Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

EVandPV

ABrass said:

The cost for replacing a 40kWh battery is 8k at the moment. 

There's a company local to me doing a Leaf 40kwh battery for exactly that and 30kwh for £7k.
They offer £1000 trade-in on the old battery.
Labour must be around £2k given that a 40kwh Zoe battery costs £6k.

Solarchaser

silverwhistle said:

DiggerUK said:

Oh, I hadn't realised that your solar array was provided for free and it came with a free charge point, you need to realise that your solar power is not free..._

Don't patronise me, you ignorant fool.

In a thread that seemed to be very serious all of a sudden, thus comment made me actually burst out laughing, so I thank you for that .
😂😂😂

Solarchaser

EVandPV said:

DiggerUK said:

I don't utilise insults as a debating point, 

No, just condescending tosh.

OK, this also made me lol.
And if we wanna do playground rules, digger started it when he said "virtue signaling" when ever someone uses that term, it really does tell you everything you need to know about that person.

Solarchaser

ABrass said:

JKenH said:

Martyn1981 said:

I think this is a fun article, pointing out that tire (or tyre) costs are greater than battery costs, so we might be focusing on the wrong thing when it comes to reducing cost per mile.
Obviously an improvement in BEV tyre costs wouldn't change the comparison of TCO (total cost of ownership), where BEV's are already cheaper than ICEV's, as you'd hope any savings/improvements would be viable for all vehicle types.

Tesla Tire Costs 10× Battery Cost, & My Plan To Deflate Tire Costs 90%

When I saw Tesla’s Battery Day, I was impressed with both the breadth and the depth of the plan they presented. It covered all the parts of the battery, but also how the battery is placed in the car. The one question it raised was: “Did they put their considerable engineering talent into solving the right problem?”

I think the answer is yes, but due to my work on focusing on the total cost of ownership of the electric vehicles, I knew Tesla was missing a huge opportunity by not spending any engineering effort on tires. Most of the talk on tires is either on improving efficiency or on improving performance, but for 90% of the world, the big issue is the cost of the tires.  In this article, I’ll explain the size of the problem and propose 3 solutions to the problem.

That was a bit more interesting.

I did a run through of costs for my Leaf, and to buy Dunlop Enasave OEM tyres would work out at around £100/corner fitted. Assuming the same 40k miles (optimistic?) my tyre cost would equate to £1000 over 100,000 miles. If I guess at the battery cost (let’s say £10k?) and its expected life (maybe 200k miles?) battery degradation on the Leaf would be more like £5000/100,000 miles or around 5 x the cost of tyres. (Maybe a bit less if one applies a second user value to the retired battery.)

Hopefully I won't mess up the quotes again this time....

The cost for replacing a 40kWh battery is 8k at the moment. Which drops it to a mere 4 times. Add in that right now battery replacement is a seriously niche area and the ongoing reduction in cost and improvement in scale and you're probably looking at a lower cost when you're does die.

But it's a slightly silly metric for non fleet/taxi use. After all 200,000 miles is a LOT for normal users. 20+ years for average users.

That £8k is more like £7k as they offer £1k for your battery (well the one in glenrothes did when I emailed.)
**edit, now I've caught up with the thread, I see EV and PV already said this**

In terms of tyres, my leaf has a couple of toyo t1r with about 4mm left on them, from my drift/track car, and some kwikfit budget £70/ corners on the driven axle,  couldn't justify the ensaves or whatever they are called, at £200/corner

EricMears

DiggerUK said:

It is not correct that silverwhistle   obtained the fuel for their car for free, they had upfront charges incurred with the solar array costs, that's a fact and I mentioned it.

No idea how long 'Silverwhistle' has has their Solar Panels but there are many of us who have had them since the early days of the FIT scheme who have long since earned enough to repay the initial investment plus 'lost interest' on it.  For us,  it is now perfectly reasonable to describe self-generated energy as 'free'.

Martyn1981

Very complimentary article on this great value MG. And they also point out something I think is very important regarding range, which is charge time v's the need for a decent break after ~3hrs:

ICE-Breaking MG5 Gives Over 200 Miles Real Range & 35 Minute Charging To 80%, For £24,495 – Reserve Yours Quick! (Videos)

Initial UK road tests of the MG5 EV show comfortably over 200 miles of real world range, and an impressive 35 minutes to recharge from 10 to 80%, for the stunning entry price of £24,495 (all-in, on-the-road price). The price point is on par with best selling ICE estate rivals like the VW Golf, Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla, but with very much lower running costs, higher long term reliability, a longer 7 year warranty. This electric MG will also have much better value retention as the end of the ICE-age approaches. Reserve one quick!

In practice all of this means that, after an initial 3 hours of steady highway driving, a roughly half hour comfort break can power the MG5 back up for a further 2 hours of onward journey (~140 miles at UK highway speeds). Then owners can rinse and repeat that 30 minute top up between 2 hour drives, as many times as wanted, thanks to the MG5’s liquid thermal management. With high power DC chargers now growing rapidly in the UK, this effectively means the MG5 can usefully tackle pretty much any journey that owners may want to throw at it.

EVandPV

EricMears said:

DiggerUK said:

It is not correct that silverwhistle   obtained the fuel for their car for free, they had upfront charges incurred with the solar array costs, that's a fact and I mentioned it.

No idea how long 'Silverwhistle' has has their Solar Panels but there are many of us who have had them since the early days of the FIT scheme who have long since earned enough to repay the initial investment plus 'lost interest' on it.  For us,  it is now perfectly reasonable to describe self-generated energy as 'free'.

Well said.
They could also have been installed free, as per rent-a-roof, for all we know.
As for maintenance, apart from tyres, your unlikely to need to pay for anything over and above the cost of a service from one year to the next.
Even brakes will last much longer than with an ICE thanks to regen.

NigeWick

DiggerUK said:

silverwhistle said:

DiggerUK said:

The main reason cars with some sort of electric power (EV's) don't  sell is price.

.......I've only had my EV a few weeks and so far not paid anything for fuel; in fact just plugged my car in at home as the solar panels are producing enough surplus at the moment for the granny charger.

Oh, I hadn't realised that your solar array was provided for free and it came with a free charge point, you need to realise that your solar power is not free..._

Perhaps like mine, the solar has already paid for itself so what it supplies is effectively free.

michaels

Playing devil's advocate but I don't think claiming the fit subsidy makes the electricity effectively free will play very well with those who are challenging the idea.

The mg as came at what seemed like a very good price point but a year later they can be had for 5k off list and that is for a more customer friendly suv design. Might be worth waiting to see if there are similar reductions on the estate unless you are desperate to have one now.

Martyn1981

Missed this completely on/after 'Battery Day', and as it relates to the commercial side, perhaps it's suitable on here as it all links through.

Tesla cuts powerpack price by 27% on battery day

At the time, the Powerpack was sold for $ 172,000 before incentives and including a commercial inverter.
A tipster has now pointed out to Electrek that Tesla updated the prices today, reducing the Powerpack to $ 125,000: