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Can Flow Batteries Finally Beat Lithium?
(spectrum.ieee.org)
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this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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For the average consumer most EVs are too expensive. The batteries probably aren't going to get much cheaper due to the rarity and expense of lithium. Finding a better battery tech could make the whole idea of mass electric car ownership make sense. I do wish people would stop caring about the range issue so much tho. Just charge the battery every night and you'll almost never need more then 80 miles of range
I hope we drop the idea of mass car ownership tho. Effective mass public transit and micro mobility seems like a much safer and more efficient direction to go
Doubtful this will plan out tho. These articles are basically just corporate press releases. A couple of these battery techs might pan out and work at scale
Any base on those claims that batteries aren't going to get cheaper? They have been for 15 years. There is still progress to be made. There are LFP that get rod of cobalt. There are sodium batteries in testing that will reduce lithium demand.
Their claim about lithium being rare is nonsense as well. There's no lithium shortage, there's more a shortage of refineries and battery packaging plants (which means by building more, batteries will continue getting cheaper) and other rare earth metals, which is more of an issue, but like you say, the harder to source ones are being phased out of battery design.
Batteries almost certainly will get cheaper. Lithium isn't particularly rare. There are sources where it isn't economical to extract it currently. That's what "reserves" measure: a source that is economical to extract right now.
We tend to find new ways to extract minerals, which expands our reserves. Happens all the time, and lithium is no exception. The big one right now is the Salton Sea and seawater extraction in general.
There's also an interesting (string-based method)[https://engineering.princeton.edu/news/2023/09/07/revolutionizing-lithium-production-string] that could bring costs down and avoid the large pools of water that cause environmental damage and high water usage of current methods. It still needs to be proven at scale, however. I usually don't like to focus on any singular advancement; battery tech advances by trying 100 things, and 10 of them are practical at scale. This one does look promising, though.
How do I charge the battery every night when I don't own a home but rent. No apartment complex will install a charging station just for me. And I will never own a home. So how do I charge this electric car?
That's when governments comes in. In france every new building has to be built with planning for charging equipment to be installed by anyone requesting it. For older buildings you have the right to ask for a full installation (it will obviously cost more)
It's trivial to add electrical sockets in a parking lot with electrical already running through/near it. This is like wondering how on earth electric light bulbs could be installed outside back in 1900. My sister lives in ND and most complexes already have outlets for each parking space for block heaters.
Same for my whole city that is hilly and private garages are rare, people park on the roadside