Why is it so difficult to design electric car/truck batteries that have the same range (about 300 miles) as gas powered vehicles?

Question

It’s really the only reason I haven’t bought one, as I regularly travel across Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and especially in the wintertime I understand the range is even less because of the cold.

In: 165

Answer 1

Lithium battery technology today has an energy density of about 125 Wh per pound, roughly. which means 1 kWh of energy storage in lithium batteries weighs about 8 pounds.

For comparison, a gallon of gasoline weighs just under 8 pounds, but contains over 30 kWh of energy.

Now, a gasoline engine cannot extract 30 kW from a gallon of gasoline, it may only be able to extract 5 kW. But still, you can see how for the same amount of weight you can carry five times as much energy with gasoline, then with lithium batteries.

Weight is the reason why gasoline cars have longer range. But technology is moving quickly and more energy dense batteries are being developed.