BYD EV Teardown in Japan Reveals the Secret to Its Affordability

Re:BYD EV Teardown in Japan Reveals the Secret to Its Afford... by danpalmer on Thursday October 24, 2024 @06:17PM (#41940406)

> more sense to have an auxiliary diesel heating system. This would be much more effective than electric heating and likely generate less carbon emissions

Is this true? Honest question. My understanding is that for cars in general (implicitly driving range), electric cars are lower impact on the energy grid as a whole (ignoring last mile) because of how energy intensive oil is to refine.

Is it that diesel specifically is less energy intensive because of how it differs in refinement to petrol? Or is it that because heating is effectively 100% efficient it doesn't matter that you're using the energy in refinement?

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Re:BYD EV Teardown in Japan Reveals the Secret to Its Afford... by travisb on Thursday October 24, 2024 @07:21PM (#41940807)

Mostly the latter.

Some of it comes down to the rocket equation because it takes a lot of energy to warm a battery up. If that energy has to come from a battery itself, then the vehicle needs even more battery. Carrying around that extra battery all the time will consume even more energy. And you lose about 8% total electrical energy by putting it through the lithium battery.

In comparison two litres of diesel fuel with a nearly 100% efficiency can absolutely be more efficient from a full-system standpoint.

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Re:BYD EV Teardown in Japan Reveals the Secret to Its Afford... by AtlasBarfed on Thursday October 24, 2024 @09:31PM (#41941513)

Might as well do a phev then, if you're going to have a heater engine, get some electric recharge as well.

What in talking about here is a mostly EV with a 100 ish all electric range, and the diesel/Atkinson adds even more tange

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