MB recently tested an EQS with a mostly solid state battery. They drove it from Stuttgart to Sweden, a 749 mile trip and had more than 80 miles of range remaining. When this test battery technology or a full solid state version is ready for the public, EV range will be outstanding. Since it’s a pilot program, there’s no estimated cost increase for the battery. Half of this test battery would be a if improvement too. They guess that it will be available in the next five years.
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My money is on china building it cheaper and causing more environmental pollution and filling storage yard with 1100 unused cars.
Owning an electric car without a 220 volt home charger would be stupid and I, like most apartment dwellers cannot have a home charger.
While this is a positive step towards solving the range anxiety problem, without a cohesive plan we’re just stumbling from one problem to another.
More electric vehicles means more demand for electricity but few people want to extend the operating life of existing coal powerplants, have new plants or wind farms built next door, have new transmission lines built over their property, make the investment in urban charging facilities or pay higher electric rates to meet the additional demand. Then there’s the cost of road maintenance that today is largely funded by gas taxes so if we substantially decrease the proportion of gas vehicles, who’s going to pick up the slack?
So until we reach a national consensus on these issues I think that electric vehicles will remain a niche product.