Carlton green wrote: ↑30 Mar 2023, 10:16am
Please name and direct me to ways to regain and improve the battery life of older BEV’s. My searches have come up with nothing, and reading on other forums suggests that that which was once available is totally uneconomical.
Not something I look into often, but as you can see from above it's entirely possible to drop the battery from a leaf and replace individual modules - it's actually possible to replace individual cells if you really want to.
Again, there isn't much call for it, because the issue is one that doesn't actually affect many vehicles - that's why there aren't lots of cheap batteries and why there isn't a vibrant recycling industry (though that industry is starting to grow).
Yes, in the longer term new forms of battery will transform matters. However, as best I can tell we’re a decade or so away from such change and so a long way away from meeting needs now - indeed many of us will be dead and gone by the time such technologically is in common use.
Sodium batteries are already in their first production cars, and they are one of the main technologies worth looking at.
The raw material is substantially more abundant (and lithium isn't exactly scarce), and the packs can happily charge at 4C with no risk of what is euphemistically known as a thermal event.
I’m puzzled by “ The "but they don't work like horses" attitude is really quite bizarre.” What’s that all about and how is the comment meant to be constructive?
For many people there is a "but I currently do this with my car" and therefore I must continue to do this in exactly the same way.
This leads to very bizarre thought processes, like the people who seem to think that they must go to a public charger and stand over their car whilst it charges. Or who can't understand the concept of starting each day with a full battery, or of using the battery to reduce their domestic energy bills, or the concept of taking what ought to be a mandated brief stop on a long journey after several hours.
The number of people who never drive more than 100 miles in a day who "need" 700 miles range because they dont' want to "go and fill up" often, or those who think they won't have enough control without gears or other such rubbish.
This is the "but your horseless carriage doesn't run on oats" brigade - who present themselves as objecting to change on the basis that it's change - no doubt they'd have been using the above phrase a dozen decades ago.
Driving a BEV does require a change in approach to a number of facets of driving - in your case you might choose to keep your cars ages staggered, so that the one with a shorter range isn't the one used for the occasional long trip, or you might choose to replace vehicles slightly more often, selling them on to those with slightly less perceived need for range than you have.