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Comment by melling | Hacker News Reader

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melling·

Doesn’t it really come down to better batteries that are affordable? The rest will take care of itself.

Solid-state batteries might do the trick:

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/253065-toyota-wants-leap...

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Basically, yes.

Newer tech with greater power density would surely help, but a far bigger issue is infrastructure. Not in charging stations, but in manufacturing, servicing and recycling batteries. Once the infrastructure is in place, prices will fall naturally. Batteries are highly recyclable.

Not necessarily. The latest round of 'gas guzzler' EVs lower the miles per kWh ratio quite badly. At the moment bigger batteries seem to be getting used up providing bigger cars, not more miles - with the consequent knock on to the charging infrastructure. Really the EV grant should be withdrawn for any vehicle incapable of getting at least 4 miles per kWh.

Add per person to it. We want to promote mass transport after all. A bus is more efficient than a single person car if it is used at capacity or even halfway. (add a multiplier for unused capacity)

I do fear that cars are going to have the opposite problem to phones... Where Apple sacrifices battery life for unnecessary thin-ness, I fear car companies will sacrifice it for unnecessary speed and size.

Edit: and who knows what'll happen if Apple gets into the electric car business!

From the article:

> It includes “£246 million in research for next generation battery technology” and a dozen different initiatives to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

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