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Fantasy_masterMC t1_j019bx6 wrote

While I agree planned obsolesce is an obstacle, you have to consider the primary uses for such batteries. Electric cars, mobile devices (phone, tablet, laptop, accessories), and (solar) power storage are the first things to come to mind.

With electric cars, most people that can afford a modern electric car will replace it long before battery degradation becomes a true factor.

With mobile devices, unless they regularly complete full cycles, other features will be obsolete long before battery truly becomes a problem. My current ancient Huawei p8 lite has more issues with memory (severely limiting the amount of apps I can install without needing to delete others) than it has with battery, though now after 6+ years of daily use it's finally showing serious battery degradation.

Stuff like Musks' power cell thingy seem like the most likely thing where degradation would be the main obsolescence factor, but those things are expensive enough that it probably doesn't need obsolescence to be planned, as by the time it would factor in there'd be a new, much better product already available, and the 'profit' from the purchase of the previous likely would not be 'used up' just yet.

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