Batteries - Why pick Tesla?

So in an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle you have engine, fueling, and engine support (cooling, emissions/muffler) that are all critical to the functioning car.  Of course chassis, suspension, braking, safety are there but those are common to all car types.

Electrical vehicles (EVs) critical components are Motor, batteries, and electrical support (charge/regen/distribute electronics and computer control). Unlike an engine replacement in an ICE I'd argue a motor replacement in a decently designed EV is relatively plug and play. Not so for most EV batteries - they are large, heavy, and arguably your most expensive component needing replacement in old age.

Having watched my battery range drop in the Nissan Leaf was brutal as an owner. Having watched 'Who Killed The Electric Car' ands it's EV1 crushing scenes I wanted to own not lease. However my 70 mile range turned into 35 - at best, over six years. My EV was becoming a doorstop. I really want my future EV batteries to degrade as little as possible. BTW Nissan has supposedly improved Leaf battery chemistry, but they still do not thermally condition your battery.

Teslanomics - Tesla batteries last forever

So I've picked Tesla at a higher purchase cost. For one thing Tesla has battery fine tuning on it's charging - not just an 80/100 setting like my Leaf.  Charging to absolutely full is one battery wear factor that proven to degrade most lithium storage. Multiply the wear if it is hot and by the amount of time the battery sits at 100%.  Tesla lets you set daily charging to any value. Experts in Tesla charging say 70% is an order of magnitude less degradation as a charging level. So my rules are:

1. When at home, it's plugged to allow the thermal management to keep the battery temperature just where it should be even in my hot driveway in summer. Easy.

2. For daily use, I set charging via my phone to 70% percent - 220 miles of possible 310 with my long range battery. Trust me this is plenty on 9 out of 10 days.

3. Trip or long range days I set the timer to begin charging to 100% at a time that will let me leave immediately after filling the battery - minimizing time spent at full charge. Another nice Tesla 'fine tuning' charge feature.

These rules I hope will make the TM3 my 'forever' car barring accident.

My ace in the hole - the TM3 battery warranty. 120,000 miles 8 years of at least 70% of new range. I know Tesla guaranteeing this in the LR battery for every owner (when many will not take the trouble to carefully charge) means they are confident in the TM3 packs ability to have low wear - which is backed up by the battery range loss stats in the youtube link above. Worst case in eight years I have a standard range TM3 but I believe based on my research at better than 90% range in ten years.

Battery sourcing, composition, and recycling

My research shows Tesla has really gone the distance to make the Model 3 pack the most advanced and environmentally friendly in the world. My grandkids may be using the pack in whole house backup and solar time shifting long after I'm gone. Tesla is committed to end of life recycling as well. As for manufacture the only rare earth - Cobalt in the battery has been reduced to less than 3 percent vs 20 percent in others. Here's the major components in the battery pack:

NCA Chemistry in new Tesla Model 3 batteries:

Cobalt by weight in battery - 10.6 lb / 4.5 kg see:

http://benchmarkminerals.com/panasonic-reduces-teslas-cobalt-consumption-by-60-in-6-years/

Lithium by weight in battery - still unknown. My (Glotfelty) 2012 Leaf was 6 lbs per 24kwh so a round guess 20 lbs or less? Contrary to BS by the oil shills, lithium is plentiful and can be mined economically, ethically, and environmentally soundly. See previous entries. 

Graphite, Aluminum, Nickel, Steel, Copper, Plastic - all plentiful.

Just in case someone is selling you FUD on batteries so they keep you breathing exhaust, baking your world, and drowning you in ever more expensive oil and gasoline.

Finally - a real world example of Tesla excellent battery durability:

Model-X-300000-miles-2-years

Maintenance - the point #4 in favor of EVs

I'm pretty passionate about EVs - note my garb while hiking with my son in Japan.

However I want to be fair about the pro's of maintenance with an EV.  Pure electric does indeed have many fewer parts than ICE (internal combustion engine)- but there are drawbacks dependent on model. Let get the problem areas out of the way first.

Battery. 

This swings wildly with model and year and you really need to research manufactures. My personal experience is with three EV's and different use cases.

EnerDel batteries in the 2011 Think City have degraded very little over time - although with light usage - about 15K miles.  They got 65 miles new and 7 years later mine gets very close to new despite being kept outside.  Most users with higher miles tend to develop other issues than the batteries because, simply the Think City was not best engineered or protected electronics. A problem I have NOT seen in other EV's.

Nissan Leaf - My 2012 SL delivered Dec 2011 was fine for a couple of years but dropped quickly. I used it for commuting and put 60K miles over 6years and three months. The battery started with a 70 mile range but by year four was down to 50 and at the end could deliver 35 miles - not acceptable in my opinion. Nissan has claimed improved batteries but I know of other issues including charging issues and lack of thermal management which keep me skeptical. I hope Nissan's new gen with thermal management prove better - Nissan is a strong international brand with overall good quality.

Tesla - From the early Roadster, Tesla has been famous for long battery life. My TM3 has excellent battery life management hardware and software and so I'm hoping it continues the Tesla experience of quality battery durability. Here's a link to a youtube article documenting long Tesla battery life:

Teslanomics - Tesla batteries last forever

I guess my point is buy carefully and research your manufacturer's track record and this doesn't have to be a problem. I tend to keep a car ten years or longer if I can so this is important to me.

Tires.

Yep if you are used to running a Honda Civic you will be replacing tires faster. If you are more a Mercedes or Audi type you will find the weight of the performance engines is a wash with the weight of batteries. Plus at least in my Tesla the bigger tires themselves are more expensive.  I generally have not been able to get more than 40K out of my Leaf tires and with the jack rabbit acceleration of my TM3 I doubt I will do better.

Ok so those are the possible cost areas, how about where EV's rule:

Emissions control.

My Honda Civic was near 180k miles when I sold and was signaling it wanted it's fourth catalytic converter at $1500 each. Full of rare metals platinum (Pt), along with palladium (Pd), and rhodium (Rh).  This is in addition to an O2 sensor and a new muffler at about 120K miles. I lead with this because it was the most expensive maintenance overall.
Pure EV's have no emission's control parts. My solar panel sourced energy also has no emissions. None.

Brakes.

The regenerative braking systems on EVs tend to keep brake jobs to a minimum as they do 80% of your braking putting kinetic energy back into the batteries rather than burning up brake pads. I find this tends to balance the tire cost (although all the performance cars have the tire cost issue).

Engine Oil, Filters, and Filtration system.

Short term you will always be paying for oil changes - or you will not have your car very long. Long term the system is complex enough to have plenty of issues such as gaskets, pumps, pans, drain plugs etc. Plus recycling that nasty oil.  Yes there are parts on all cars that need to be lubed but eliminating the infernal combustion engine (ICE) gets rid of the lion's share of a very serious contaminant to ground water.

Engine and associated support.

The 2000 moving parts in the engine. Coolant and radiator, belts, spark plugs, and many pieces you and I don't even see or know to name. You name it, I've seen it break.

Electric vehicles come out way ahead. They still need maintenance but let's face it - way less.

Point #1 Electrics are more convenient to drive

I saved my first point for last, because it's a big one.

Today's electric vehicle is much more convenient to drive.

Why - well first because your fuel station is your home. Learn just one easy step - plug it in when parked at home. Because your fuel is electrons your home takes care of your car's needs while you sleep. My home is not as fast at charging as a level 3 Supercharger. However it does pump back in 30+ miles an hour while I sleep on a 240v dryer type circuit. 

Because of it's big battery my Tesla Model 3 can be preheated or cooled via my phone before I hop in. I simply unplug the cord and return it to the weatherproof wall adaptor, and jump in. The car knows my phone and auto unlocks, pulls my seat back for easy entry, and adjusts my seat, mirrors, and wheel to me automatically. Yes a high end gas car can have preheating or cooling too but generally has to be running - spewing carbon monoxide into your garage or driveway.  Electrics have caught up on luxury features.

I push the voice recognition ball and say 'Drive to Annapolis, MD' from my PA home. Pushing the accelerator I can not only take advantage of turn by turn directions with auto calculated supercharging stops if needed, I can also have the car use traffic aware cruise control and lane keeping to handle stop and go driving for me - I supervise in case of difficulty but the car auto pilot handles the repetitious annoying stuff.  When I want to drive it's like owning my own Griffin like in a Harry Potter movie.

Yes, Supercharging can take 15 minutes more - but with 5 hours of drive range I generally need a bio break of about supercharging time, for bathrooms and a coffee or lunch. The timing on my Maryland to Boston trip was one perfect stop for a quick lunch with my cousins.

Besides 95% of the time I'm full with cheap solar panel electrons from home. I miss all the gas stops regular old dirty gas cars make local driving because - I own an electric filling station at home. My Tesla also knows where the supercharger stations are and how many stalls are filled if I need to route elsewhere for a long trip.

Plus, I sleep easy knowing my car is easy on the environment.  Don't believe the rightfully frightened BS from the oil companies - electric is MUCH cleaner even including manufacture of today's recyclable batteries - even in coal states. Convenience is also peace of mind. Here's a comparison to dispel the petroleum company myths.

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=40386&id=39060&id=38975&id=39538