this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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Most battery tech is just lithium ion batteries wired in series, like 80 laptop batteries. They regulate the temps so that the batteries don't degrade too fast. Battery tech hasn't changed much in decades, so you will see the same problems on your phone battery on car batteries. So, no, Tesla battery tech isn't special.
I recently heard china is the first to manufacture sodium ion batteries for their consumer EVs. Sodium is supposed to be better, but I forget why.
IIRC, the reason sodium batteries would be better is we have abundant stocks of sodium, whereas the raw materials for most other batteries are limited and require more destructive mining. John Oliver just covered some of this on his show last Sunday. If that tech can be improved, hopefully there won't be any deep sea mining for more raw materials!
Really dubious on the sodium ion batteries. Last I saw there were still issues with the technology, primarily battery life. Unless there were some breakthroughs thay went under the radar.
Sodium ion batteries are actually currently in production, and are in production vehicles by catl and other companies. There is an American and European company also commercializing the technology.
They are offering roughly 3,000 charge-discharge cycles, which is on par with lfp.
Battery technology for electric vehicles is moving super fast right now.
https://electrek.co/2023/12/27/volkswagen-backed-ev-maker-first-sodium-ion-battery-electric-car/
Sodium batteries are cheaper and less volatile I believe but they're also much less energy dense meaning you need a heavier pack to get a similar amount of range (which also reduces range from the extra weight). I think they're better suited for stationary applications like solar banks and other energy storage solutions.
Thanks for providing these details.
I guess Tesla really has nothing going for them now, other than investors want to get their money back and so the MSM isn’t going to portray the truth.
That's not true, Tesla has figured out manufacturing and does so profitably. Unlike any other American based car manufacturer, Tesla is making a profit per unit and they do not rely on legacy ice vehicle sales to prop their balance sheets up.
Pretty much every Tesla has issues with the quality control.
EV batteries are actually significantly different than the batteries in your laptop or phone, and are designed to have minimal degradation over many many years of use. The coolant loops also help to moderate the temperature between cells, which eliminates problems of hot spots and the heat stress that a phone battery will experience.
For instance, my car has over 300 battery cells in it, which results in say a 100 MI Drive will only use each cell draining by about 1/3. The much lower cyclic rate on these cells results in a much longer lifespan, and the battery conditioning using liquid coolant is how they achieve that.