Batteries

I’ve been thinking deeply about battery-powered cars lately. You see, there’s this one white Tesla in town that seems to be everywhere that I go. Is this a sign? Well, the reality is that we’re a relatively small town (20 000) and so the odds are pretty good if we’re out and about at the same time.

I’ve seen battery charging stations at the ONRoute in Tilbury and I would imagine they’re in all of them right now. To be honest, I think there’s one charging station in town near one of the parks. If not, there’s a strange-looking something or other there. We keep hearing that the government wants us all to head in this direction.

We’ve seen batteries used in Formula 1 now that we’re in the hybrid era and, of course, there’s Formula E. It has seemed to be a fad with companies fooling around with batteries and hybrid themselves. For me, it got real when Ford released an all-electric Mustang.

So, I’ve been paying a little more attention lately. I’m still iffy and not ready to pull the trigger until I’m sure that I could go places that I want to go and not get stranded. Of course, I’d have to have this site bookmarked.

To add to the confusion, there was one link that a couple of people in my social learning network shared yesterday. First, it was Mark Dunk with this video on his timeline.

Also yesterday, Stephen Downes shared a link to an article about the incident and his thoughts about not buying Tesla and not a fan of Apple’s approach to repairs either. As a side note, I agree on the Apple front having to pay a technician $50 to unscrew a single screw mounting my hard drive so that I could install an SSD.

As I read the article and thought about it, there’s a strong message in there about batteries that didn’t really sink in. I think that we all know that batteries do indeed have a shelf life. I have a couple of old computers that now last for about an hour on a charge. I’m hesitant to pay the money so just leave them plugged in for the most part. That’s not an option for an electric car.

Now, a replacement battery for a laptop computer would be relatively affordable if I decided to do it. But, the replacement battery for the Tesla in the article is $26,800 dollars. I’m assuming that’s American dollars. The article mentions that there isn’t a huge difference between the battery replacement and a new Tesla. (well, on my budget it would be huge…) Back here, in my reality, if I had $26,800, I could get a brand new vehicle or an incredible used vehicle that would work well with my lifestyle.

Now, for a reality check, I’m not in the market at all to replace my 2014 Ford Fusion. I love it and it is the nicest vehicle I’ve ever owned. I am also wise enough to know that it won’t last forever so it will be interesting to see the market when I approach it again. Ford has dropped all cars from its product line except for the Mustang. I suspect that many other manufacturers are going or planning to go that route as well.

It’s going to be different.

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