Hillhater said:
You are dreaming of a perfect EV ..light, aerodynamic, long range ( on flat freeways) , and cheap.......it doesnt and cannot exist !
I'm not dreaming of a "perfect EV", but mentioning it is possible to cut energy consumption by half or more without much compromise. There's no shortage of concept cars with the Leaf's road footprint and a similar shape and close to half the aero drag, and it is perfectly possible to build such cars without exotic materials. Gutting all the crap like power steering/power windows and going back to lighter/more durable/primitive components to replace them would go a long way towards reducing weight while further cutting cost.
This would mean the engineers would also have to design the cars instead of the stylists and accountants, which is anathema to the modern auto industry hell-bent on maintaining planned obsolescence and needless but profitable complexity for its own sake.
Tesla, overall, seems to be heading in the right direction at least(the Model 3 has the lowest Cd of any current production car). Can't say that about the rest of the industry...
Most leafs spend their life in cities..the ideal use for them.. Where aerodynamics offer little benefit.
Range is mainly dictated by weight, accelleration, battery capacity, and motor efficiency ...(that means high voltage )
Range is less important in cities than it is on the highway.
That being said, a drag reduction of 40% could still give a 10% boost to range in < 30 mph driving, and as speeds in the city increase, its importance grows.
Also, when it comes to the low power requirements during steady state highway cruising, voltage/current make very little difference in efficiency. You're looking at a difference of a mile or two of range out of a 30 kWh pack going from 400V to 200V... at best. Even in city driving with lots of light accelerations and stops, you're looking at a 1-3% change in the efficiency of the electric drive system during its typical use cases. When you're racing or driving like a jackass, that's a different story, but then range probably isn't the concern in that type of driving anyway...
There is no long range (250+mile) EV with a 30-40kWh battery.
False. The Solectria Sunrise in 1996 had a 200-250 mile highway range on a 27 kWh pack, as but one example. With hypermiling techniques, it set a world record of 373 miles on a charge in the 1998 Tour Del Sol. The designer claimed it would have been $20,000 in mass production, but the auto industry wouldn't touch it.
Where have you ever heard of Calbs costing less than $300/kWh ?
During organized group buys on the EVDL from 9-12 years ago. People have gotten them new for as low as $250/kWh for the CALB SE and Thundersky cells.
More recently, evtv.me had some SE cells on clearance sale for under $300/kWh about 2 years ago. They are still on a clearance sale but their price has gone back up to where they are more than the CA cells that replaced them in the market, probably because of the fact that they are difficult to find.
They're much more expensive buying cells for one vehicle. My CALB CA100FI cost around $430/kWh.