SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

Re:SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking... by mschuster91 on Friday June 17, 2022 @10:49AM (#31779039)

You need experience though to bring batteries down to affordable prices - both for yield improvements and for actually figuring out stuff like "how to construct a BMS that keeps batteries somewhat alive?"... Tesla has had well over a decade to fine-tune their entire stack, the only one who can match them in experience is Toyota with the Prius lineup. The second-next is BMW, but the i8 is a niche model for rich show-offs and the i3 is a toy - and BMW hasn't been associated with "affordability" in many decades.

The car manufacturers that are associated with attributes like "affordability" don't have much experience with electric vehicles, so they will have to buy that experience or do it the same way Tesla did, which means they will need a decade.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking... by ravenstine on Friday June 17, 2022 @11:23AM (#31779561)

I don't think experience has that much to do with affordability. Tesla might assemble their batteries at their factory, but the actual lithium ion cells are manufactured by Panasonic, was well as supporting electronics. There's nothing magical or mysterious about the Tesla EV powertrain. Affordability is going to come down to necessity, demand (related to necessity), and how cheap a plentiful number of li-ion batteries can be made.

How much experience do you think is required? Other companies like Chevy, Chrysler, Hyundai, and Ford already have semi-electric vehicles for sale today. They don't all need to be successes. It can take just one of them to come out with an affordable electric vehicle when the economics are right, and sticking to plug-in hybrids gives them plenty of time to get experience.

[ Parent | on HN ]