Quote:
Originally Posted by lucerne96
Any battery that must be made from materials that are not easily available in huge quantities to me is problematic & not scaleable. Lithium, Nickle & batteries using REE's fit into this category in my book. Isn't this the problem we have gotten ourselves into with oil? The jury is still out on Nano-carbon batteries when I last checked.
I am certain we would not have invaded Iraq if their primary export were wooden shoes or cheese.
When you actually cost out (life cycle cost) current (pun intended) electric cars, they are expensive. You need to buy a new battery every 4 to 7 years @ 12K to 15K a pop!
So, if you own your electric car for 12 years it will cost
40K+12K+12K = ~64K for car & batteries; not counting charging & maintenance.
I would rather live in a walkable community where I don't need a car. It is only an expense.
|
Maintenance is minimal in comparison to a car with an engine that requires oil changes, spark plugs, belts, etc that keep you replacing parts and stopping at a gas station. Charging is far less than the cost of gasoline. $12k-15k might be prices paid to a dealer to replace the battery but I don't buy your 4-7 years talk. Especially when Nissan gives the Leaf an 8 year 100k warranty. I'd take a guess that they would want a majority of their battery packs to last beyond that warranty to avoid the cost of paying for replacements so I'm pretty sure we can expect a majority of those cars getting 100k or more out of their battery.
I'm not seeing the rare element issue at all, lithium isn't a rare metal and is typically less than a small single digit percentage of the battery by weight. Lithium batteries aren't toxic either and Nickel chemistries have left out the cadmium for over a decade now so they aren't really more toxic than a steel car body at this point and there are plenty of companies ready to recycle these too.
If it makes any difference the car that I'm converting next year will cost me a sum of $15 to $20k total including the car, battery, controller, charger, wiring, etc. all combined for a total range over 100 miles. 100 miles at my electric rate and expected driving efficiency for a car that gets me 70-80 mpg on my commute today will be about $1.75 in electricity. My 750 mile tank that normally is 10 gallons and cost me $3.59/gallon yesterday cost me 2.74 times the cost of driving on what I predict the electric cost will be.
Sure, I can walk or bike but I'd prefer not to during brutal weather such as severe rain, snow, sleet, and other issues we come across in my climate so at least some point I'll be getting into a car. Where I live, the city is pretty much a high crime slum with low property values and people who you don't want to be your neighbors. Same goes for most of the US and I like living in the states. I'll find the best way to avoid sending my money to countries who hate their customers, to do that I'll be driving an electric car. It's true that I'll be buying batteries from China but they don't want to kill me like everyone who is trying to sell me oil while expressing their anger at the same time. The only truly expensive part will probably be if/when I install solar on my roof to balance all of my electricity usage out.