Comments on: Honda shows off EV-STER concept electric car at 2011 Tokyo Motor Show

By: Dan5

Dan5 — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:36:00 +0000

To do the calculations: Currently with the Tesla Roadster, you can “purchase” a warranty for $12,000 and if an when the battery goes they replace it.. If your battery gets stolen, it’s $36,000 (at that point insurance should cover that). I can’t imagine Tesla taking a loss on the battery warranty over X years. The price of these batteries is dropping anywhere from 8% to 15% per year so is should cost about $143-700/ kWhr of battery at current prices (dependent on car manufacturer- back calculate from the Roadster prices and the price increase from the Model S upgrade).
In terms of cost per year, it depends on your electricity rate and your mileage/year and how much you drive. Use the Tesla, and figure a 95% charge efficiency

73 Kwhr/ (300 miles*0.95) = 0.25 kWhr/mile, assume 12,000 miles per year and 0.1/ kwHr =$ 307

After doing an life cycle analysis, if you take “fresh” lithium, no more energy or the environment is destroyed verses a gasoline. The more recycling of the lithium, the less environmental impact (similar to lead batteries (97% is recovered for used batteries to be reused)

By: Ross Nicholson

Ross Nicholson — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:42:00 +0000

The LiFePO4 batteries contain no heavy metals and can be disposed of in the trash (properly discharged). The cost to replace the batteries is going down at a steep rate. In the 10 years it will take to run down a new car’s battery, the price should be competitive with the gasoline or diesel equivalent. Lithium salts can be taken into the human body as a medicine for mental illness and lithium ore is mined in the US, but China is the lowest cost producer right now. South America has surface deposits in deserts, I believe, and most of the reserves are there and in China. Iron (Fe) is produced everywhere and phosphate is produced here in Florida where the stuff is a ubiquitous and cheap fertilizer. It’s really a wonder that Lithium batteries are as expensive as they are. The batteries themselves don’t cost much, a lot of the cost is in the electronics to handle their finicky charging characteristics and in packaging, patents, and such. This is still an emerging market and supply of lithium batteries has not caught up with demand. When mass production really takes hold, costs will tumble dramatically. Lithium is the lightest metal, so using lithium to make batteries is the best thing when the battery is being carried around.
Most of the real damage that automobiles do comes from their consumption of petroleum, and all smog-breathing Americans know all too well. Electricity already has ‘pipelines’ –the electric grid. Electric transportation vehicles can be run on photovoltaics, wind or hydro power. Gas burners need increasingly scarce petroleum. As far as damage to the natural environment, poisonous petroleum is vastly worse than innocuous lithium batteries charged with electricity. Petroleum is costly and dangerous to groundwater and animal and plant life. Electricity can be dangerous, too, but it does not pollute water supplies or burn out highway bridges like petroleum does.

By: Hoser Man

Hoser Man — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:00:00 +0000

This is not a slam on Honda, I personally like Honda MC. I have never received an answer from anyone how batteries that are used in electric cars are disposed of; How much to they cost to replace; How much does it cost annually to recharge these cars and how much of the environment is destroyed in order to make those batteries.