Evolving battery tech and retrofitting

[jddrews]

If/when Ford (or others) develops more efficient battery technology down the road could those improved systems be retrofitted into a car like the Mach E? Seems like it would be a pretty straight forward swap as long as the new tech could fit in the undercarriage. How might that work?

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[RedStallion]

Why putting a new battery into an old car? Even if it were technically possible, the cost of the battery, software, and labor is going to be high, I don't think it's going to make financial sense. Just buy a new car and sell or trade the old one.

 

[shutterbug]

Why putting a new battery into an old car? Even if it were technically possible, the cost of the battery, software, and labor is going to be high, I don't think it's going to make financial sense. Just buy a new car and sell or trade the old one.

Ok, but what about that 2nd or 3rd owner, who has a car with 15 year old battery that maybe pretty shot? just throw away the car?

 

[jddrews]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michae...ery-charges-60-times-faster-than-lithium-ion/

Case in point. These aluminum cell batteries can be placed in the same housing as current lithium-ion batteries so size/shape of a battery pack would be the same. Only weight and cooling architecture would be different. Also, the Mach E that’s being built 5 or 6 years from now may have a completely different battery than current models. Just thinking in terms of sustainability here.

 

[JamieGeek]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michae...ery-charges-60-times-faster-than-lithium-ion/

Case in point. These aluminum cell batteries can be placed in the same housing as current lithium-ion batteries so size/shape of a battery pack would be the same. Only weight and cooling architecture would be different. Also, the Mach E that’s being built 5 or 6 years from now may have a completely different battery than current models. Just thinking in terms of sustainability here.

Well history is sort of on your side and not.

Traditionally new "features" such as this are baked into the new vehicles and no retrofitting is ever done.

However: The Focus Electric started out with a small 23 kWh battery and moved to a 33 kWh battery (this simply due to battery chemistry improvements). The form factor of the two batteries was exactly the same and you could swap them out pretty easily (indeed some people with 23 kWh batteries that needed a warranty replacement ended up with 33 kWh ones from Ford).

So this is not without precedent but I would think that any replacement batteries would be pretty similar--switching to a different technology would likely not be in the cards.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I wouldn't be surprised to see this capability developed as part of aftermarket mods. I doubt Ford would do it, though.

 

[jddrews]

I wouldn't be surprised to see this capability developed as part of aftermarket mods. I doubt Ford would do it, though.

Seems possible. Someone will figure something out.

 

[ARK]

Frankly I hope they do this and same with newer infotainment systems. If I decided to keep the car forever, in addition to potentially upgrading an old battery, would be nice to be able to drop money, even a relatively high amount, to get Sync 8 or whatever is current in 12 years.

 

[jddrews]

Frankly I hope they do this and same with newer infotainment systems. If I decided to keep the car forever, in addition to potentially upgrading an old battery, would be nice to be able to drop money, even a relatively high amount, to get Sync 8 or whatever is current in 12 years.

Like that time I dropped a “new” R-22 and a sweet Kenwood in my old Toyota pickup.

 

[JamieGeek]

Frankly I hope they do this and same with newer infotainment systems. If I decided to keep the car forever, in addition to potentially upgrading an old battery, would be nice to be able to drop money, even a relatively high amount, to get Sync 8 or whatever is current in 12 years.

Actually this is kind of the point of Android Auto and Apple Car play: You'll replace your phone far more often than your car. Thus the UI on the car will improve with the phone and not the car.

 

[ARK]

Like that time I dropped a “new” R-22 and a sweet Kenwood in my old Toyota pickup.

I’d like Ford to support it only because I’d prefer it be ‘official’ even if some newer features were limited. But I dunno how aftermarket would even work in the Mach-E, something tells me replacing that giant screen with a double DIN stereo wouldn’t be wise. ?

 

[ARK]

Actually this is kind of the point of Android Auto and Apple Car play: You'll replace your phone far more often than your car. Thus the UI on the car will improve with the phone and not the car.

That’s a good point, I prefer to use the built in infotainment, but if Apple Car Play keeps improving when Sync 4 plateaus at some point, that sounds like a reasonable switch to make, especially if the screen remains snappy if the main processing is happening on the phone.

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