Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by kuro68k 3109 days ago
I am on my second Nissan Leaf and can tell you that your concerns are largely unfounded. Most charging is opportunistic, and when you do need to do a big evacuation a Tesla sized battery can last longer than you can safely drive. In fact in the EU legal limits on commercial drivers are already exceeded by battery tech.

As for wearing out, taxi companies with leafs have over 200k on the packs and they are still good. Teslas have hit 500k miles and are still find. All that "new battery every five years" stuff turned out to be nonsense.
1 comments
ahartmetz 3108 days ago
"When you do need to do a big evacuation a Tesla sized battery can last longer than you can safely drive"

This is plainly wrong. Let's say it's a Tesla Model S which has a real world range of about 400 km. That is about four hours of driving. I sometimes drive 600 km easily, with one longer break to eat and maybe a few shorters breaks to pee or just get out of the car and walk around a bit.

Your other statements are also somewhat exaggerated, see for example: https://insideevs.com/exclusive-interview-with-steve-marsh-a...

  > 150k miles
  > 50% capacity
  > not used in the cold anymore
link
IanCal 3108 days ago
The EU legal limit is

> a break or breaks totalling at least 45 minutes after no more than 4 hours 30 minutes driving

and

> 9 hours in a day - this can be extended to 10 hours twice a week

https://www.gov.uk/drivers-hours/eu-rules

The range of a 100KWh model S on the page for the UK ranges from 319 miles at 70mph (four and a half hours) to 514 miles at 45mph (eleven and a half hours). At 100KWh and 3+ miles per KWh (https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/real-world-range-new-o...) that's still 330 miles, plus.

Certainly seems like a reasonable claim that the battery can last longer than you can safely drive, particularly if you're not gunning it down a nice fast road.

link
fjsolwmv 3108 days ago
Yep, on evacuation day, when you are sitting in stop and go traffic, EVs are a big win because they get much better mileage at low speeds.
link
tomohawk 3108 days ago
Wow. A 6 or 7 year old car that is completely useless. A 3 hour charge time to go 65 miles. If it's highway driving - only 35 miles - unless there is a headwind.

Mind boggling.

link
explainplease 3108 days ago
That's not all:

  > No more regenerative braking
  > 35 mile range now
  > Using the QC (quick charger?) more than once a day voids battery warranty
link