what's the point? the majority of people for the vast majority of trips don't need even 100 miles
And not everybody has a house with a garage where they can charge overnight. I don't want to have to look for a free charging point and wait around 30 minutes every few days. Also sometimes you actually need to drive far and a short range would be inconvenient or straight up impossible to manage if the charging infrastructure is not good. For example, I live in Bulgaria, in an apartment building without a garage. Even tho it is a small country, it's quite easy to be very far away from a charging point because the infrastructure is poor. If I want to go visit my grandma, that's a 300 mile drive, most of it through underdeveloped rural areas, which obviously won't have a charger available. Until EVs match ICE cars in terms of range they are just not a viable option for me and quite a lot of other people.
Edit: just noticed this post is a month old. I have no idea why lemmy decided to show it in my hot feed.
Beyond improving battery technology solar might help reach this goal too. The new top trim Prius Prime has solar panels, which MKBHD highlighted can add minimal range. Maybe as solar tech improves they can add more panels to the car and recharge the battery faster.
A car uses +-100kwt and the sun can provide <1kwt for the car size area. So it'll add <1% to the range regardless of solar panels efficiency.
Solar tech has had a lot of time to improve. Whatever it is that's necessary to make them better, it's not coming anytime soon.
I agree with your point and the tech has developed very slowly. However, there are interesting developments in the sector. Have you heard of Lightyear? If they can deliver by 2025 it will be a step toward 600 mile range.
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