Comment on Lithium-free sodium batteries exit the lab and enter US production

• sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Yup. I’m married with kids, so we need two cars regardless. The commuter just needs to reliably go ~50 miles between charges even during the winter, while the family car needs to fit my wife and kids and go at least 400 miles between charges (we like road trips).

  Unfortunately, I haven’t found the right fit since EVs are either too expensive, don’t have enough winter range (e.g. old Leafs), or have too many safety advisories (e.g. batteries catching fire don’t mesh with garage storage). Likewise for family cars. Most current EVs are in the awkward middle: too much range for a commute, and not enough for a road trip.

  But if there was an economy car with ~150 miles range and inexpensive batteries, I’d probably buy it.

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  • Serinus@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    batteries catching fire don’t mesh with garage storage

    Your gas powered car is more likely to burst into flames than your electric car.

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    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The problems with EV fires are:

      • they can easily reignite, and traditional firefighting methods don’t work
      • they can happen with a simple puncture, or during charging
      • there’s pretty much no warning sign

      Whereas with ICE vehicles:

      • generally caused by poor maintenance
      • overheating (major cause) has warning sensors and can generally be avoided
      • are fairly easy for fire departments to deal with

      I was considering getting a Chevy Bolt, but the company’s response to charging issues (i.e. don’t charge in your garage) killed my enthusiasm for it. Pretty much everything else either costs too much or doesn’t have enough range. I’d really rather not spend much more than $20k on a car, but the used market has been bonkers.

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      • Serinus@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        theguardian.com/…/do-electric-cars-pose-a-greater…

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  • Usernameblankface@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yeah, a car that started out with 150 miles of range, has degraded to about 80 miles of range, and is known to be safe would be ideal.

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    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yup, especially since my workplace has been talking about installing chargers. I don’t know when that’ll happen, but I’m willing to gamble if I won’t need them for a couple years (I might move to another company by then anyway).

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  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The Volt was really good for this - 50 miles electric and 430 miles gas on a 7 gallon tank.

    Unfortunately, PHEVs fell out of fashion in 2018 and are only just coming back into style. I think the Prius is the only comparable car on the market that manages this.

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    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I have a non-plugin Prius, and it works really well as a commuter. I got it for $10k like 10 years ago, and it has needed very little maintenance and still gets 45-ish MPG (highway speeds here are 70mph, and I usually go a few mph over).

      Ideally, I’d go pure electric for the next one so I’d never need to go to the gas station again. A PHEV means I still need to use some gas since I highly doubt I’d get 50 miles range on our high speed highways, especially if the car is older.

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      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Ev discount for used ev’s?

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