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EV to Baja

Jacket

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These Mines students are trying to build an EV Grand Cherokee to run the Baja 1000 with.


I don't have a Denver Post account but there's an article about it.


Can't imagine how they'll manage the battery recharging process. Ambitious goal for sure.
 

nakman

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swappable batteries! love the idea... That needs to be more mainstream in the city also.
 

nakman

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My vision is a smaller battery pack- not your main one, but a second one that may only get you 20 miles... which also makes it relatively inexpensive (expendable), and possibly light enough to carry? So you have the "good" battery which is integrated into your EV, then this sacrificial "burner battery" you can swap out around town at some type of modern day filling station... which stores, charges, and allows you to swap batteries for a fee. part of their process involves refurbing/recertifying the battery, etc. Problem with this is it involves some level of collaboration among the EV manufacturers, which likely means it'll never happen. We can't even standardize the charging plug.
 
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60wag

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Here is the Nio swap station:
If the auto manufacturers can standardize on a battery, I think it has a lot of potential.

Won't find any of these out in Baja though.
 

MDH33

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I see a future with mountains of toxic waste battery dumps. :bolt:
 

J1000

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I see a future with mountains of toxic waste battery dumps. :bolt:
Luckily they are not toxic. Lithium batteries are mostly aluminum and not toxic at all. So the massive dumps of old useless batteries will at least be safe :geek:
 

Romer

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and mostly recyclable
 

Inukshuk

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I have been asking the question about swappable batteries for years. Its a shocking failure that Tesla and others did not initiate this and/or the government require it. Such an obvious process to enable long trips. Fully compatible also with still charging at home and office.
 

Hulk

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Its a shocking failure...

I am not shocked. The benefit of the capitalistic society is we get all the new cool shit first. The drawback is we figure out what needs to be regulated and/or cleaned up later. This is our blessing and our curse. Regardless, not shocking.
 

SteveH

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or the government require it.

What could possibly go wrong with that? ;-)
 

DaveInDenver

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Currently only cobalt and nickel are economically recovered from discarded lithium batteries. The market for recovered lithium is still in its infancy, although Li-Cycle is working on their process and business plan.

The world consumes about 100,000 tons of lithium which around 93,000 is believed to be mined annually (some uncertainty by the USGS due to protecting market share). Li-Cycle hopes to get capacity to recycle 60,000 tons by 2023, although their current actual capacity as of June 2022 is 5,000 tons in Ontario, 5,000 tons in New York and 10,000 tons in Arizona.

So time will tell perhaps next year if the market for recycled lithium is there and if they can service it profitably.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/lithiumion-battery-recycling-finally-takes-off-in-north-america-and-europe

https://www.li-cycle.com/about/

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/lithium-statistics-and-information
 
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gungriffin

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Recycling is not profitable at present prices, but we will not have these present prices for very long. People are about to get a prime example of depth of the market in the lithium, copper and nickel markets. I don't think the lithium market will prove to be very deep. As a result, small incremental demand increase will have a large price increase. Once this occurs, recycling will become profitable. Many of these used batteries are also finding a second life as home energy storage. That is a form of recycling that might not be accounted for well enough.

On one last note, I disagree on battery swaps being a good idea. We are on the right trajectory. Larger batteries with higher amp charging. The newest vehicle by Lucid is capable of adding up to 20 miles per minute of charge. Batteries are not like fuel tanks. The ideal fill with gas is 100% whereas the ideal with most present lithium formulations is ~80%. There is also the option to go to 100% with lithium to maximize range, but the final ~20% takes a lot longer to add into the battery. Mainstream battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are a very young technology. To me it is amazing that it is advancing as quickly as it is. The power grid will ultimately be the problem that I see for the advancement of BEVs.
 
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gungriffin

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Regarding the OP, it is super cool to see these new entrants in the Baja races using batteries. I will keep an eye out for them when I look into the standings this fall. Batteries are where things are headed. It is going to be a game changer.
 
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