this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2024
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I waited 4 years for battery technology to get better before bring an EV last year. The "battery revolution", with all the news being generated weekly for years, is still not here. I don't give a fuck about theoretical battery range - give me the actual battery in a car, THEN it's newsworthy. Now it's all just theoretical, which we consumers can do fuck all about.
Well, Toyota has promised 2026 for their battery tech and hasn't changed that guidance, so I think there's a decent chance they'll stick to that timeline. I don't know if Samsung is their supplier or if they're competing on the tech, but if it's the latter, I expect we'll see something in the next 2-3 years.
I'm still convinced Toyota is just announcing breakthroughs miracles in battery tech Coming Soon™ because they shit the bed so hard on the first round of EVs. Now they're trying to discourage people from buying EVs now while they play catch-up.
Well, the good news is, nobody is making an actual solid state battery car, so if they don't deliver, I'm not out anything. The current set of EVs aren't good enough to replace our family car (we like road trips, and even 300 miles range is too little), so I'm waiting regardless. I'll be looking for announcements in the next year or two.
Both of our cars are Toyotas though, because they make really good cars. We have a Sienna for our family car and a Prius for my commuter, and I'm probably going to replace that Prius with an EV if I can find a good deal on something with 150 miles range. The Sienna is getting old (nearly 200k miles), but it's reliable, so I'm holding off until I can either get a good deal on a hybrid/ICE, or reasonable EVs are released. If that's Toyota, great, but I'm not buying the first gen of anything regardless.
I've found the current gen of EVs is perfect for road tripping with my family. The battery range is perfectly sized for the bladder sizes of my kids. It works really well if you're road tripping at a casual pace. However I know a lot of people that like to "death march" road trip where they won't stop for 500 miles at a time - so I admit it's definitely not for everyone.
Yeah, I have kids, and we can usually get about 300 miles before someone needs a bathroom break. So usually I refill gas (<5 min) while the kids go to the bathroom, and we usually pack enough food with us (sandwiches and whatnot) that we only need to go to a restaurant once on the trip.
An EV could work if fast chargers were as plentiful as gas stations, but in many of the areas we go (I live in Utah and travel to WA, MT, ID, and CA frequently), they're pretty infrequent. So we'd need to plan stops based on charger availability, not on bladder size, which means an extra recharge or two for the trip. It's getting better, but every time I look at maps, there are maybe one or two chargers in a 50 mile radius, so if it's full or out of service, we'd be screwed.
Now, if gas stations started offering EV charging, I'd probably be looking at them today. Gas stations are perfect because they often have fast food, bathrooms, and snacks, all of which are essential for road trips.
As another anecdote, my coworker just bought a Model 3, and he frequently says he can't reasonably visit places within our state because the charging network sucks. That's a pretty serious concern for us, since we like camping, which means pretty remote trips.
And that's the thing. As much as we've gotten used to it over the past hundred years, progress is absolutely not automatic.
If people don't buy the current stuff, it reduces the chance of advancement for that tech. Most things will only get better if people are buying the current versions.
We've had solar power tech for 50 years. Solar initiatives under Carter were actually pretty good. You know who killed it, or I expect we'd have solar on most roofs today.
I recently visited Switzerland, and the amount of rooftop solar there was insane.
(Solar is of course closely linked to battery tech.)
I totally agree with your statement, but in the 4 years I waited, nothing has actually happened with the batteries on EVs (except for a bit faster charging on already insane charging times).