Electric cars, Tesla being the prime example, run on giant batteries. Battery technology has come so far! Like all cars, however, the engine finally wears out. For a total electric car, the engine is the battery. So, if you want to keep the car, you must buy a new battery. Those replacement batteries cost around $7,000 for most models. There are things to consider about batteries that we already know and understand — mainly from having to deal with our cellphones and their batteries. We have observed that after a while our cellphone battery gets weaker, won’t take a charge as well, and the charge runs out more quickly. Usually that’s when we get a new cellphone. That timeline in the realm of the car industry, is 8 years or 100,000 miles. That is the guarantee of most electric car manufacturers.
Another thing to consider, the batteries make the car heavy, so, more plastic must be used in the car to make it lighter — to get better mileage. R & D in plastics must be booming since there is such a need for plastics of different sorts — not only the exterior of the car, but also the interior. (The global plastic in electric car market is estimated to grow by 37% by 2021—to $943 million.) So, people are driving around in a “box” that, if they get into an auto accident, will not protect them as well as the traditional metal.
Now, what to do with the old battery?! Lithium ion batteries and all their toxic components can’t just be taken to the dump. It’s not clear what the method will be to dispose of them once we start to get lots of these giant used batteries.
All this to avoid using a clean-burning internal combustion engine car with an almost unlimited supply of fuel for it.
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