How big a battery will future cars have?
Extra gas in your tank that you don’t use is almost free in terms of transport, but even there why don’t cars have tanks that can handle 50 gallons?
When you “fill up” at home, nobody would need that.
Electric vehicles pay for every kWh of battery, regardless of its use. Bigger and heavier batteries not only cost thousands extra to purchase, but reduce your range. If you leave home every morning full, why do you need this?
With fast charging improving rapidly where we will be able to get 100 miles in 15 minutes within 5 years, why will we need more than 300-400 miles of range?
In order to get EVs price competitive with ICE, the first thing that is going to happen is making the battery cheaper. This means keeping the range low enough to have a small enough battery to make it affordable.
The issue here isn’t actual range, it’s perception. Once automakers area actually on board with EVs and promote them properly, education can change that perception and super large, heavy and expensive batteries won’t be needed.
I’m grateful for having you as a friend!
One reason beyond simple range anxiety I can see for bigger batteries is to avoid strain on the grid. When a lot of people start fast charging 100 miles in 15 minutes it’s going to cause big spikes of demand. Bigger batteries will reduce the need for such charging, and with vehicle to grid (V2G) they could even feed power back to support the cars that are out there charging. V2G won’t be economic till battery prices fall further, but the way they’re headed I could easily see that happening.