@Kezo The battery degradation was my main worry, but I’ve watched quite a few YouTube videos now and I’m very reassured. Constant rapid charging and very cold conditions are the worst culprits. If we went for something in the 30k mile region we should be fine as it’s most likely to be a family car charged at home rather than a rep mobile being rapid charged every few days.
A EV battery will loose 2-3% a year if looked after, or more if vehicles are often fast charged every few days, due to the extra strain put on the battery. The law of physics means any battery will degrade overtime but, at 2% ish per year for an average user, it going to take quite some time before they fully degrade. How much further batteries can evolve, other than changing the chemistry make up, such as the cathode I don’t know.
In theory f you could open say a early Tesla battery pack, you could easily replace any depleted cylindrical 18650 cells. Opening the battery pack wold be the probem especially if it were say hot glued. However in theory it is possible to replace the depleted cells, by mounting them externally in a seperate pack and rerouting the wiring, but, 1/ your are carrying dead weight of the depleted batteries 2/ I guess your insurance company wouldnt be happy lol. Most manufacturers however use flat pouch or prismatic battery packs, similar to a mobile phone battery shape.
BYD use LiFePO4 (LFP) in its stackable Blade battery’s. BYD use these battery packs in its own BEV’s and commercial vehicles. BYD also outsoure them to other manufacturers to use in their BEV’s. Tesla being one of them, who are using the Blade battery in the model Y, built at Tela’s Berlin factory. Industry experts say the Blade battery is the safest BEV battery yet. The biggest announcement in battery chemistry will be solid state batteries, which Nio is using in its 150Kw models. When you think China.com is leagues ahead in battery development. Catl is the largest battery manufacturer in the world. Kia Niro use’s Catl battery’s a long with some European car manufacturers including the luxury car market – Merc EQ range, BMW ix3 alongwith some Tesla’s. BYD hold the 2nd spot. Both have plants in Europe and LG Chem holds the 3rd spot.
So what ever BEV is sold in Europe may have a China.com manufactured battery powering it. Is that a bad thing, I don’t think so 🙂
What BEV’s have you looked at or caught your eye?