Lithium–air battery, they could make electric cars practical.

The Titanic when it sailed in 1912 was the most sophisticated and safest ship ever manufactured. They were so confident that life boats had the capability to carry less than half on board.

Hubris and failure usually have a strong connection.

Quite agree, we can’t go on burning fossil fuels like we are and like we have been, not just that but often in such a wasteful way, who needs a ridiculous big 4x4 that does 7mpg, to drive one child to school everyday in a 1st would country ?
Fine as a toy weekend for a blast, but why not get a economical daily driver, a small VW car can do 80-90 mpg, even something like that multiplied would probably make more a difference, but things like that are just the tip of a very big ice burg, we are simply far to wasteful with fossil fuels

The main issue though is we are addicted to oil, we are awash with it, it’s cheap, $30 a barrel last time I looked
And far to many vested intrests tied up with oil and keeping the consumer using it.

But these electric cars arnt some silver bullet some people would have us believe, at the present time a hybrid makes more sense and would be a better option,small ultra efficient ice engine supplying the electrical energy.
Remember unless an electric car is charged up from renewables, it’s still burning up fossil fuels, so why not burn it where it’s needed and most efficient? In the vehicle.

But by far the simplest and easiest solution,- maybe as a short term solution whilst we work out the electric vehicle flaws or something else - is to make what we have I.e the internal combustion engine much more efficient and the vehicles lighter - you can already buy family cars with small turbo charged engines that will do 100mpg - with the will or demand from consumer that could easily be improved upon by the established manufacturers and the efficiency would filter up to bigger vehicles in the range.
No change of infrastructure needed, no expensive electricity grid updating or charging infrastructure needed, simply changes like that could be with us in no time and certainly quickly than waiting for a electric vehicle that is as practical/convenient is an ice vehicle is today.

Just my opinion of course :slight_smile:

+1

Oil prices closed today at $43.58.

As the world begins to understand the relationship between all fossil fuels and climate change the prices of fossil fuels will drop even more. In June 2008 the price was $136.31 a barrel.

At even low prices the fossil fuel industries will be making money as compared to not selling any fossil fuels.

Study any people with an addiction and the their ability to justify it is remarkable.

Aside: the IWW, still active: http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Unionized-Staff-at-Ellens-Stardust-Diner-to-Stop-Singing-After-Multiple-Terminations-20160914
“… owner … fired six long-time employees in retaliation for their efforts to form a union …”

hank

Thank you for the link. The IWW is making inroads with service employee workers, but as you can see the results have been discouraging.

I like the fact that the workers choose another name Stardust Family United while working under the IWW.

Income for the 90% who are under the top incomes have been stagnant and lower since 1972 when adjusted for inflation and income raises.

Back on Topic

Tesla New Battery Pack

Dang, you have to buy a new model car to get the new battery?? So it seems to say

Yes, this is only for the Tesla owners or new buyers.

The EV has a long way to go to be in a mass market. I would expect too that fossil fuel providers will keep their prices low until they exhaust all easily extracted fossil fuels.

This will be a challenge to the philosophy of the free market system. The diverse ideals of generating profit vs. the need to control environment degradation.

Not really, consumers will go electric as the economics and availability improve. I was impressed at 400k pre orders before the car even exists, so was Tesla, the did not expect such a huge pent up demand.
If no one wanted it then there would be a collective yawn at the Bolt instead of the fawning interest.

I don’t know if anyone caught this:

:cry:

I took this to mean each individual cell. As it is stated it would be the battery pack on a whole that is bigger.

As a side note the GM EV car is named the Volt; is the name being used in the last few comments has been ‘Bolt’. Is this a tongue in cheek expression?

They are going to 21700 cells, this has been extensively covered including on BLF

Two different cars, the volt is a battery/gas hybrid, first 60 miles (new version) is electric then switches to gas engine
Bolt is pure EV

Bort

Thank you!

I am getting so jaded. :slight_smile:

The article, and everybody else uses the words “cell” and “battery” as though they are the same thing.
Even though they always use the word battery, meaning cell, I understood they were going to use a size larger than the current 18650 cell. My hope was that a better 18650 would come out of the giga factory.
As the cell size goes up, the surface to volume ratio goes down. As that number goes down, so does the ability to shed heat.
On the other hand, I think, as the size goes up the ability to pack more volume in a given space goes down. I suppose there would be an optimal size and I guess 21700 is closer to it than 18650.

I am a bit long in the tooth and many might already know these figures on the Tesla S:

Li-ion Panasonic 18650A NCA cells

60, 85, 85-performance kWh 85-kWh = 16 modules with 6 groups in series (402 volts, 7104 cells) 60-kWh = 14 modules (352 volts, 6216 cells) Groups contain 74 cells.

I think cost per cell might affect the equation as well. It might take fewer cells to have the same energy even though they take up more space.

+1

If battery energy could be as efficient while reducing both weight and reduced area needed to house them, it would be another big step in the evolution of EV.

Bear in mind that the battery only lasts so long, and the range graduallly reduces, so after a given mileage you will have to buy a new battery, which is expensive. And your calculation is based on current electricity costs and taxation. Any significant increase in electric vehicle usage would lead to a change in road vehicle taxation, without any doubt, especially since we will not have to follow regulations from Brussels.

Tesla has an eight year and unlimited distance on their batteries; I would think in the future that will increase.