
Aluminium-air battery that can power electric cars for 1,500 miles - elorant
https://www.adaptnetwork.com/tech/aluminium-air-battery-can-power-electric-cars-for-1500-miles/
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intpx
No meaningful analysis, just some comparisons:

according to the article, the cost is £.07 per mile. 1500/.07 is £105 per
refuel, or $135 USD at the current exchange rate. (they seem to base this on
the apprx cost for British motorists, while they seem to base the fuel economy
on a car similar in size to a Tesla 3, so I'm not sure that really works out)

In the US, it costs between $0.12 and $0.14 per mile in fuel to drive a BMW 5
series (25mpg at 3.00 to 3.50 per gallon) and about $0.08 per mile to in fuel
to drive a Honda Civic (38mpg at $3.00 per gallon)

According to the Federal Highway Administration, the average American drives
13,476 miles per year, so each decrease per penny of fuel cost per mile
represents about $135 with these metrics.

And on a final note-- we should stop marketing miles per gallon and start
measuring cost per mile or or gallons per (100)mile(s) -- it shows the
relationship between the actual economy gains (fuel consumption) in a much
more intuitive way across the range of available fuel economies. The EPA
started mandating that 'savings' be included on the fuel economy sticker,but
that is not a widely recognized metric in marketing or common speech. Remember
kids, a number and its inverse have a curvilinear relationship, not a linear
one. For fuel economy, with the current range of available vehicles the point
where the graph bottoms out is just past 35mpg. The steepest meaningful jump
is from about 15mpg to about 20mpg.

Some science dudes did a study on this
[http://nsmn1.uh.edu/dgraur/niv/theMPGIllusion.pdf](http://nsmn1.uh.edu/dgraur/niv/theMPGIllusion.pdf)

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farisjarrah
> Jackson claims that if Tesla flagship model (the Model S) was fitted with an
> aluminium-air fuel cell that was the same size as its current battery, it
> could run non-stop for 1,500 miles—almost enough to get from Land’s End to
> John O’Groats and back again.

For something that's designed to be swapped out of the car every so often
that's a really really big qualification there. Tesla's battery pack is
basically part of the chassis. With this aluminum air system you would
basically need to be swapping out a huge component like every month or so.

Even with that caveat, I'm still skeptical, didn't Elon try and shoot for a
battery swap station similar to a gas station and Tesla deemed it unfeasible?

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mritun
Exactly!

Swappable batteries are a nightmare to integrate into the chassis. Look at any
press release for a new car and you’ll see a paragraph about how they made
chassis X% stiffer. Swappable battery will do the opposite!

It is extremely difficult to make a car with shitty driving dynamics and
charge a premium for it to recoup your R&D. Thus, swappable battery car is not
feasible commercially until structural engineers figure out how to make the 2
ton battery pack a stressed member while also be swappable. Give it a decade
or two!

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jackhack
It's being proposed that one could have this battery swapped out "at the
supermarket." I barely trust them to not put the soup cans on top of the
bread, or break the eggs. I don't think I'm ready for them to tinker with my
car. And I've personally witnessed more than one profound mistake at the oil-
change centers where presumably trained people have overfilled the crankcase
(which blew out the engine seals, ruining a Porsche Turbo 911) or neglecting
to tighten the oil drain plug, which fell out onto the highway while driving
home (ruining a friend's 3 month old Toyota).

>>how to make the 2 ton battery pack a stressed member

Where did the article say anything about the battery weighing 2 tons? That is
outrageously heavy, exceeding the GVW of most cars on the road by 40%, alone!
Surely this cannot be accurate.

A triangle shape, or multiple smaller packs could help with the issue or
structural rigidity. If they can build around a big aluminum engine block,
radiator, etc, a battery pack is do-able.

But I've another bone to pick with this article, and it may be a simple matter
of the UK vs US norms. It states the average driver travels about 7900
miles/year. That's less than half the average in the US. Also, it says the UK
driver of a "small hatchback" spends around 12p per mile for petrol and this
battery tech could drop that to 9p per mile. That's not competitive with
current hybrid technology (and the Toyota Prius is a mid-sized car, as well)
with a 700 mile per 10 gallon imperial tank. Turbo diesels are nearly as
efficient. Why would one change?

The technology just doesn't sound competitive to me, overall.

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newyankee
Hopefully the kinks can be resolved in < 5 years

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garyclarke27
1500 / 373 = 4 NOT 9

