[HN Gopher] New study shows: EV batteries last much longer than ...
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       New study shows: EV batteries last much longer than expected
        
       Author : kungfudoi
       Score  : 45 points
       Date   : 2024-11-24 17:05 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.electrive.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.electrive.com)
        
       | gnabgib wrote:
       | Discussion (33 points, 3 days ago, 14 comments)
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42207110
        
       | ivewonyoung wrote:
       | This was always "expected" by people in the know ever since the
       | Model S came out in 2012 and there was real world data on cars
       | with 100K+ miles.
       | 
       | Didn't stop the oil lobby anti-EV myths from spreading far and
       | wide. And now both political factions hate EVs so expect even
       | more people to continue to think batteries die in a few years.
       | 
       | EV companies wouldn't be warranting the battery degradation for
       | hundreds of thousands of miles and several years if batteries
       | died easily.
        
         | recursive wrote:
         | > And now both political factions hate EVs
         | 
         | A significant fraction of people have now actually driven them.
         | It's going to be increasingly tough to tell spooky stories
         | about EVs when your neighbor/friend/coworker has been driving
         | one uneventfully for 4 years.
        
         | bdangubic wrote:
         | 2014 Tesla S, 80k miles, battery still getting me 230 range -
         | not too much drop off.
         | 
         | 99% of charges are at supercharger (which is also not supposed
         | to be good for the battery)
        
       | Panzer04 wrote:
       | This has always been true for anyone who knows anything.
       | Batteries rapidly deteriorate from 100%, but the degradation gets
       | slower the more capacity has already been lost.
       | 
       | Even for consumer devices, battery aging and capacity loss is
       | very slow after 70%, and they are exposed to much harsher
       | conditions than EVs (no temp control, daily full cycling, etc).
        
         | ivewonyoung wrote:
         | > This has always been true for anyone who knows anything
         | 
         | Not sure that's true. I have seen comments on HN multiple times
         | over the years claiming batteries die in a few years and were
         | almost never downvoted.
        
           | voussoir wrote:
           | This might not be quite as strong a rebuttal as you were
           | hoping for!
        
           | throwaway290 wrote:
           | HN downvotes are not signal for truth, just popularity.
        
         | TexanFeller wrote:
         | Very slow degradation after reaching 70% capacity is cold
         | comfort when EV batteries are barely adequate for many people
         | at 100%. EVs typically start with ~300mi range. 70% of that is
         | 210mi. I live in the city, but my parents live ~150mi away from
         | the city along a route that has zero superchargers and only a
         | handful of slow chargers along the way. I couldn't even visit
         | my parents reasonably on a single charge, therefore my next
         | car(s) will be a hybrid. Hybrid sedans can give me the
         | traditional ~600mi range so I can drive from Austin to Ft.
         | Worth and back before filling up a small tank.
        
           | MostlyStable wrote:
           | Hybrids are great. If they had slightly larger battery range
           | (50ish miles), I'd probably go that route myself. More people
           | should probably be choosing them.
           | 
           | But I think that the situation you are posing: quasi
           | regularly driving a trip that is >100 miles with no ability
           | to charge at all is actually pretty uncommon. And even in
           | your case, since you are driving that far (and visiting
           | family), I assume you are staying overnight. You can get a
           | portable lvl 2 charger for a couple hundred bucks that will
           | plug into a dryer plug and charge your vehicle back to full
           | overnight. (admittedly. this assumes the drive is in ideal
           | conditions and you get the full 210 miles; given where you
           | are going and the apparently lack of infrastructure, if this
           | is mountainous at all, then yeah....very well might not make
           | it)
           | 
           | To me, the issue that actually affects more people is that if
           | you need a family sized vehicle, your options are A) pretty
           | limited and B) almost all >$60,000. For a single person, or a
           | childless couple, EVs are pretty accessible, for families,
           | that's much less true.
        
             | lukevp wrote:
             | There is a ton of infrastructure between Austin and Ft.
             | Worth, it's almost a contiguous city at this point. And
             | there are no mountains in the vast majority of Texas, it's
             | very flat. There are a lot of chargers on that route, not
             | sure what OP is talking about.
        
               | MostlyStable wrote:
               | I totally missed that they had actually specified the
               | route, and was just commenting on a generic one (which is
               | why I guess it might be mountainous, definitely places in
               | the West where you can drive >100 miles without charging
               | infrastructure....just also not many people to visit).
        
             | vel0city wrote:
             | As someone with two kids, a Model Y or a Mach E are very
             | reasonable vehicles for a family. Both are under $60k.
        
               | MostlyStable wrote:
               | That's fair. I was basically taking my family's "worst
               | case" scenario (10+ hour drive, 2 kids, 2 dogs, +
               | luggage) and assuming that was typical, when in actuality
               | that's probably as rare a situation as the one I was
               | replying to. We can, just barely, make our current
               | vehicle + roofrack work with 1 kid and 2 dogs when we
               | visit my parents, but since we are planning a second kid,
               | we are looking around for something larger.
               | 
               | For anyone not trying do to both kids + dogs, there are
               | probably a lot more options.
        
           | lukevp wrote:
           | Temple Buccees has a supercharger, as do many other places.
           | Still, Texas is not a great place for EVs. Everything's so
           | far apart. Instead of a Hybrid, how about a PHEV or an EV
           | with a range extender? The problem with hybrids is they have
           | all of the complexity of an ICE as their main drivetrain,
           | whereas an EV drivetrain is much simpler, more powerful and
           | more reliable. If you can get a vehicle where the gas /
           | diesel is just there as a power plant for the EV, you get the
           | best of all worlds, plus the gas engine can run at peak
           | efficiency which gives you better fuel economy and if the ICE
           | has issues you can still drive with just the EV part.
        
           | gambiting wrote:
           | We have a Volkswagen e-Up with a max range of maybe 150
           | miles, we drive it every day with longer trips on the
           | weekends and I literally never even had to charge it outside
           | of home in the few years I owned it.
           | 
           | Not everyone's use case is the same.
        
         | potato3732842 wrote:
         | Even for consumer devices, battery aging and capacity loss is
         | very slow after 70%,
         | 
         | My laptop, power tools and iphone beg to differ....
        
       | Workaccount2 wrote:
       | It's unexpected because batteries are rated based on full
       | charge/discharge cycles.
       | 
       | But in reality it's comparatively very rare for those full cycles
       | to happen. People overwhelming drive <40 miles a day and top off
       | the battery regularly.
        
       | davedunkin wrote:
       | How can I get my Nissan Leaf to read this paper? Its range has
       | dropped to 50% of new and a refurbished replacement pack cost
       | 150% the value of the car, which is in otherwise excellent
       | condition. It has only 70k miles.
        
         | pcdoodle wrote:
         | Since the Leaf has a smaller battery, it get's more wear and
         | tear per trip.
        
           | Astronaut3315 wrote:
           | It also lacks active thermal management. That's more or less
           | a requirement for long battery life.
        
             | cowmix wrote:
             | THIS. The ARIYA is the first EV they've widely released
             | (last year) with any active thermal management. I live in
             | AZ, and all my friends with Leaf's all have had to have
             | their batteries replaced at least once.
             | 
             | All my Chevy based EV/PHEVs have had great battery life (so
             | far) - knock on wood.
        
           | BonoboIO wrote:
           | I think this is the answer. That is also a problem for hybrid
           | powers vehicles, the battery is small and it gets charged and
           | discharged 0-100 / 100-0 very often, if you use the hybrid as
           | intended.
           | 
           | Some manufacturers limit this, but in a few years we will see
           | a lot of hybrids that have batteries that barely work and
           | will not deliver the expected ev only distance by a lot.
        
             | teamonkey wrote:
             | A lot of Toyota hybrids (but I believe not PHEVs) use NiMH
             | batteries, which are longer lasting than the Li-ion
             | batteries used in EVs and can withstand more charge cycles.
        
             | moepstar wrote:
             | Not only that, those small batteries do cost a
             | disproportionate amount of money to replace.
             | 
             | If you want a real world opinion, check the EVClinic
             | blog...
        
         | bdangubic wrote:
         | what is fascinating about your comment to me is thag the value
         | of your car has dropped precisely because people fear battery
         | issues. my friend had a 2015 Tesla S in pristine condition,
         | just a ridiculous car. replaced the battery so now we have 50k
         | miles new battery like-new Tesla S that he could not sell for
         | more than $30k. wild stuff...
         | 
         | even though most people don't do it, on more expensive cars it
         | actually makes serious financial sense to replace the battery
         | but on cheaper cars it does not!
        
         | verisimi wrote:
         | > a refurbished replacement pack cost 150% the value of the car
         | 
         | When I researched evs, I couldn't make the economics make
         | sense. 7 years for a car lifetime seems outrageous.
        
           | Tagbert wrote:
           | Where do you get 7 years? That is not true of most EV. Even
           | the worst ones, like the early Leafs did better than that.
        
           | vel0city wrote:
           | The economics of that seems solid to me. If the battery is
           | bad in year 7 it's replaced under warranty.
        
       | agumonkey wrote:
       | After break pads, another good news I see :)
        
       | ggernov wrote:
       | This is why I opted for a hybrid Camry over a new Tesla. I kept
       | my previous car for 13yrs and still sold it for $11k.
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-24 23:01 UTC)