Re:Tell HN: I think I found Toyota's battery
by jacobgorm on Thursday August 03, 2023 @03:46PM
(#36990806)
Meanwhile, the BMW i3 weights between 1245 kg to 1441 kg, depending on configuration, battery size, and presence of optional range extender engine, showing what is possible when companies bother to optimize for weight savings.
Re:Tell HN: I think I found Toyota's battery
by enragedcacti on Thursday August 03, 2023 @04:54PM
(#36991725)
The i3 is a carbon finer tub design which is both extremely expensive and not uniquely applicable to EVs. It's a very cool design but its an extreme outlier and it isn't a realistic bar to compare against for companies trying to make money on mass market vehicles.
In Europe people frequently buy compact cars.
Let's take VW Golf as an example. The lightest version of the current model weighs 1300kg, more or less.
The EV equivalent, ID.3, weighs 1800kg. That's 500kg extra (!) which is almost 40% more.
That's an insane amount of extra weight for a small car.
The percentage difference becomes less for bigger cars, so I imagine that's why some Americans don't notice it as much.
But for the rest of the world (95% of the world's population), that's a huge deal.