Electric car battery prices are going back down faster than expected

Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by andrewmcwatters on Wednesday March 20, 2024 @10:32PM (#39774365)

> For example, much of their value is in the software, which replicates for nearly zero marginal cost.

People have been saying this for decades now and conveniently forget that replacing CD cases with Internet downloads doesn't eliminate the fact that software engineering is expensive in itself.

Crazy how TurboTax isn't $5 or Tesla FSD doesn't come standard. So much for zero marginal cost.

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Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by silvestrov on Wednesday March 20, 2024 @10:45PM (#39774457)

You forget that CDs were much more expensive than LPs even when CDs were cheaper to produce and distribute.

The music companies simply got too greedy and now their market has imploded and most people only pay for Spotify.

We might get a rerun of asian producers dominating the car market and making a panic in USA car makers.

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Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by doctor_eval on Wednesday March 20, 2024 @10:45PM (#39774455)

ICEs have software too, including multiple units to manage the various ICE systems that an EV doesn’t need.

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Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by dzhiurgis on Wednesday March 20, 2024 @10:44PM (#39774444)

Both of your examples are kind of monopolies

Is there any car software that’s “open”?

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Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by adolph on Wednesday March 20, 2024 @11:23PM (#39774632)

openpilot is an open source advanced driver assistance system that works on 250+ car models of Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, and many other brands

https://www.comma.ai/openpilot

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Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by dzhiurgis on Thursday March 21, 2024 @12:18AM (#39774860)

Can I run their software on Tesla?

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Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by adolph on Thursday March 21, 2024 @11:20AM (#39779642)

There are examples of this, yes [0]. The phrase "run . . . on Tesla" might have different meanings. OpenPilot is not installed directly on the Tesla hardware (as far as I'm aware). OpenPilot runs on separate hardware that communicates over the car's network, typically CAN bus [1]. An analogy might be attaching USB devices to a laptop, which has its own video, sound, keyboard, and pointer; but for which a user might desire some other feedback and control method.

0. https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/say-hello-to-an-fsd-...

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus

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Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by hackerlight on Wednesday March 20, 2024 @10:34PM (#39774380)

Still, the cost per unit will decrease as the number of units increases, which was the point.

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Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by refulgentis on Wednesday March 20, 2024 @10:41PM (#39774425)

There isn't really a reason to expect a significant effect, in practice, Tesla COGS/unit plateaued a few 100K ago. It's a bit too abstract and high-level.

Batteries specifically does make sense, ex. Model X has 100 kWh battery. if I price out 100 kWh at $200 right now (high) and its $100 a decade from now, about $20K.

"Software" is hand-waving.

Electric motors being easier does make sense.

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Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by andrewmcwatters on Wednesday March 20, 2024 @10:40PM (#39774417)

You can say the same thing about any product mass produced.

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Re:Electric car battery prices are going back down faster th... by hackerlight on Thursday March 21, 2024 @12:35AM (#39774917)

Not everything has the same unit economics. The self-driving software is one part of the costs that is heavy on the fixed costs side and will therefore scale better than other costs. If you produce a million cars vs one car, the cost to make that software isn't a million times more expensive.

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