This bothers me...

silverelan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2019
Threads
117
Messages
3,019
Reaction score
4,295
Location
Seattle
Vehicles
2021 Mustang Mach-E GT
Country flag
I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately. The one-million mile battery technology is not nearly as important as the 400 volt vs 800 volt architecture.

Current battery tech from LG Chem that the MME uses will last between 300,000 (75kWh) to 500,000 (99kWh) miles before its useful life in the vehicle has elapsed. Once the batteries are down to 70% of their original capacity, they will be retired to a second life as stationary storage for another 20 years or recycled. Functionally, I don't think many of us are going to be able to take advantage of that many miles so a half-million miles or one-million miles are the same thing.

Going from 400V to 800V has implications for charging time with a reduction from 40-45 minutes to approximately 20 minutes to get 80% SoC. Charging that fast to gain 200+ freeway miles starts to change the paradigm from taking a technological break (car needs to recharge) to a biological break (bladder relief).

As far as 500-600 mile range goes, outside of a tow vehicle I really don't see it happening. But I could easily be convinced otherwise.
Sponsored

 
OP
OP
Redundant

Redundant

Well-Known Member
First Name
Jim
Joined
Nov 18, 2019
Threads
18
Messages
489
Reaction score
545
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
Mach-E 4X-Space White, 1 Ford Flex, 2 Ford Escapes
Country flag
Despite what Musk and Mary Barra say million mile batteries with 600 mile range are not likely to be available (and certainly not commonplace) in six years let alone three. They say those things to drive investment and buzz, but even if they had such a battery in a lab today they will not be able to make it production grade for quite some time. Presumably you need a new car before 2025, so what is the alternative? An ICE with the kind of miles you drive won't be worth much by then either, so I don't think the residual value of whatever buy should be your primary concern. As stated above, upgrading/replacing your battery at that time will be far cheaper than replacing an entire ICE car.

I don't know how much your wife drives, but an alternative is to get a 15k/yr lease on the Mach E and swap with your wife's car periodically to even out the mileage. I have a 100 mile commute compared with my wife's 5 mile one, so one week a month I drove her car and she drove mine to save mileage on. That got me down to 15k miles/yr on my car before I started working from home 2 days a week (pre virus). Or, you could simply give her the Mach E after 2-3 years and get a new car for yourself at that time - assuming she doesn't mind driving your hand-me-down :) .
Interesting thoughts. I hadn’t really considered that I might not be driving as much in the future. More working from home even after vaccine.
My wife loves her Ford Flex. Heh...heh
 
OP
OP
Redundant

Redundant

Well-Known Member
First Name
Jim
Joined
Nov 18, 2019
Threads
18
Messages
489
Reaction score
545
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
Mach-E 4X-Space White, 1 Ford Flex, 2 Ford Escapes
Country flag
Despite what Musk and Mary Barra say million mile batteries with 600 mile range are not likely to be available (and certainly not commonplace) in six years let alone three. They say those things to drive investment and buzz, but even if they had such a battery in a lab today they will not be able to make it production grade for quite some time. Presumably you need a new car before 2025, so what is the alternative? An ICE with the kind of miles you drive won't be worth much by then either, so I don't think the residual value of whatever buy should be your primary concern. As stated above, upgrading/replacing your battery at that time will be far cheaper than replacing an entire ICE car.

I don't know how much your wife drives, but an alternative is to get a 15k/yr lease on the Mach E and swap with your wife's car periodically to even out the mileage. I have a 100 mile commute compared with my wife's 5 mile one, so one week a month I drove her car and she drove mine to save mileage on. That got me down to 15k miles/yr on my car before I started working from home 2 days a week (pre virus). Or, you could simply give her the Mach E after 2-3 years and get a new car for yourself at that time - assuming she doesn't mind driving your hand-me-down :) .
But I really do like Mary Berra on the great British baking show.
 
OP
OP
Redundant

Redundant

Well-Known Member
First Name
Jim
Joined
Nov 18, 2019
Threads
18
Messages
489
Reaction score
545
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
Mach-E 4X-Space White, 1 Ford Flex, 2 Ford Escapes
Country flag
You can say the same things about ICE vehicles also. We had cars with carburetors, then we had sequential port injection, then direct injection etc etc. Every few years things get more advanced, better, and we are less able to work on them ourselves,,,,,:oops:, The same thing happened with distributors...all you older guys like me remember those? You had to change out the points on them about every year and reset the timing on the distributor. Then there was dual point distributors, then it was solid state distributors. I have no idea what it is called now. Even with all those rapid changes the older vehicle still maintained some value. Will be the same with present and future EV's. Some day batteries will be obsolete. First we will develop super capacitors that give a vehicle a 1000 mile range and charge in 60 seconds. Then someone will invent some kind of quantum power source that has limitless energy and after that it will become old and something else comes around. Artificial gravity drives or something along those lines. You buy for today and a few tomorrows then in 3-5 years the next best thing will come along. Roll with the times and enjoy your MME.
Oh great, now I have to worry about quantum power too.
 

jhalkias

Well-Known Member
First Name
John
Joined
Mar 3, 2020
Threads
122
Messages
2,482
Reaction score
4,953
Location
Ohio
Vehicles
'21 RR ME FE, '22 Corsair GT, '22 Lightning Lariat
Occupation
Benefit Fund Administrator
Country flag
I don't know how much your wife drives, but an alternative is to get a 15k/yr lease on the Mach E and swap with your wife's car periodically to even out the mileage. I have a 100 mile commute compared with my wife's 5 mile one, so one week a month I drove her car and she drove mine to save mileage on. That got me down to 15k miles/yr on my car before I started working from home 2 days a week (pre virus). Or, you could simply give her the Mach E after 2-3 years and get a new car for yourself at that time - assuming she doesn't mind driving your hand-me-down :) .
My situation is almost identical. My wife drives a 19 FFE 5 miles to work which she loves. Right now she is driving zero miles and working from home. My fear is she would love my MME more. And that also means I would not get to drive it for a week!
 


dbsb3233

Well-Known Member
First Name
TimCO
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Threads
54
Messages
9,298
Reaction score
10,812
Location
Colorado, USA
Vehicles
2021 Mustang Mach-E FE, 2023 Bronco Sport OB
Occupation
Retired
Country flag
While "million mile battery" is a nice PR tagline, it's actually pretty silly for nearly all drivers.

Average miles driven per year in the US is about 13,000. 20 years is a quarter million miles. Who really wants to still be driving around in a 2000 Ford, no matter how perfect it still runs? The rest of the car is still 20 year old technology and features.

Then multiply that by 4 for a million miles. That's a 1940 car. Seriously?
 
Last edited:

dbsb3233

Well-Known Member
First Name
TimCO
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Threads
54
Messages
9,298
Reaction score
10,812
Location
Colorado, USA
Vehicles
2021 Mustang Mach-E FE, 2023 Bronco Sport OB
Occupation
Retired
Country flag
As far as 500-600 mile range goes, outside of a tow vehicle I really don't see it happening. But I could easily be convinced otherwise.
Agreed. The main reason for wanting a 500 mile battery is because it takes so damn long to charge a BEV. But if they get the charging time way down, the need for range shrinks (some).

Plus, less battery means less weight. And cheaper vehicles. Even when they CAN improve batteries enough to get faster charging and longer range, they'll probably just put fewer in to level off around 300-350 range but charge much faster.
 
Last edited:

JoelOclock

Well-Known Member
First Name
Joel
Joined
Mar 7, 2020
Threads
15
Messages
197
Reaction score
183
Location
Seattle
Vehicles
Mustang Mach E Premium ER AWD
Country flag
I’ve thought about this a lot too. I won’t drive those kind of ranges so I could lease but so many unknown variables right now on that front.

I don’t know a lot about Teslas so defer to someone else but I even tried to look at their range 3 years ago. Roughly from what I saw it looks like it went from 294 in 2017 to 391 today. So yeah, with battery tech I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re looking at MME with ranges of at least 400 miles in 3 years - even without a quantum leap
 

jhalkias

Well-Known Member
First Name
John
Joined
Mar 3, 2020
Threads
122
Messages
2,482
Reaction score
4,953
Location
Ohio
Vehicles
'21 RR ME FE, '22 Corsair GT, '22 Lightning Lariat
Occupation
Benefit Fund Administrator
Country flag
I believe he meant Mary Berry from " The Great British Bake Off" not the CEO of GM . . . or was just trying to be funny.
 
OP
OP
Redundant

Redundant

Well-Known Member
First Name
Jim
Joined
Nov 18, 2019
Threads
18
Messages
489
Reaction score
545
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
Mach-E 4X-Space White, 1 Ford Flex, 2 Ford Escapes
Country flag
I believe he meant Mary Berry from " The Great British Bake Off" not the CEO of GM . . . or was just trying to be funny.
Right. Never good when it is interpreted as trying to be funny, not funny. :(
 

timbop

Well-Known Member
First Name
Tim
Joined
Jan 3, 2020
Threads
63
Messages
6,729
Reaction score
13,758
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
Solar powered 2021 MME ER RWD & 2022 Corsair PHEV
Occupation
Software Engineer
Country flag
Right. Never good when it is interpreted as trying to be funny, not funny. :(
ahhh. sorry, I was being dumb. I've never seen that show although my wife and daughter watch it
 
OP
OP
Redundant

Redundant

Well-Known Member
First Name
Jim
Joined
Nov 18, 2019
Threads
18
Messages
489
Reaction score
545
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
Mach-E 4X-Space White, 1 Ford Flex, 2 Ford Escapes
Country flag
ahhh. sorry, I was being dumb. I've never seen that show although my wife and daughter watch it
Thats really alright. I knew it was a lame joke when I made it.
 

Sneezy

Well-Known Member
First Name
Sneezy
Joined
Mar 18, 2020
Threads
16
Messages
294
Reaction score
314
Location
Central NY
Vehicles
2000 Trans Am Firehawk, 21 Mach E Premium EXT.
Occupation
NRA Rifle Instructor
Country flag
I think it will take a while to really get battery and charging tech where most of us want it to be. Cars simply depreciate!

My company leases my car but I drive less than 10K a year between 2 cars. Leasing mileage will never change. Keeping miles low is what makes them desirable. My Caddy is 1.5 years old and has 13K miles on it. my 2000 Trans Am has just over 60K on it!
 

SJ_Okay

Well-Known Member
First Name
Scott
Joined
Feb 25, 2020
Threads
20
Messages
824
Reaction score
943
Location
UK
Vehicles
AWD ER Mach-E
Occupation
Film and Music Producer
Country flag
I wouldn't be so sure replacing the battery packs is a viable solution.
If replacing your car battery isn't viable, then in time an EV will have virtually zero resale value once it's warranty expires. Are we expected to send them to scrap then? Surely it is not just viable, but essential?
Sponsored

 
 




Top