371–380 of 396 posts
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LFP batteries are also lithium ion batteries, just a different kind.
Lithium isn’t problematic on its own. They can take enough of it from the Salton Sea without any mining.
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Why do people need 200 mile range for an EV? For example, my daily mileage averages about 5 miles. As an errand-runner, a 30 mile EV would be very practical. The huge benefit of this is a smaller and cheaper battery, and the biggie - much less weight. Much less weight leads to much less tire/brake wear and tire/brake dust pollution. I'd still have a second gas car for the trips.
> Why do people need 200 mile range for an EV? > I'd still have a second gas car for the trips. I feel like you answered your own question here. Having two cars is pretty expensive, if nothing else you have to pay for insurance for both.
This was a lower middle class area.
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Good analysis, until you got here: > While this is a baseless comment, let's look at it anyway: It's not baseless. This is a golden boy startup, blessed with save the Earth kudos and highly subsidized. The DOE spun this outfit up in 2020 with $19M. Michigan and Whitmer have fast tracked the one, modest, token plant, delivered the tax breaks and signed the contracts for a sodium battery power facility in the state. VC…
1. Trends in mass production are moving -away- from China. 2. China was not deemed an adversary when it become the prima supplier of Li batteries. 3. The USA is perfectly capable at locking out competition the same way China did, why? Because national security. The assumption that all new battery technology will end up being produced in China is naive, and baseless. Also let's pay attention to the article, since it a…
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Having lots of money doesn't mean spending lots of money. Budgets often get cut for no good reason.
Okay, I mean I'm aware of that perfectly generic information but "sometimes management sucks" doesn't impact a feasibility analysis much. And this hypothetical station was already willing to spend on a lot on batteries.
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The argument against hybrids that's always resonated with me is that you get the maintenance costs of a gasoline engine with the upfront costs of a battery. I've owned a Leaf and found it relatively trouble-free but never a hybrid. Am I just buying into FUD there?
True, but they win despite that.
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Okay, I mean I'm aware of that perfectly generic information but "sometimes management sucks" doesn't impact a feasibility analysis much. And this hypothetical station was already willing to spend on a lot on batteries.
Just because they want to spend on batteries doesn't necessarily mean they can spend on power lines. Most of the time you can't just pay the power company to bulk up your lines, just like you can't always pay an ISP to install a faster connection, even if they provide that service to another area.
And yes it's not always possible but it'll be available in enough places.
If a particular station can't get better lines, then as someone else said they could have fewer charging spots. High load per spot still works out well for them, because they can save space.
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From the article it claims charge speed 10x that of lithium and 50,000 cycle lifetime. I don’t know about you but a EV that can go 150 miles and charge to 80% again in 2min would be super compelling to me. Solid commuter car but not too annoying on the rare roadtrip. But, I am guessing grid frequency regulation use cases are going to make these too expensive for a car for a long time.
Two minutes is about the amount of time it takes to fill my ICE car, so yeah, that'd be nice.
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imagine this! Have short charging strips at traffic lights then prioritize lanes with cars that dont need much charge.
That's an option, though I think the amount of time cars spend at stop lights is so highly variable that it'd be hard to make that practical. Also, in-town driving is usually short range anyways. For that, having a 100 mile or even a 50 mile battery is plenty, and people can charge overnight at home. (And yes, ideally apartments ought to have EV charging stations.) Where people are more likely to need the extra charg…
I really have dozens of strange ideas. If the charging stations need to be equiped with similar batteries we might as well make all cars into charging stations. You can charge your much to large 3x per year road trip battery with your much to large solar array. Park it some place (preferably in need), flag the car in the app as wont move for x hours and has y kwh availble then charge your 40km range coworker premium tarif while you work.
A rail with a towing cable could also charge batteries while also usable for ic engines.
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I've had a Volt since 2018 and there's basically been almost no "maintenance" on the ICE. Just an oil change every two years. Maybe I'm due for a coolant flush or something, I dunno. It has 120,000km on it. The most maintenance on this car ever has just been the breaks, because like most EVs, they're prone to corroding because they don't get used as much due to regeneration. The "ICE is a maintenance problem" thing i…
That's interesting, I always assumed the brakes would be MORE reliable because there's essentially no wear on the brake pads.
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All that is a lot to unpack, but ever since I saw University of Santa Clara use one of these batteries, I have been interested: Yes, ALL your points are both well taken and accurate. The DRC is a disaster in many ways: https://www.cecc.gov/events/hearings/from-cobalt-to-cars-how...
Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) has been ramping for a decade, with "no cobalt" as a selling point. It's not huge in the US, but it is in China. https://www.isi.fraunhofer.de/en/blog/themen/batterie-update...
"No cobalt", plus safety, plus longevity (2,000 .. 3,000) cycles. BYD is claiming purchasers can expect 25 years battery life in the LFP cars. We will see I guess, but the math works out. In Australia we typically drive under 15,000 km a year. Assume the car has a 60 kWh battery, and that gets you 300 km. 2,000 [cycles / battery] * 300 [km / cycle] / 15,000 [km / year ] = 40 [years / battery]. So, no battery replacements for the life of a typical car. The USA drives their cars 25,000 km in a year, which works out at a typical 24 year lifetime for them.
The only reason I can see for the slow uptake of LFP in the USA is it was invented there, and the USA respects the patent. It's just recently expired. If that's true reason it's a fine example of patents holding back the economic development of a country.