector is responsible for 11.9 % of greenhouse emissions wordlwide.^1 Could you please expand upon how you define the huge effect it will have on global warming? Don't you think it's better to focus on other parts of that pie, where it's easier to implement widespread savings and change? ^1: https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector

You could pick any part of the pie and make an identical argument, yet somehow the whole pie has to go away.

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

#475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that confusing, only the US measures fuel in gallons, isn't it? Everyone else just uses liters.

The UK also does for some God awful reason (especially infuriating considering it's sold by the litre at the petrol station). In the United States and some other countries, a gallon is equal to 128 fluid ounces or 3.785 liters. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries, a gallon is equal to 160 fluid ounces or 4.546 liters.

The UK also uses pints for dairy milk, but litres for plant-based milks. UK must be completely disregarded if you're looking to make sense about what units to use.

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

#476
I do wonder sometimes if scraping the million plus of components, produced and assembled with great care into a ICE car and still relatively new, makes any sense. Re-powering seems no brainer to keep millions of new cars out of the scrapyard. And avoid the environmentally unsustainable production of slightly newer cars. Reusing them whole, engine included, is ideal. If battery re-powering, synthetic gasoline and hydrogen re-powering are not viable for multiple reasons I wonder what the best pool of options is.

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

#477
post #133

I just realized how much energy efficiency is being squeezed out of a Tesla. It's incredible. A normal diesel fueled sedan such as the Chevy Cruze diesel runs at about 31mpg, which is 13.2 km/l or 15.3 km/kg. Diesel has a mind-boggling 12700 Wh/kg energy density[1], which translates to an efficiency of ~827 Wh/km for the Chevy. By contrast, the Tesla Model S, has a ~540 kg battery[2]. At 272 Wh/kg (from the posted ar…

> ~27% of the energy required to run a normal car It would be slightly worse in colder climates. I wish car manufactures would allow for easy installation for range extenders in the front trunk. I'd be a great source of heat for the heat pump. Range anxiety would be gone. No carbon tax since it would be an aftermarket solution. It seems Mazda MX-30 r-ev is the only thing you can buy.

> Range anxiety would be gone.

Range anxiety is an affliction more common among those who do not drive an EV than those who do.

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

#478
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's about the same efficiency as every modern EV. This is not Tesla specific. Electric motors are very efficient, regenerative braking helps, EVs are designed to be super aerodynamic, etc.

Compare the mpge of different cars. Tesla tends to win even between EVs.

Engineering first results.

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

#480
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My plan to buy an EV in the next five years may be realistic after all. Happy!

You may not have a choice in the matter as more and more countries are thinking of/implementing ICE bans in the near future.

ICE bans won't prevent people from buying used cars.
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