Re:Tell HN: I think I found Toyota's battery
by lelandbatey on Thursday August 03, 2023 @02:22PM
(#36989669)
Since it's a bit more than a doubling of energy density, it's less that you can get a 500+ mile car and more that you can drop the price & weight of a 300-400 mile car. Imagine cutting the weight of an EV battery by 500 pounds while maintaining its current capacity. All that weight savings will probably get you some additional range, and save you on cost of materials, meaning you could cut the battery down a bit more to save even more on materials while saving a bit more weight. All told, you could have the exact same EV, but manufacturing the battery just got ~50% cheaper! That's what's exciting about this as a possibility, not 500+ mile cars.
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Re:Tell HN: I think I found Toyota's battery
by dreamcompiler on Thursday August 03, 2023 @02:28PM
(#36989749)
...provided the number of useful recharges is at least as high as Li-Ion, and preferably more like LiFePo or even better.
Re:Tell HN: I think I found Toyota's battery
by barrkel on Thursday August 03, 2023 @04:31PM
(#36991389)
I doubt range is increased much by reduced weight. Only rolling resistance is reduced, but most resistance at speed is from air resistance. Since energy is reclaimed from braking, the extra mass for acceleration is balanced by the extra mass for stopping, so it doesn’t help much with stop start traffic.
That’s how I mentally model it anyhow.
Re:Tell HN: I think I found Toyota's battery
by lelandbatey on Thursday August 03, 2023 @09:35PM
(#36994371)
It's true that it's not a huge savings, but there's some savings. The EPA estimates approximately 1% reduction in fuel economy for each 100lbs added, so you might get a few % from the the battery weight savings.