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Car Battery Debate

Entry 152, on 2023-06-19 at 10:21:32

This debate occurred on YouTube, between a person with some skepticism about battery technology, and me.

Rowan Atkinson's EXCELLENT article on why EV = NO. Geoff Buys Cars. Taken from the Telegraph with Geoff commentary.

British actor, Rowan Atkinson, is a well known car enthusiast. He owns a McLaren F1, arguably the most legendary car of all time. This article indicated some doubt about electric cars (often this is a political position), which is fair enough, so do I. But better batteries will arrive at some point.

Me Some very good points there. The current EVs might be a false start. The battery technology will improve at some point, and there will be more charging stations. Until then, I'll keep my ICE car, and maybe use the turbos a bit less to save fuel... or maybe not!

Opponent Laptop and smartphone battery technology didn't improve last 12 years (it uses the same materials and basic mechanism of operation as vehicles). There's no "improving".

Me Well actually there is. There are a few new technologies being developed with twice the energy per weight of current Li-ion.

Opponent Let me know when it happens then with proper names, that's the only way to shut my mouth... until then I call bullshit... I frequently receive new laptops for maintenance and repair in the shop and none of them last more than 4 hours regular usage battery life... the exact same battery life from early gaming laptops from 2009-2010... nothing changed... the chips got a tiny bit more power efficient, but it doesn't reflect in battery times.

I don't know what sort of laptops he is dealing with, but 4 hours is a ridiculously short life for a modern laptop, although maybe he's talking about gaming laptops, which tend to suck battery life more quickly to power their graphics cards.

Me Well my laptop does 8 hours easily, and often a lot more. The new technologies include lithium-sulfur and solid state, if I remember correctly.

Me There's also the radioactive diamond battery with an expected life of 28,000 years for low-drain applications!

I had to make that last comment. You want better battery life? How does 28,000 years suit you? Of course, that is for situations with very low drain, and definitely not cars, or even laptops.