This. For example, for people with old fashioned ICE cars like me, Li-ion isn't going to replace my lead acid battery for SLI (starting, lights and ignition) any time soon in -30 degrees C temperatures ;)
That being said, I use lithium in my motorcycle for weight savings, and also in my 4WD truck (engine swap, no convenient place for a conventional battery). However, neither vehicle is one I regularly drive in winter, and I don't see lithium replacing lead acid in most cars any time soon. The weight savings are minor enough that it would only be noticeable for the automakers' CAFE ratings.
Smaller batteries would be nice, but his enclosure was already sized for lead acid, so there isn't much advantage (this system was put online in 2008). And while lead-acid may not be as long-lived, neither he nor I was able to find any batteries currently on sale that offered similar warranty without being prohibitively expensive.
He ended up purchasing 8x Trojan SIND-06-920 6V [1] batteries for 735 each ($5880). Add ~$250 for fuel expenses to pick up the batteries (cheaper than trucking) and 300 on new bus-bars (new interconnects would have been needed anyway) for a total of ~6500. There are advantages to lithium, but neither he nor I was able to find any alternatives that were (1) avaliable now (2) at least somewhat price competitive.
I see that Trojan now offers Li-ion batteries, but these were introduced after he made his purchase [2]. No clue on their pricing, but they don't look all that much more attractive.
I challenge you to find any lithium batteries avaliable that match the performance of this bank for 2x the cost or less. They may last 10x longer, but I couldn't find any real-world usage reports to back that up. Off-grid industrial PbA is a very different beast to car batteries. His last system lasted 10 years, and likely would have lasted longer had his charge-controller not failed and cooked the batteries through overcharging (never went into trickle, just provided full panel power for 1 month before the problem was noticed).
Most ICE engines don't bother because it costs extra for not much benefit unless you're operating on the edge of performance. Actual race cars do away with the battery and starter altogether.
Or old time movies where people started airplanes by spinning the propeller by hand “airplane hand prop” Seems dangerous...
https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-hand-prop-planes-Is-it-possi...
Get with the times, gramps! Internal combustion engines, are, like, totally last century.
No. We don't do that here.
Costa Rica has banned new combustion vehicle sales as of 2021, Norway 2025, and other countries 2030-2040. As EVs go mainstream, I expect those deadlines to be pulled forward.
Norway is aggressive, but the rest of Europe is generally targeting 2030. I'm not expecting the US to even come close to the EU, as range is a much larger factor there.
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/12/31/costa-rica-is-on-the-br...
However, I can't help but think that a shift in economics might be the method of changing over, maybe rather quickly.
IMO the bans are silly politics and really just grandstanding. We are barely into the adoption curve of EVs and already a base Model 3 is cheaper to own than an Accord or Camry.
Give EVs 10 more years (a relative eternity) and they will probably be the majority of new vehicles sold just due to market forces. 10 years after that gas stations will have trouble staying in business.
Any fleet will have to switch to EV to be cost competitive on a $/mi basis. Once you can spend $1 to save $1.10 (including interest on the loan) anyone with access to financing will go EV. Which with interest rates only going lower, is almost everyone.
The best way to incentivize the next wave of adoption IMO is dramatically reducing the cost of non-peak electricity. Generation costs are already dropping significantly but retail rates are still averaging over 10 cents for supply and another 10 cents for delivery. In MA for example, many areas do not even offer TOU billing, and where it is offered it only reduces the generation cost slightly, not the supply cost, so it barely even saves 25%, which is asinine. [1]
My impression is we should be able to deliver non-peak energy for under $0.08/kWh total, supply and generation all-in. That would significantly increase EV adoption!
[1] - https://www.eversource.com/clp/vpp/vpphistory.aspx#EMA