Now that's an expensive battery

[lectureral]

For the Model S, the second electric car from Tesla:

The Model S comes with a choice of three battery packs. The entry-level version promises a range of 160 miles and costs $49,900 (£32,000) once a government rebate of $7,500 is taken into account). The top-flight Signature Performance model with the 265-mile range costs $97,900.

 

[flecc]

Not so surprising when even the basic battery contains well over 6000 small cells with complex electronics to manage them all during charging and use.

Batteries and their costs will be the e-cars Achilles heel for decades yet, just a pity that the politicians don't realise that and still live in a cloud-cuckoo land where they think we'll all be driving them in ten years time.

Traction batteries go only one way, up in price. On e-bikes and milk floats we started with cheap lead-acid, then on the e-bikes we went to more expensive NiMh, then even more expensive Li-ion cobalt. They were too dangerous so we are now on the extremely expensive compound cathode polymer ones using scarce materials. They are for sure keeping well ahead of petrol costs.

 

[smudger1956]

Hope Tesla have sorted out their BMS......