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I am a huge EV fan, I love how they drive so much more than an ICE car. What has kept me away from the Tesla is that the “normal” EVs offer enough range that 99% of the time charging at home is sufficient. It ends up being cheaper to lease a much less expensive EV with less range and then rent a car every so often for any super long trips. Or in my case since I am in LH addict apparently, just lease another ICE engine car or two, LOL.
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BMW I3 would be perfect for you, some dealers still have a program lending out ice cars for I3 owners.
I am sitting in one right now Hershey! I’ve had five of them now…I guess youve figured me out 
My local dealer doesn’t do the loaner ICE car for long trips…Apparently dealers have to opt into this and the one near me said I was probably half of the local i3 population, LOL
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Even more reason for them to lend you a car for road trip…
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I will take ugly as long as it’s a cheap and good Under the hood. My motto when I was in college too.
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If they hadnt seen me parade a couple of dozen BMWs through their service department without ever buying a car at their dealership I might’ve had a shot at that…LOL.
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LMAO same at my Volvo, 2 services and we’ve stonewalled sales every time. They just can’t compete.
I saw that video, I think street tires were something like 1.9 and then performance tires were 1.5 and then drag radials were like .5 or something ridiculous,
there’s a gutted tesla model s p100d on YouTube… the channel is 1320 video in texas and it literally kills heavily modified cars from a dig.
@Electric in your neck of the woods
As soon as they figure out that energy density problem
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There’s a lot of hiccups with electric cars at the moment or so I hear, I’m no expert and don’t pretend to be. I read somewhere that a glass battery could fix issues with the battery holding its charge for longer and being able to be charged up to capacity in a quicker fashion. It would be cool if someone here could elaborate on current problems with batteries in electric cars atm.
The quick off the top of my head overview: There’s a few different challenges you’re up against with batteries:
- Overall power density
- How fast they can be charged
- How many times they can be discharged
- Temperature resistance
When it comes to range, how much power you can pack into the battery is a big limiter. Electric motors may have an efficiency advantage over ICE powerplants, but the gas tank has massive advantages over a battery. Cutting edge Lithium Ion batteries have energy densities in the 500-1000 Wh/l range. Gasoline is just shy of 10,000 Wh/l. The amount of energy gasoline stores per unit volume is an order of magnitude higher than an electric motor. High efficiency gasoline engines are ~35% efficient, so even with an EV able to put 100% of the stored power to the wheels, it’s still held back by the batteries until there’s an advance forward in energy storage.
The batteries with higher energy densities tend to suffer from how many charge cycles they can go through. A battery with a huge range that can only be recharged a few hundred times is pretty useless, unless it’s inexpensive and easy to change. As batteries go through their charge cycles, they also tend to lose capacity. A new battery will hold more power than an old one, so you progressively lose range (unless you’re tesla and artificially limit how much your battery will charge so that this reduction is transparent to the customer).
Along with that is the speed by which a battery can charge (and discharge). Fast charging/discharging tends to carry with it big thermal penalties which can effect other things, etc.
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Current problems are infrastructure, battery density, charging, and efficiency (especially for legacy auto).
Infrastructure : other than Tesla, ev charging infrastructure is haphazard at best in many parts of the US, especially compared to gas. Until penetration reaches a critical mass of investment in stations, which is harder to do w/t capital from ev purchases or investment, people won’t buy, a catch 22.
Density: Super capacitors, higher cobalt batteries, and other new battery formulations are being r&d’d to create lighter, smaller batteries with more energy (kWh) per lb/cubic inch. Batteries also need protection against degradation, Tesla’s have had good reputations 200k+ miles per pack on a Tesloop model x, but some legacies like the Leaf have had 70% degradation.
Charging: Also with density and r&d, need batteries that can be abused, joe doesn’t feel like waiting 45 min to get 80% charge in his car. New advancements need to be made in super fast charging infrastructure and cars that can take that energy in w/t ruining the battery energy capacity over time, often via heat, chemical, or physical changes to battery cells.
Efficiency: make cars that are more aerodynamic, no transmission bs, lighter, and follow Tesla’s lead. They own the field right now in efficiency, there’s a reason a model x long range has an epa range of 351 (rumors say it’s being boosted to 370 via OTA software, same with model s to 400 mile range) with a 100kwh, and an etron has 204 with a similar battery (albeit software locked to 80kwh iirc).
Also Tesla needs to be smarter. I get the vertical integration idea, but for Christ’s sake, hire some QC guys from Lexus or something. Panel gaps, and manufacturing processes need to be improved, Elon’s trying to do something, but startup winging it culture, at the #2 largest auto maker needs to be exterminated like my hopes of an Ivy League from middle school.
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That was a good read, I agree ice is more efficient at this time in regards to availability, but that provided some good insight on current holdbacks
The only real downside for me with electric cars and the majority of the car community has thoughts along the same line is that the car produces no sound and thus almost feels soul-less. Some will point and say manufacturers have been piping sound through speakers, however you can still modify the exhaust to produce pops and crackles and turn off the piped in noise.
The current limitation regarding charging is nominal voltage against amperage.
800V pack with DC-DC converter (for backward compatibility with older SC’s) in the Tesla lineup and you could see 500kWh charging. (Current max is 250kWh on 400V packs)
Use dual/segmented packs to double that speed even. At a certain point though the limitation won’t be how fast you can take in energy, but delivery of said energy.