The EV Battery of Your Dreams Is Coming
wsj.comThis feels like a conscious attempt to "Osborne Effect" EVs. And part of a wider effort to do so. Toyota in particular are notorious for their "solid state batteries are coming!!" PR blitz.
And they all use similar talking points about fill up time, that makes little sense. Faster fill up time is nice, but by the time you can fill up as fast as a gas station, EVs will have vastly outpaced ICEs.
The improvements in EV charging have been happening in increments across multiple dimensions.
Bigger batteries.
More chargers.
Cheaper electricity.
Plug and charge convenience.
More data on battery longevity.
Batteries that can charge faster.
Chargers that can charge faster.
Pre heating to reach those peak charge speeds faster.
Better route planning to find the appropriate charger on long trips.
Notably many of these apply to existing batteries in existing cars that people are already driving, not future cars built with currently unavailable tech.
Meanwhile, sodium ion (not even mentioned) is here now. You can buy real cells for similar price/kwh as lifepo already, with price decline planned(not forecast, planned). They are reasonably safe, even youtubers did puncture tests without bursting into flames and that is a big thing. Does not need such rigorous thermal management as lithium. Only downside is energy density, but it's still not so bad.