<story><title>Before the Electric Car Takes Over, Someone Needs to Reinvent the Battery</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-06/before-the-electric-car-takes-over-someone-needs-to-reinvent-the-battery</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spenrose</author><text>The article begins by contradicting itself: &amp;quot;To deliver an electric vehicle that’s cheaper, safer and capable of traveling 500 miles on a single charge ...&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s not a &amp;quot;car&amp;quot;. A &amp;quot;car&amp;quot;, as driven by a billion people every day, takes trips whose distances have a power-law distribution falling off from ~2 miles down to 150 miles, by which point you are looking at &amp;lt; 0.1% of trips. A large fraction of cars have never been driven on a 500 mile trip.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rconti</author><text>They&amp;#x27;ll probably never sell a 500mi EV just like they don&amp;#x27;t sell cars that go 500mi on a tank. EPA range on most cars will touch 400mi but that&amp;#x27;s about it. If anything, gas tanks are getting smaller as fuel efficiency goes up. Gas tanks take space, carry a heavy fuel that, in turn, reduces fuel economy, and so on. Batteries cost money. The only reason to make an EV with a greater range than most gas cars is if recharging is slow. The range then offsets charge time on the rare roadtrip. If you can charge your car quickly, suddenly there&amp;#x27;s not even a reason to have more than 200mi range. Already the 310mi range on our Tesla 3 seems a bit excessive when I&amp;#x27;ve only had to supercharge it twice, and mostly I just get home and don&amp;#x27;t bother plugging it in because it doesn&amp;#x27;t NEED a charge every day.</text></comment>
<story><title>Before the Electric Car Takes Over, Someone Needs to Reinvent the Battery</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-06/before-the-electric-car-takes-over-someone-needs-to-reinvent-the-battery</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spenrose</author><text>The article begins by contradicting itself: &amp;quot;To deliver an electric vehicle that’s cheaper, safer and capable of traveling 500 miles on a single charge ...&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s not a &amp;quot;car&amp;quot;. A &amp;quot;car&amp;quot;, as driven by a billion people every day, takes trips whose distances have a power-law distribution falling off from ~2 miles down to 150 miles, by which point you are looking at &amp;lt; 0.1% of trips. A large fraction of cars have never been driven on a 500 mile trip.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>prostoalex</author><text>&amp;gt; A large fraction of cars have never been driven on a 500 mile trip.&lt;p&gt;Consumers base buying decisions on the &lt;i&gt;longest&lt;/i&gt; trip they expect to take.&lt;p&gt;Even if 360 days a year they commute for 10 miles, and then for 4th of July &amp;#x2F; Thanksgiving &amp;#x2F; winter holidays they take an extended 300+ mile road trip, they will consider a car capable of traveling 300+ miles.</text></comment>