Battery Life
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Rivian founder RJ Scaringe has revealed that its trucks will be able to share a charge with other Rivian products, by using an auxiliary battery system.
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Record-high emissions, battery-life predictions, EV racing: Today's Car News
The promoter of racing's wackiest series wants to include EVs. A new report from the International Energy Agency shows greenhouse gas emissions set new records in 2018. And our latest Twitter poll shows which upcoming electric SUV our readers most want to buy. All this and more on Green Car...
Eric C. Evarts -
Researchers learn how to better predict battery degradation
Some electric-car owners go to great lengths to preserve the battery life in their electric cars. Others just plug them in every time they're finished driving and charge them up to full. Maybe, according to new research announced earlier this week, the durability of batteries can be determined...
Eric C. Evarts -
Battery tech may be getting a big solid-state boost soon
A Woburn, Massachusetts, company may be attracting big name attention for its solid-state technology that it says can withstand higher temperatures and offer higher capacity. For battery makers, producing a stable solid to withstand the rigors of charging and discharging has proved elusive. Ionic...
Aaron Cole -
McKinsey summarizes state of the art, latest trends in electric cars
Over the seven years modern, mass-priced electric cars have been on sale, various bits of wisdom have emerged among their fans, advocates, and owners. One might be how much battery range is "enough" to prevent drivers from worrying constantly about whether they need to charge. Another might be...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Leaf 30-kwh battery decline 3 times that of earlier electric cars: study
The Nissan Leaf, at least for the moment, remains the highest-volume electric car produced in history, with more than 300,000 sold. One of the measures that kept its cost down was the use of passive air cooling for its battery pack, rather than the pricier liquid cooling used by other makers to...
John Voelcker -
It's one of the major questions for any electric-car buyer: How long will the battery pack last? And what would it cost to replace it if I do need a new one sometime down the road? Now a new video looks at that question, comparing the different thermal-management technologies in the batteries of the new 2018 Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car. DON'T MISS: Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car: what's inside the battery? Teardown video shows all The presenter is John D. Kelly, a professor in the Auto Technology department of Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. It's one of several...
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Batteries in autonomous electric cars must be more durable: lithium-ion pioneer
We tend to take batteries for granted. Day after day, we recharge batteries and expect them to work without giving a thought to how they work or to their state of health. But Akira Yoshino is different. He's one of the pioneers of lithium-ion battery technology. DON'T MISS: Lithium-ion battery...
Mark Stevenson -
2012 Chevy Volt has now crossed 400,000 miles, range remains steady
As more battery-electric cars are sold and more drivers become aware of them, the question of battery life recurs among pretty much every potential buyer. How long will the battery last? Will I have to replace it every 18 months as I do in my smartphone? Data on the liquid-cooled battery packs of...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model S durability: cars with 250K and 300K miles still humming along happily
The latest reports on Tesla Model S durability and reliability should likely be considered a win for the Silicon Valley automaker. High-mileage cars aren't unusual, but we're only now starting to see the first truly high-mileage examples of electric cars. With less maintenance required compared to...
Sean Szymkowski -
New life for old Nissan Leaf electric car: battery replacement and what it took
The 2018 Nissan Leaf will likely be revealed within the next three months, but more than 100,000 older Leaf electric cars are still silently in use on U.S. roads. Some of them, especially the lowest-range cars from the two earliest model years (2011 and 2012), have started to see significant...
John Voelcker -
Tesla changes warranty, cuts used Model S prices, to lure Model 3 buyers
Tesla has given its used electric-car sales a jolt and sweetened the deals for potential buyers. CEO Elon Musk announced changes to the Tesla Model S sedan's warranty structure and major price cuts on used examples during the annual shareholder meeting held June 6. "Maybe somebody wants to buy a...
Sean Szymkowski -
Perhaps the biggest question in buyers' minds over electric cars is how long the batteries will last. Most new-car buyers have mobile phones whose batteries have only lasted a couple of years, perhaps less. Even as electric-car battery packs are warranted against outright failure for eight or 10 years, how much degradation should owners anticipate? DON'T MISS: Electric car battery warranties compared The question has surfaced again as a few of the earliest Nissan Leafs now appear to have lost up to half their battery capacity, with drivers finding their range has fallen below 50 miles of...
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How to negotiate for a new Nissan Leaf battery pack: electric-car owner advises
In designing, testing, and producing the Nissan Leaf, the first modern electric car sold in volume, Nissan made a design decision that some other companies didn't. It chose not to build an active thermal-conditioning system (otherwise known as cooling) into its battery pack. Instead, it relies on...
John Voelcker -
Lessons learned from early electric car: 2011 Nissan Leaf at 90,000 miles
Being a pioneer isn't easy. When you're pioneering new automotive technology, it can be challenging and sometimes costly. Just ask anyone who owned an early turbocharged sport sedan, for instance. That also applies, in some cases, to some of the first modern electric cars, and in particular the...
John Voelcker -
2017 Chevy Bolt EV 10 to 40 percent battery-capacity loss: possible, but unlikely?
When's the last time you sat down and read large parts of an owner's manual for a car? If it's been a few years—or a few decades—you may be surprised how frustrating they are if you're actually searching for specific information. By and large, their indexes are atrocious (often using...
John Voelcker -
The Tesla Model S P100D really, seriously goes over 300 miles this time
The first time may have been a Pyrrhic victory. In April, an updated 90D emerged with a kinda, sorta 300-mile range and a new face. Tuesday, Tesla announced that a new 100-kilowatt-hour battery would deliver 315 miles on the EPA cycle and accelerate up to 60 mph faster than falling off the roof...
Aaron Cole -
Toyota hybrid battery replacement cost guide (2016 update)
"Sure, but what do the batteries cost to replace?" is a question frequently posed to hybrid and electric vehicle owners. It's true that batteries aren't cheap, and at some point down the line they'll have expended their useful life and require replacement. But what do these packs actually cost, if...
John Voelcker -
One of the biggest worries about electric cars--and hybrids for that matter--is whether their expensive high-voltage battery packs will last the life of the car. If not, potential buyers worry, they may be saddled with thousands of dollars of cost in years to come. The evidence on hybrids is largely positive over the last 15 years, but there's less evidence for electric cars. DON'T MISS: Chevrolet Volt: Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy 2016 Now, however, we have a new data point: Erick Belmer's 2012 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car just crossed 300,000 miles last week, as he...
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Dead Hybrid Battery: What Should I Do? (Owner Question)
Every once in a while, other media outlets will ask for advice from Green Car Reports on various fuel economy or car technology questions. We recently received one concerning a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, which the owner had left unused for several months. The car wouldn't start after that, and when...
John Voelcker -
Life With Tesla Model S: Battery Degradation Update
Last summer, I wrote in this space about an apparent loss of battery capacity in my 2013 Tesla Model S after a three-month Supercharging binge. I wondered whether, despite assurances from Tesla Motors, the two events might have been related. My doubts had started when I noticed that, after a...
David Noland -
Tesla Model S Battery Life: How Much Range Loss For Electric Car Over Time?
One of the things electric-car owners worry about is long-term battery degradation. It’s a well-established fact that lithium-ion batteries gradually lose capacity as they undergo numerous charge/discharge cycles. We owners understand that our range will gradually decline over the life of the...
David Noland -
Can New Titanium-Dioxide Battery Last 20 Years, Recharge In 5 Minutes?
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University claim a new anode can dramatically improve battery performance.
Stephen Edelstein -
Rapid Charging Electric-Car Batteries: Less Damaging Than We Thought?
A new study indicates fast-charging isn't as bad for batteries as originally believed.
Stephen Edelstein