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ELB2001 t1_j4ungea wrote

Reply to comment by broyoyoyoyo in Toyota to Convert Older Cars to Eco-Friendly Models to Curb Emissions by renome

They have been investing billions a year into solid state batteries. They can afford it.

Current battery tech isn't that great and we will run into problems if we keep going with it.

Betting on two horses is the smart thing. Besides that, hydrogen might be the better option for heavy trucks.

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broyoyoyoyo t1_j4vkai6 wrote

Oh yea they can definitely afford it, but what they need is time to catch up, which is why they're lobbying to slow down the EV rollout. They didn't really bet on two horses, they went all in on hydrogen. It's why they only have 1 electric car across their entire lineup right now.

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ELB2001 t1_j4vkyrm wrote

They have registered the most Solid State Battery patents i believe. And actually have a working model.

I think they arent going all in on battery yet cause they dont believe the current battery tech is good enough long term. Which i agree with.

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MarkRclim t1_j4vsjv2 wrote

Which current battery tech will we run into problems with, and which problems?

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ELB2001 t1_j4vvvua wrote

The amount of rare earth minerals needed for the current batteries and where they come from. The current Solid State batteries that are being worked on will need much less of those. This plays a big part in the high cost of the current tech.

the high weight it adds to the vehicle will also become a problem for the roads.

A high speed loading infrastructure will also become a problem because the net isnt really up to it in most countries. Atm the companies that own the power net is kinda waiting with the big investment into their networks hoping someone else will pay for it.

The recycling still is a problem, Tesla for example is just recommending old ones for other uses like storage, which they arent really perfect for.

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Statertater t1_j4w5tux wrote

Just saw an article stating that current batteries can be recycled completely to get the RE’s out and reused, that they don’t degrade

We could maybe use more recycling capability, no?

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ELB2001 t1_j4w9y43 wrote

They can be, but nobody is really doing it. Cause it's cheaper to just buy the materials.

A lot of batteries are shipped of to be recycled, but aren't really recycled.

Some recycle a bit for pr purposes. The government's have to force them to do it, else it won't happen.

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derepeco t1_j4wc73v wrote

This is outdated information. There are multiple companies working on it right now. Redwood Materials is currently constructing a $3.5 billion dollar recycling facility near Reno that will produce enough materials for 1 million E.V. batteries by 2025 and 5 million by 2030. And that’s just one plant from one company. The company is also finalizing plans for an east coast facility as well.

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ELB2001 t1_j4wu01l wrote

Yeah working on it as in building factories to do it

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derepeco t1_j4x5jy8 wrote

Your comment was implying that no one was really bothering with it. That’s clearly not true.

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LifeIsARollerCoaster t1_j57ndtp wrote

All your information and reasoning is incorrect and outdated. RE is not actually rare. It’s just the name for that type of elements. Because of demand there is increasing amount of mining that will come online for those materials.

The batteries are not going to get thrown out. lots of recycling is already happening and a lot more will happen as more EV cars start aging out. For any recycling to be successful, the product that comes from recycling should have enough value to pay for the process of recycling and that is certainly true for EV batteries.

Maybe stop recycling your outdated talking points.

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BobMackey718 t1_j4x1la5 wrote

Have you heard about the liquid battery that someone just developed? I remember reading a story about it on Reddit about 3-6 months ago, the tech was basically a rechargeable liquid that you fill up your battery with, when the charge runs low it can be swapped out for freshly charged fluid at a filling station or recharged at home or work or wherever. I thought the whole concept and tech would be pretty revolutionary as it’s combining the low emissions of an EV with the convenience of gasoline style fill up. There was no word on how expensive the liquid battery fluid was to produce or how bad it is for the environment in terms of the inevitable spills that would happen. It was one of those things where I thought in 10 years it will be the norm and change the way we live or we’ll never hear anything about it ever again.

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im_thatoneguy t1_j4x4d2t wrote

It's extremely low density. Not suitable for a car.

Similarly there was a battery swap battery that was an Aluminum metal battery. Amazing range. But required specialized facilities to recharge. So you would have to battery swap which is complicated and expensive.

The problem is that for most people, just plugging into their garage power outlet is the cheapest and most convenient system. (I'm not one of those people since I have no garage. But you design around the norm, not the exception.)

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