There's a couple level 3s by me, and I swear I see the same

I watched the cyber rodeo from the new gigatexas plant down in Austin, which incidentally, is about the most Texas thing I've ever seen. That factory is humongous.

I noticed they are installing new battery packs that also act as a structural component. I'm impressed by the design, but there's an inner voice that is more than a little skeptical about viability and safety of a battery after some wear and tear on the road.

This innovation predates Tesla by at least a few years, but to my knowledge they are the first company to do something with structural cells at scale.

Any EE's here, feel free to weigh in.

https://twitter.com/live_munro/status/1512215223268216833?s=20&t=NppvCGwkB9vNHCiESFDL1w

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Re: The further EV manufacturers stray from having easily

Apr 8, 2022, 2:23 PM [ in reply to The further EV manufacturers stray from having easily ]

I would have agreed at one point, but not so much any more. Quick-exchange batteries solve two problems:

1) Cost effectively replacing end-of-life battery packs.

2) Quick "recharge" of depleted battery packs.

For #1, Tesla has designed their battery packs to have 80% capacity at 200k miles, with ultimate life spans of 300-500k. They're good for 1500 cycles, so if you conservatively figure 200 miles per cycle, that's 300k miles. It begs the questions - what percentage of people keep a car that long? Does anyone expect their ICE vehicle to last much longer than that? If so, is it a significant enough number of people who would walk from electric because of it to matter? If you love your Model 3 and it's still in great shape at that point, is the $12-13k (for a new battery from Tesla---refurbished packs are half of that) cost for a new module that far off a new engine for a modern car?

For #2, Kia and Hyundai are currently leading the pack on recharging. On a level 3 charger (more common than you might think), they go from 10-80% charge (200+ miles of range) in 18 minutes. That's impressive and it's getting to the point where it's close enough to a gas refill, whiz and a soda that a large percentage of the public won't care.

Biggest issues I think are going to be continued growth of the charger network. It feels to me like it would align well with the gas station model....don't make a huge amount on the electricity/gas, but make a killing off the people who invariably come inside and shop for food and drink while recharging/filling up. Seems like once the technology settles enough to be predictable, private industry should start filling the void more.