Now they'll just be held back by lack of a widespread charging infrastructure.
Two car households look like a large enough market to get past the chicken and egg problem. The vast majority of daily driving is within the range of a base model Tesla.
Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries
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Re: Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries
#12I've been shopping for a used car in the Bay Area, and it looks like used electrics are even easier to buy (and harder to sell) than former rentals. That's not a good signal.
Like any 1.0 product. The technology evolves so rapidly it loses 90% of its value in a few years. It reminds me my first digital camera, 2000$ and 3 years later you could get better for 500$.
Not really. I sold my Prius for more than I paid for it back in 2005/6.
Electric cars are tough in that nobody knows how well they age. Based on my experience with lithium batteries, I'd be a bear in the value!
Re: Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries
#13obviously Tesla is the front runner for spearheading the insudtry by virtually every metric & subsector (except maybe price). Look, I love Tesla and have been bullish on the company for a pretty long time, so I am biased, but why can't other car companies have quality cars and aesthetics. * Fisker Karma: The car looked super sleek, was super sexy and from an engineering standpoint it was a heap of shit. * Chevy Volt:…
Uh... what about the leaf?! IMO that's the car spearheading the movement right now.
Re: Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries
#14I've been shopping for a used car in the Bay Area, and it looks like used electrics are even easier to buy (and harder to sell) than former rentals. That's not a good signal.
Incidentally, I bought a former rental and it's great! No problems at all.
People always say "But what if some idiot has thrashed it?" Well, probably some idiot did, but at least they only did it for a couple of days... much better than buying a car which was solely driven by some idiot.
Re: Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries
#15obviously Tesla is the front runner for spearheading the insudtry by virtually every metric & subsector (except maybe price). Look, I love Tesla and have been bullish on the company for a pretty long time, so I am biased, but why can't other car companies have quality cars and aesthetics. * Fisker Karma: The car looked super sleek, was super sexy and from an engineering standpoint it was a heap of shit. * Chevy Volt:…
It's too bad about the Volt. I drove one a few times... It isn't a terrible car at all, and bypasses the gaping flaws in a pure electric vehicle.
What's too bad about the Volt? I may be about to buy one of the new ones. The 2016 model has better electric range and looks better too.
Re: Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries
#16obviously Tesla is the front runner for spearheading the insudtry by virtually every metric & subsector (except maybe price). Look, I love Tesla and have been bullish on the company for a pretty long time, so I am biased, but why can't other car companies have quality cars and aesthetics. * Fisker Karma: The car looked super sleek, was super sexy and from an engineering standpoint it was a heap of shit. * Chevy Volt:…
It's too bad about the Volt. I drove one a few times... It isn't a terrible car at all, and bypasses the gaping flaws in a pure electric vehicle.
What do you see as the 'gaping flaws' of a pure electric vehicle? I would never want a hybrid, as I would optimize for either an ICE or EV but there doesn't seem to be space in a consumer vehicle to have a workable hybrid that is better than either of its pureplay counterparts.
Re: Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries
#17> There is no Moore’s law for battery storage—the power of batteries doesn’t magically double every two years.
> Put another away, the battery pack in the 2017 Volt will cost less than 10 percent more than the one in the 2012 Volt. But it will be more than four times more powerful.
Intel wishes its chips still quadrupled in performance every 5 years.
> We’re moving toward a world where more and more cars will either run primarily on gasoline but with an assist from powerful batteries or primarily on powerful batteries but with an assist from gasoline.
He's saying that in article talking about how cheap batteries have become and how in a few years they'll be $100/KWh? Within 10 years all EVs will have 100-150 KWh batteries. That's 400-600 mile ranges.
The only place where you'll see "hybrids" is some niches where batteries alone couldn't possibly make sense, but I have a hard time coming up with ideas for vehicles where batteries alone wouldn't be enough in 15 years and they're smaller than say a train or an airplane. Even buses should do just fine with a 200KWh battery for a 16-18h work-day.
> Earlier this week, Bloomberg New Energy Finance released a report arguing that by 2040, 35 percent of annual vehicles sales will be electric.
It will be at least twice as much by 2030. By 2025 few will want a car that isn't an EV, and the car makers will have no choice but to start competing in EVs as their primary cars.
Re: Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries
#18I'm all for electric vehicles, but there are a few things that have bothered me about its mass adoption.
Right now, electrics comprise a tiny part of the automobile market share. Yet Tesla is already running into supply issues, particularly with lithium as there are only 3 companies in the world that do industrial-scale lithium mining, that too in a handful of mines around the world.
Secondly, I suppose we're currently in the honeymoon period for electrics. But what will happen 5-8 years down the line, when all the early mainstream adopters of electrics will have to replace their batteries? Is it feasible to recycle all those batteries?
Re: Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries
#19Now they'll just be held back by lack of a widespread charging infrastructure.
When the bosses wanted iPhones, the company got iPhones. When the bosses want to plug in their electric cars, the parking lots will get charging stations.
* The parking lots will get 2 or 3 charging stations per 1000 spaces, like many parking garages in SF currently.
Re: Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries
#20I've been shopping for a used car in the Bay Area, and it looks like used electrics are even easier to buy (and harder to sell) than former rentals. That's not a good signal.
Like any 1.0 product. The technology evolves so rapidly it loses 90% of its value in a few years. It reminds me my first digital camera, 2000$ and 3 years later you could get better for 500$.
I own a 2014 Nissan Leaf. Except for the battery and motor, almost every technology in the car is what you'd find in a regular vehicle. Any obsolescence can be dealt with by a battery upgrade (motors are a century old technology, I doubt that'll improve much in 5-10 years).