Blimey - according to https://thedriven.io/2024/01/25/worlds-largest-ev-battery-maker-set-to-cut-costs-in-half-by-mid-2024/ the world's largest battery manufacturer, China's CATL will be halving the price of its Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries this year. "This means the price of an average 60 kWh battery pack will have dropped from $US6,776.00 to just $3,388.00 in just 12 months, saving EV manufacturers over $3,000 per vehicle."
Our #BEV (MG4 Excite) has a 51kWh pack... So we could replace a future (post 7yr warranty) failed pack for well under US$3k... #BatteryTech
For perspective, the average ICE car costs something like NZ$3-4k in petrol per year... or maybe US$2k - so replacing the entire battery pack, good for 7+ years driving, would cost about as much as a year's worth of petrol. That's in the worst case & the current batteries are predicted to last much longer than that, perhaps 2-3 times.
You know, back when cars were first becoming safer than wrestling an angry bear, they made all headlights standardized so you could get spare parts from anywhere. Something similar for EVs isn't such a bad idea...
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There's also mention of a per kWh battery price of about US$56... that means a generous home battery of, say, 15kWh could end up around US$1000... putting it well within the range of many people... - that's only 5-7 months' electricity bills for many households here in NZ...
@sj_zero I totally agree! The standard 'cell' size is, I think, already fairly standardised... now we just need standardised connectors and other hardware so batteries are all interoperable (within voltage/amperage tolerances, of course)...
@lightweight
So stoked our government saw the future and said "You know what this country needs? More coal, gas and oil exploration and mining!". Absolute ostriches the lot of them.
Separately, I wonder if this is China's play to totally dominate the US car market the way Japan did up until the 2000s.
@paw Heh - suspect you're onto something there. Yes, this gov't are dangerous numpties. And yes, I think the US will be conquered by their own colossal ignorance & unwavering grip on American Exceptionalism, letting China run rings around them. On my recent visit to the US, the (manufactured) pervasive anti-China sentiment means I didn't see a single Chinese-made car there, ICE or BEV... They're like rabbits in the headlights.
@lightweight Another thing to consider is that your replacement battery pack is likely to have a greater capacity than your old one as technology progresses.