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

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are much safer (Point #3)

I'm going to base this on Tesla but I think most modern EVs have similar points because a large amount of battery weight is low and contributes to vehicle mass. The lack of a large engine up front in Teslas doesn't hurt either. Here's a photo of a multiple roll over wreck in a TM3:

The wreck maintained a safe space for the driver - Tesla glass fractured but didn't shower the driver and multiple airbags prevented injury.

Fire - A constant Boogieman of the petrodollar captains is fire. Oddly the same folks rarely point to gas fires which happen at a ratio 5 to 1. Here's a link :

Teslas are not more prone to fire than other cars 

More to follow.....                                                           

Climate change is real (Point #2)

Point number 2 from my What's so great about Electric Cars is:

Climate Change is real and electric cars help reduce the transport sectors contribution to greenhouse gases. 

If you watch climate deniers (CDs) they basically try to exhaust anyone trying to reduce their carbon footprint or publicly make a case for climate change. In a forum hundreds will pile on in a gang, many nasty name callers, some argument regurgitators from Fox or petrodollar sites, and a few believers.  So lets not tire myself writing endless rebuttals when a number of science based sites have it down pat.  First up consensus in science, from our science video log friend Joe:

 There is climate change consensus in science 

Busting Climate Change Myths - Answers with Joe

Every major CD argument is busted here

Skeptical Science dot com

If your petrodollar funded argument is already debunked on this site, I will simply point to it. Removing a great deal of wasted time. Which is one of goals of the advertising agency, the same one used for cigarette companies, hired by the oil and conservative lobbies. FUD is not going to be used to waste our time here.

So electric cars have their own carbon and climate change cost - therefore gas!

Even well to wheels examinations of electrics vs gas which include the climate costs of battery building and all other components, find electric cars in worst case coal generated electric areas to be more efficient. The study is quite conservative as well - not much examining just how often EV owners have solar roofs, keep EVs longer, or turn in batteries for recycle and alternative use.  Electrics win period.

ucsusa lifecycle ev emissions

Money. Money is everything. Screw grandkids etc. I live my limited lifetime only for Money. Therefore gas!

You still lose. Gas cars are still a little cheaper upfront. They are more costly overall due to the cost of gas plain and simple. They will soon be cheaper upfront as economy of scale hits. Even today though add in fuel and maintenance the Electric Vehicle (EV) is cheaper! For those with very tight budgets consider a used Chevy Volt. This car has 40 mile battery range supplemented by gas for long trips. It's battery has proven very long life with minimal degradation and the overall maintenance as a used car is very low. Finally used models can be found in the $10-15K range.

Ucsusa.org - cv report ev savings.pdf

Batteries are toxic! The Sky is falling! Therefore gas!

Batteries in the past maybe. Lead acid, Nickel Cadmium.  Even those recycle well.  Lithium is plentiful and can be mined low impact from salt flats. Recycling can happen in stages now - first being using whole exhausted car systems in home backup.  Then after an additional ten to twenty years doing that, we are next going down to full materials recycling. The most problematic trace element Cobalt is now down to less than 0.5 percent in a Tesla Model 3 battery sled. Here again Tesla has committed to full recycling of all the materials in their batteries.

That should block 99% of the Climate Skeptic Trolls. Anything new needed from comments I'll post below.

Tesla Sunset for the $7500 Electric Vehicle credit

Tesla has announced they will have sold 200,000 electric vehicles under the U.S. Federal EV tax rebate program.

This means you need to have title in hand with your Tesla by Dec 31st 2018 if you want to save $7500 the following year on your taxes.  It only works if you pay Federal tax of $7500 to receive the whole rebate - if your withholding covers you 7500 tax or more, it comes as a refund.

How was my predictive ability? On April 15th 2016 my prediction in this blog was Tesla would be here a quarter year earlier - that the phaseout would begin in Q2 2018. Check it here:

A plan for credits

Not bad for 26 months ago. I've been interested in a careful reading of the rules because it influences my Tesla buy too.  My March 2018 bought Tesla Model 3 gets a full $7500 but with my income level I'm probably closer to getting $7200.  Good enough for retiree work. A tax filer is eligible for one car buy a year and you have to keep your car one year. No quick resales etc.

My Leaf was at the beginning of the program and got the full rebate. The following year the Think EV also got the full rebate. When my TM3 rebate comes in it will be a total of about $22,000 in incentives to buy electric during this decade - not too bad considering I get to keep some of my tax money and help the environment.

What does this mean for you? If you are buying a Tesla in the US and pay enough taxes to cover:

Buying by Dec 31st 2018 means a $7,500 tax rebate in your pocket in 2019

Buying in 2019 by June 30th 2019 means a $3750 tax rebate in 2020.

Buying in 2019 after June 30th 2019 means a $1875 tax rebate in 2020.

Buying in 2020 means you have a shiny new Tesla - no rebate though.

While some lawmakers are trying to extend the program it would be surprising if the Republican congress did it - but still worth hoping for. It will be interesting to see how this affects sales. At least it gives Tesla 18 months to pump out as many incentive sales as possible.

My Cousin posing with the Tesla charger:

A Connecticut Yankee Weekend

I had the pleasure of putting another 850 miles on the car for a long Thursday - Sunday weekend.  My friends the Bellaflores invited me up to Connecticut which sounded great.  Indeed it was a great time.

With the Tesla Model 3 the trip from the bottom central area of PA to the top of CT cost me $6.11 in supercharging. Now even for supercharging that's wildly low. Last time I went to visit cousins in Boston I paid about $30 for supercharging in NY and MA.

I had been told - but didn't believe some CT superchargers are free for the Tesla Model 3. Normally we pay. Indeed this turned out to be true:

Darien, CT (NB) No Charge $0.00 <---This is on 95 near Stamford CT.  I was down to about 10 miles but was pleased to be able to make it to CT to charge. I also found that the Milford CT supercharger was Not free. Which BTW is fine - supercharging is still way cheaper than gas.

So my energy usage and price was:

Way up:

75 kwh (kilowatt hrs) Full home charge before coming up (My power is $0.13 per kwh (but was probably solar.) call it  - $9.75

42 kwh Darien, CT 7/5 Stop 1 (approx 35 mins)                                -  $0

(Caught in traffic jam going up on I95 so I decide to make a second stop for electrons to drive around Groton on...)

38 kwh (approx) Milford CT  7/5 Stop 2 (exactly 34 mins)                 -  $6.11

Way down:

65 kwh Darien, CT 7/8  (close to 1hr)                                                  - $0

70 kwh Home charging back to full @ 0.13 per kwh             about    - $9.10

Now I admit I'm estimating $18.85 in local power usage at wind rates when it was probably covered by my solar system. Still it's coming from somewhere such as my solar acquisition cost so let's use my wind rate. Add $6.11 in dollars and you have $25 in electron juice or 2.9 cents a mile.

The single stop down was covered time wise by a bathroom pitstop and a coffee break - again not inconvenient.

Gas Buddy Avg CT cost July = $3.03 x 30mph -> roughly 10 cents a mile or $85 for the trip gas.

With the $60 savings I took my friends to dinner for kindly having me up!