Transitions and fake news

As the time goes by I started becoming a bit concerned about a "too-fast transition" to electric vehicles. Our batteries aren't really efficient for now, being expensive, heavy, dangerous and a bit invasive. Sure they're 100% reusable and recyclable but they are definitely a work in progress. A fast transition (and I believe we're in a fast transition: 20% of new cars in Norway are EVs!) helps funding research for better batteries such as solid state batteries, but it can't overcome the variable of time. Researching and development require a lot of time, no matter how many money you throw at it.

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An equilibrium needs to be maintained at all cost. On one hand, people need to buy EVs instead of waiting for the technology to arrive, because if no one buys EVs... Well, oil industries win and battery research stops. On the other hand, desperately buying EVs will also create a stall since research & development takes time and we'd be contributing to a battery lobby.

Oil industry keeps throwing myths and fake news at us. Every day. They don't want just a "slow transition", they want a no-transition. At all! They even invented the "clean diesel" impossibility... What a stupid idea! We need to debunk that stuff, so here comes the part #3 of my "debunking myths" quest.

1. You need to change batteries every 3 years

Lithium batteries don't have that infamous memory effect that made us discharge our phones to 0% everytime. You can charge them as much as you want, anytime, everywhere. They do degrade with use, however, and there are some conditions that make them degrade quicker. If you charge them everyday from 0 to 100%; if you make a lot of fast charging that makes them fry; if you usually do aggressive accelerations or regenerations...

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Depending on the quality of the batteries, you can expect about 1300 cycles before you start noticing a significant decrease in autonomy. But the battery is still good to go and will hopefully last a lot longer! Also, 1300 cycles means that higher autonomy cars have also a higher lifespan. Some cars (such as Tesla's) have thermal management systems (TMS) that keep the batteries cool even when fast charging or during very long trips. They also limit the usage of the batteries to certain levels, to avoid overcharging and to account for degradation (my car does that: it actually has 16kwh, but only lets us use 14kwh or so).

So, in short... You'll probably never need to change batteries, unless you need the full range every single day, for years and years. But even if you do, take Nissan's approach: you pay 5k euro, they install a new battery and for 1k you get to keep the old one, to use as a powerwall at home.

2. Maintenance is expensive because of the batteries.

Maintenance of an EV is not much more than the windshield washing fluid. I think you can do it yourself, at home.

Ok I'm exaggerating, but electric cars have almost no maintenance at all, apart from tires and brakes (even brakes you'll be using a lot less, since the car relies on regeneration to slow down). If you've driven 300k km and you really need a new battery, just pay 5k euro and you have basically a brand new car. There's no know limit for those cars since they've been around for not even a decade. But I'm sure you'll hear stories of a 2010 Nissan Leaf still running like new after many decades!

_{A 2011 Nissan Leaf with 2000 cycles and still driving strong. Source}

The lower maintenance means also lower maintenance costs. Since cabin filters are easy to change and brake usage is minimal thanks to regeneration, there are people that use those cars for 5 years before finally paying a mechanic 200€ to look at the car and changing basic stuff.

3. You can't charge in the rain.

Electric cars are so safe that you could even wash your car with an industrial fire hose while it's charging (they actually test them for that). They're fine with water even if it falls in sensible spots, since they self-test if everything is fine before negotiating charging power and conditions with the domestic charger. The new Nissan Leaf even has it's charging ports almost vertical, so it's almost impossible to avoid water sprays there... No problem, man.

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