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permalink_save t1_j244zri wrote

Reply to comment by TheBarMic in ELI5 why do electric vehicles have one big battery that's hard to replace once it's expired, rather than lots of smaller ones that could be swapped out based on need (to trade off range/power/weight)? by ginonofalg

Is the expectation that after 15-20 years we just junk the rest of the car? There's cars on the road now that are way older and emissions aren't great but otherwise run fine. The path to sustainability isn't just power type but not having to remanufacture cars over and over and try to make the existing ones upgradeable. Cars take a lot of resources to make that also has impact. Especially since the body usually holds up it's the engine that wears out on ICE. Can't imagine ICE beating out pure electric.

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myislanduniverse t1_j24tmzn wrote

> Is the expectation that after 15-20 years we just junk the rest of the car?

Not necessarily; but a traditional internal combustion automobile is going to require replacement of some of its critical systems by this point in order to be drivable as well, and this is generally what's meant by the "service life" of a product. Of course you can extend the usable life of the vehicle by replacing worn out parts, but -- even with regular maintenance -- some of those components just aren't engineered to last that long (they can be, but you're usually sacrificing performance or efficiency for durability).

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permalink_save t1_j25jzkx wrote

I mean, it's not like the timing chain belt and we throw the car away, things are generally serviceable and if it's a choice of 2k to fix it vs 20k to get a new one, not just cars but things in general, why wouldn't you just fix it? People are way too eager to get a new car when theirs starts fucking up but look at other countries driving cars with like 300k miles on them that we traded as "end of their life" at 120k. We're just being wasteful at that point.

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myislanduniverse t1_j25x21c wrote

While you're entirely correct, the component you've listed is also an example of one intended to last the "life of the car." People in this thread don't mean something different when they say "life of the car" when they're taking about the battery vs the engine. You can keep both vehicles running for much longer by replacing components that have exceeded their serviceable life.

But an EV battery is intended to last the factory "life of the vehicle" in the same ways (and this could be tautological).

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