this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
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I don't think I ever want an EV as a daily driver but I'd be down for a sport bike or dirt bike. Sustainable Battery disposal/recycling and figuring out some kind of trade in system for the 15k-20k lifespan of battery is something I'd like to see. There isn't much of a resale market value for these EVs that is comparable to ICE vehicles either.
This is actually one of the reasons why I push PHEV right now.
Note that PHEV has roughly 1/5th to 1/10th the battery size of a full EV. While every PHEV is different (do your research), the Prius Prime 2024 is perhaps the most practical. The new model has ~40ish miles of all electric range, and a button that can put you in 100% EV mode even at highway driving (at severe costs to your acceleration however: 0-60 in 11+ seconds in pure EV mode, while 6.5 seconds in EV+ICE mode). Still, the "pure EV" mode works on the Prius Prime, as crappy an experience as it is. This isn't true for all cars (ex: Honda Accord 2014 PHEV switches to 100% ICE on highway driving).
In any case, the Prius Prime proves that a 13.6kW-hr battery pack is sufficient to cover a daily commute up to 44mi (EPA rating all-electric range). No need to buy a 5x larger pack like a Tesla (78kW-hr) or a 18x larger pack like a Hummer EV (260+ Kw-hr).
All PHEVs have an effective "generator" that converts gasoline into electric charge for your battery pack, and operates at far greater efficiencies than a regular car (gasoline -> motion is less consistent than gasoline -> tuned-generator -> electricity). Furthermore, most PHEVs (though not all) rely upon Atkinson cycle, meaning the engine is more efficient to begin with. (less fuel is injected per cycle, losing low-end torque. But the low-end torque is supplemented with EV engines so its a fine tradeoff for far greater efficiencies). So even in 100% gasoline mode, a PHEV offers substantial emissions savings off of a regular car.
Ex: Most cars waste their energy at idle. PHEVs instead run the generator to charge up the battery pack, so that your car has "effective work to do" rather than wasting fuel at a red-light. When the batteries are full, PHEVs and Hybrids can shutoff the engine entirely at each Red-light (0rpm electric engines are powerful enough to start the car / accelerate inside a city without any ICE assistance), so all the idle-fuel waste of a traditional ICE in stop-and-go traffic is eliminated. Etc. etc. etc.
I agree with you that PHEV is the sweet spot for some people like me. I go on road trips multiple times a year and until I can charge up in 5-10 minutes, I don't see full EV as an option for my family. Also the lifespan of the batteries is a concern. You can have maintenance done on an engine to make it last as long as you want but batteries just need to be replaced at the end of their life. Eventually you reach the point where the battery replacement cost exceeds the cars value.
Yes. Fortunately, the cost of this is predictable.(Capacity of the true battery x durability) / kwh-per-mile == miles of durability.
Different batteries have different durabilities: anywhere from 800 cycles to 3500 cycles is a reasonable guess.
Wth the new crop of 3000-cycle LiFePO4 cells at lower costs, the estimated cost per mile of electric driving is reasonable today IMO. But run your calculations and make your own decision. Different vehicles have larger true battery sizes than advertised as well, so finding the 'True Battery Capacity's is harder than expected, but assume a 10% bonus or so if you don't know
Especially run this math on solar battery systems, where it's obviously not worth it to me at least. But electric cars are competing vs more expensive gasoline prices, so it's actually a reasonable cost in this more expensive use case.