Here’s an interesting article about Structural Battery. If you don’t know what that is…don’t feel bad…Most people don’t. I never did…and read a lot on EV and hybrid cars.
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Very interesting technology. Thanks for posting.
For cars and trucks it poses an interesting dilemma much like comparing iPhones to Androids. iPhones without replaceable batteries…maximizes battery storage but the phone must be tossed when the batteries no longer meet the need. In a fast changing phone technology world, that is of less concern. Now that the pace of changes have slowed down (and phone prices are well over $1000 for new models) people can and do use the same phone for 5-7 years.
Android phones lose battery capacity as they age but gain overall operational life since the batteries can be replaced. This works as long as the older phones are still functional.
Now we have a 20 year life cycle for an EV… The best structure would maybe be several large battery bricks rather than one large chassis brick. The Android model vs the iPhone model. Serviceability vs minimal cost and weight. Likely range will decrease somewhat over those years. Hopefully a full replacement won’t be needed.
This is similar to the bicycle approach where the frame pockets hold the batteries so not distracting from the function or appearance of the bike. I like the idea of “distributed storage” but the difficulty will be in needing heavy wire connections between the individual packs.