This video explains something I hadn't considered about Tesla's strategy on the price cuts: https://youtu.be/7ufNDm9hNXU
On Sun, Jan 22, 2023 at 7:32 AM Peri Hartman via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > A heavier car will require a larger battery for an equivalent range, but > I think that is over played. > > If you are concerned about city range, with lots of starts and stops, > your battery range will be chewed up badly by a heavier car. But the > real need for long range is freeway driving. And, there, if you drive > reasonably carefully, acceleration and deceleration affect range > minimally. The biggest factor is, of course, aero drag, where weight > doesn't factor in at all. Rolling resistance does increase with weight, > but I don't think it's increase plays a significant role. > > Another factor is the time spent driving the car. For city driving, > speeds are slow and, yet, the HVAC system is consuming energy as well as > all the other non traction activities. On the freeway, for the same > amount of distance traveled, those non traction loads are cut > dramatically, e.g. by a third if your average freeway speed is 60 mph > and avg city 20. > > In other words, for a US consumer, EV range is all about the battery > size, not about the vehicle weight. > > So, getting back to the cost of a luxury EV: here I'm just speculating > and have no facts. Unlike an ICE car, the battery is by far the most > expensive component of the car. An ICE vehicle has no comparable high > cost element. So, to build an EV with adequate freeway range, at least > for the US market, it takes a pretty expensive battery. That eats into > profits. The best way to recoup those profits is to dress the car up and > sell it as luxury. > > Someone posted that they question whether any of the traditional auto > makers are making a profit on their EVs. If that's the case, imagine if > they tried to sell a trimmed down EV with still an appealing amount of > EV range. Financial disaster. > > As battery prices come down, the EV "economy" cars will appear. > > Peri > > << Annoyed by leaf blowers ? https://quietcleanseattle.org/ >> > > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20230122/7cdb0dd9/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
