Electric Vehicle Thread!

[wco81]

The RAV 4 Prime (the PHEV) was in very high demand and Toyota allocated only 5,000 units to the US when they first started selling it ab out 4 years ago.

I actually shopped it in late 2021. This was at the height of the chips shortage and dealers were marking things up crazy. I would have leased an EV but few were available and those which became available were marked up.

The dealers around me were demanding at least $5k over sticker for the RAV 4 Prime and others in different cities were asking for 5-figure dealer markups.


One reason right now that some BEVs are selling well is that they are offering pretty aggressive leases on BEVs, which come with at least the $7500 incentive, matching the full tax credit.

Toyota and Subaru, essentially selling the same BEV SUVs, have been aggressive the past few months. Their first BEV efforts were panned because of poor range and slow charging.

But now, you can get some better BEVs on lease deals, such as the Ioniq 5 and EV6.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

99,800 yuan (BYD Dolphin)

Subsidized by China.

It's still nearly twice the price of a Aqua here in Japan. Though I don't know how much of that is tax.

 

[cheapchips]

Subsidized by China.

It's not like other countries haven't /don't subsidize their car industries. They've just been less committed and effective.

I thought this was an interesting article from last year on how China got to where it is:

How did China come to dominate the world of electric cars?

 

[Davros]

I'm sort of joining the electric vehicle revolution since ive just ordered a dirt cheap electric bicycle. I thought why not might be fun

 

[orangpelupa]

xpeng mona seems could be a way for xpeng to finally become popular brand? https://cnevpost.com/2024/09/14/xpeng-mona-m03-capacity-expanded-twice-in-10-days/

still not sure how they managed to optimize their software that good. they are using the same snapdrafgon 8155 as everyone else. their OS is also based on android AOSP fork thingy (you can install apk on them too, not sure they've blocked this or not) like most other china cars.

 

[pharma]

still not sure how they managed to optimize their software that good. they are using the same snapdrafgon 8155 as everyone else. their OS is also based on android AOSP fork thingy (you can install apk on them too, not sure they've blocked this or not) like most other china cars.

For driving assistance I think they might be using Nvidia Drive.

 

[orangpelupa]

For driving assistance I think they might be using Nvidia Drive.

It's only for the most expensive model that hasn't been launched

 

[pharma]

I did not realize you were talking about the touch screen only.

The clean aesthetic is repeated on the inside, where you’ll find a 15.6-inch “floating” touchscreen featuring a card-style interface, running on a flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 processor and 16 GB of RAM.

Xpeng Mona M03 EV debuts – world's lowest drag coefficient, 620 km CLTC range, fr RM73k in China - paultan.org

Xpeng may have only just launched the G6 in Malaysia, but back in China, the company has already moved on to its next big thing. The prominent EV maker has introduced the new Mona M03 …

paultan.org

 

[Davros]

Just reading a faq on battery life and it said something like batteries have a maximum number of cycles and to maximise battery life you should only recharge the battery after it's been fully discharged. I cant imaging people doing that since they'd be too worried about the battery running out miles from home with a hybrid or electric bicycle it's not much of a problem

 

[tuna]

Just reading a faq on battery life and it said something like batteries have a maximum number of cycles and to maximise battery life you should only recharge the battery after it's been fully discharged. I cant imaging people doing that since they'd be too worried about the battery running out miles from home with a hybrid or electric bicycle it's not much of a problem

Don't believe everything you read on the Internet

 

[wco81]

Generally you don't want to keep it charged 100% too often.

Do it for taking long trips but for everyday driving, charge it up to 80%.

 

[cheapchips]

There's a bit of a perception that the batteries in cars suffer wear and tear in the same way as other devices in our lives like phones etc. The cells in car battery's are cooled/heated in a positively luxurious way that phone batteries can only dream of!

That, and that the load is shared across hundreds of individual cells, means the cells in a car battery are living their best life.

Cars either have a 80% default cap you can turn on and mostly forget about, only give you a 90% of the gross battery capacity or are LFP which like being charged to 100%.

It's not much of a think to worry about with recent car. Just don't buy an older Leaf.

None issue for the most part.

 

[Davros]

So are you saying for example recharging 60% to 80% doesn't shorten battery life as opposed to recharging 0% (or close to) to 80%

 

[cheapchips]

So are you saying for example recharging 60% to 80% doesn't shorten battery life as opposed to recharging 0% (or close to) to 80%

No, not with the chemistries in car batteries. You're probably thinking of the nicad batteries we had in stuff as kids, which had to be discharged and fully charged or they developed a 'memory' for the lower capacity.

The issue with modern battery chemistries is heat tends to damage the cell. Since phones, for instance aren't cooled, the impact is much more pronounced.

Don't get me wrong, EVs will lose battery over time. Some sort of second hand battery certification would be useful, just so you can assess easily what you're buying.

2% loss each year is what my first search results suggest.

But, the other way to think of it is ownership miles. The average ICE car last 150,000. Most EVs should blow passed that with far less maintenance required and still have reasonable range.

 

[wco81]

The other thing is there's a growing market for used batteries from old EVs to be deployed for home storage and other uses.

So the battery pack carry value for years after they've had a long service life in cars.


And there's more talk now about solid state and advanced chemistries to improve range and charging speed.

 

[Davros]

I'm looking at it from the point of view of someone who will shortly have and electric bicycle, it doesn't say whet type of battery tech it uses it just says 209Wh Samsung Cells

 

[cheapchips]

I'm looking at it from the point of view of someone who will shortly have and electric bicycle

It's still be some sort of lithium ion battery. Just charge it when you like. The battery won't have as lovely a life as a temperature controlled car battery, but it should degrade slower than a phone battery. I don't really know anyone who does high ebike millage. I'm sure you can find some first hand experience of whatever models you're concidering. Mrs Cheapchip's ebike doesn't do many miles a year!

 

[WhiningKhan]

E-bike battery should not be any reason for stress. My wife's bike gives over 100km fully charged, which is enough for a few individual trips without recharge; and not charging it completely full thus is quite feasible if you wish to do so.

 

[Davros]

My bike only bike a range of 20miles but thats ok since I dont ever plan on making any journey more than 10miles. Since I have no idea what an electric bike is like I decided it would be wise to spend as little as possible on one

The battery won't have as lovely a life as a temperature controlled car battery,

It sort of will since it's removeable it will spend 99% of it's life in my house

 

[orangpelupa]

I'm looking at it from the point of view of someone who will shortly have and electric bicycle, it doesn't say whet type of battery tech it uses it just says 209Wh Samsung Cells

then it probably use NMC chemistry. thus better to stay at around 50%. if you want longevity. practically, people usually just charge to 80%.