On Nov 24, 2015, at 1:46 PM, Lee Hart via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote:
> I'd say the problem is that "Mr. Market" won't buy a product with extremely > long life. You may well be right. At the same time, reliability is a popular selling feature, and, if somebody can make a durable battery that's not much more expensive than a disposable one, Mr. Market may just succumb to the upsell. > *Any* battery chemistry can be made to last. Would that extend to, for example, the sort of off-the-shelf batteries used in DIY conversions? As in, could I buy one of the Leaf packs from Hybrid Auto Center, or make my own battery from a bucketfull of A123 cells, or the like, and make it last? I'm assuming that's the job of the BMS...? > Isn't it really too soon to tell? Teslas aren't that old yet. I wouldn't quote me, but the Roadster's been on the road for seven years, long enough for initial plots to show if they're ahead of or behind the projected curve. It was much less than seven years for people to figure out that the first-generation Leafs were dying fast in hot climates. > My skeptical side thinks that if there were no warranty requirements, > automakers would be using cheap, short-life batteries that needed maintenance > every 3000 miles, and only lasted a few years, so they could reap big profits > on servicing and replacements. Just like the lead-acid batteries they are > already using. If they did that, they'd lose a really big selling point. At the least, they'd have to sell the car at a much cheaper price. Bad enough you have to spend hundreds of dollars every few years or whatever for tires...but if you also had to spend thousands on batteries? People would immediately stop thinking of just the electricity as the price to drive and include the battery replacement / overhaul / whatever in the price per mile, and then no amount of squinting would make them look reasonably priced. Or, worse, everybody would just get a short-term lease and then the car company / bank / whatever would be stuck spending that money. I get your pessimism...it seems ever harder to buy so-called durable goods that are actually durable. But, especially since ICEVs all have had "10/100" drivetrain warranties standard for so long, I don't think people will accept anything meaningfully less from a BEV. b& -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 801 bytes Desc: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20151124/b4973188/attachment.pgp> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
