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this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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What the actual fuck⁈ “Batteries can catch on fire.” Sure, whatever could go wrong with a 1000l tank of FUCKING GASOLINE.
AAAaaaaHHhh I hate people!
Going with the “batteries catch on fire argument” is stupid. “Batteries are heavy and expensive” is probably more compelling. But yeah, wires are better solution for things going in fixed routes.
The ammount of water required to put out a normal car is infinitely less than the amount required to put out a battery fire.
Not to mention the extra weight, nor the retention loss per recharge meaning we need to change batteries every 2-4 years polluting a lot more, we ain't even talking about the energy loss when doing the conversion to electric and then again to mechanical.
The electric transport is the way to go in the future, but firts it needs to have a solid foundation, and nuclear is the way to go at least in this moment. Otherwise we are only making things worse.
Edit for those wondering about the battery degradation: https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-battery-health/
Wait, what‽ No. We don't need to change batteries every 2-4 years. That's what you do with TV remote controls and temperature sensors, not electric car batteries, LOL!
Electric car batteries are made to last at least 7 years (from a warranty standpoint) but in reality it's more like 10. Not only that but they're not single, gigantic objects. They're made of lots of "cells" so if one of them is going bad you can replace just that one bad cell.
Anecdote: The batteries in my Prius lasted 15 years before I had to replace one of the cells. Then a year later I had to replace another one. A year after that I sold it so I have no idea how the batteries are doing right now but I'm sure another cell would probably need to be replaced by now 19 years in service).
I'd also like to point out that the latest electric car batteries are vastly superior to the ones in my Prius.
Yeah, what I've heard is that water cooling the batteries (like almost every EV does now) massively extends the life. Early Prius batteries had no cooling and the heat degraded them faster. 15 years is a pretty good life still.
On the subject of battery warranty:
It's important to note, a degraded battery, even with 50% of its original capacity is still useful. Someone who doesn't need the range could drive it, or the battery could be taken apart, and have the cells repurposed or recycled. Lithium and some of the other rare metals used in batteries are quite valuable for recycling, and our abilities to do so are getting better every year.
Sincere question, what happens with the second hand electric vehicle market? New electrics make a ton of sense, but in my mind the 'used car' market becomes essentially unobtainable for poor folk. If a 12 year old electric vehicle hits the market, eventually the second or third owner is going to have to replace the batteries and poor people can't afford the 5000 plus labor to get new cells for it.
This isn't a situation that affects me, at the moment, but there are millions of people around the globe who buy the $1000 car and drive it until it just doesn't go anymore. I don't see that being an option for electrics.
Doesn't and won't exist. And it might be a "conspiracy theory" but I do think it is totally intentional.
Sure, that replacement time isn't 4 but 15-20 years (well, except early Leafs that didn't have battery temperature management of any kind), but my 20 year old car's gas tank fits just as much gas as it did 20 years ago.
If you think any ICE car is going to outlast an electric you're mistaken. EVs have a fraction of the moving parts of an ICE car and as a result are expected to last a lot longer. 30+ years for an electric car isn't out of the question. Especially the latest ones with their water cooled batteries.
The number of moving parts is just one (albeit a great big) factor as to why EVs are a lot more reliable and will last a lot longer than an ICE car. There's other elements as well such as the regenerative braking... You basically have an expiration date that tells you when to replace the brake pads instead of a number of miles (or thickness). Because the brake pads themselves will never wear enough from normal driving to warrant replacement. Instead you have to figure out the replacement time based on exposure to natural radiation (LOL) and seasonal hot/cold cycles.
The magnets in the motors lose about 5% of their strength every 100 years. So again, the thing you're accounting for when figuring out how long the motors will last is the exposure to natural radiation degrading the insulation of the wires (LOL).
I'm aware an ICE car requires more maintenance. But, two things. My gas tank doesn't get smaller over time and good luck taking your Tesla or Chevy Bolt to an unauthorized repair shop and let them try to fix anything without access to OEM diagnostic tools. Yes, new ICE cars are also full of this bullshit, but hey, my 20 year old ICE car isn't!
Good luck finding or affording gas in 20 years!
You'll have to go down to the boat dock to fill up your ICE car because there won't be gas stations anywhere else.
No small thanks to the German government ;)
I didn't mean it literally, but easily it could be considering how u lose performance if u use a battery powered vehicle in somewhere to hot, or to cold.
Also, look how much degradation suffers the battery's https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-battery-health/
According to Geotab a Tesla will be at 90% of it's initial State of Health (SoH) after 5 years of use while a Leaf (which is well-known for shit thermal management and poor battery quality) will be at 80%. That's worse than their other charts which show averages of 85% SoH in an equivalent amount of time.
Regardless, even operating at 80% after five years is completely fine. The curve isn't really linear anyway so after about 10 years the batteries will likely be operating at about 70% of their original SoH in the worst case scenario.
Also consider that the price of lithium ion batteries has dropped consistently year over year for the past decade. There was a bit of a hiccup because of COVID but that's over now and the price is continuing to drop. That means the cost of a replacement battery pack in 10 years will likely be 60-90% cheaper (if the current trend continues) than it is today.
Just remember that "good" solutions are still preferred over "bad" solutions, and there are never any "perfect" solutions. I see too many people think electric cars are terrible because of what they've been told, like the batteries. For me, it's like "Yeah, but they're still better than ICE vehicles". They'll get better, they're definitely not perfect, but they are just better
YOu can't really stop a lithium ion battery fire, all you can do is keep it from catching other things on fire around it, you pretty much just have to let it burn out.
Nuclear is about to go away, looking at the statitics.
Yeah.... not really something I want to see happening.
Ideally solar + nuclear could be the solution we need.
Yup batteries are not the way. By the time the batteries need to be replaced you might have helped slightly but probably not. Batteries is a illusion to going green right now. Just another product that has a demand and an easy market for it.
I think we're all aware of the costs associated with recycling batteries.
Are you aware of the costs associated with high CO2 levels?
Have to choose the lesser of two evils.
What would be a better alternative if you exclude the use of fossil fuels?
fixed overhead wires, as OP suggested?
You’re aware that diesel is quite hard to catch on fire
That's why he said gasoline tho
But that’s not relevant for busses
No it's not. It's harder to catch fire than gasoline.
It still catches fire easily.
You can toss a lit match into a puddle of diesel and the match will go out. Diesel burns, but since it doesn't evaporate as fast as gasoline, you don't have those flammable gases hanging in the air. A trail of diesel that's being burned at one end will not spread, unlike gasoline.
Gasoline doesn't burn that easily, either. Cars with gas tanks don't burst into flames while sitting powered off in a garage. Even when they get wrecked they don't usually burst into flames.
On the other hand, gasoline is slowly causing the world to burst into flames…
Gasoline and diesel can be extinguished relatively easily. Extinguishing an EV means throwing it into a tub of water for a day or two
Gasoline vehicles also don't tend to catch fire spontaneously while parked. That risk exists with every unattended lithium-ion battery undergoing recharging. People technically shouldn't be plugging their phones in at night and then going to sleep, but everyone does it anyway.
Doesn't matter much for phones, but when talking EV charging... Night electricity tends to be cheaper when it's not solar energy season.
Please don't put lithium in water; that will make it worse.
Tell that to firefighters.