Hey! Sorry for the weird heading. I live in a country where EV’s are everywhere and I keep hearing debates about the need and possibility for range increase. Today I overheard a discussion between two people about batteries in the near future.
Person A argued that the range increase and battery improvememts in EVs have been so great the last 10 years and this is indicative of it being a technology that will just keep on improving – and we just have to have some patience before the batteries and range will improve even more.
Person B argued that while thats true, a lot of the range improvememts now aday are due to more aerodynamic cars and that seeing as a battery is a chemical process, we are closer and closer to hitting the limit of batteries without any significant scientific breakthrough.
Im fairly uneducated in this field and find it hard to evaluate whos right. Person Bs arguements seemed more trustworthy, but it doesnt mean that hes right.
So my questions are: Who’s “right” and why? Will batteries in EVs keep improving significantly or have we already seen the biggest improvememts?
Thanks a lot in advance!
In: Chemistry
There are technologies like solid state and metal-air batteries that could be major leaps in battery performance, so Person A is probably closer.
However, at the moment batteries are still very expensive and very heavy. So realistically we are more likely to see lighter and more affordable EVs with range numbers similar to what’s available today, rather than bonkers range numbers. As charging infrastructure rolls out, there’s less of a need for huge range numbers and most people aren’t gonna spend an extra $10-20k for a car that goes 700 miles instead of 350.
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