It’s interesting to view Fossil Fuel industry supporters, and the demise of the industry as renewables take over the world, through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s famous five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Fewer and fewer people are in denial, and most seem to have moved on to the anger & bargaining stage. This latest announcement from CATL should bring more to the depression & acceptance stages.
Most vans and trucks are owned by businesses, big and small. Soon they’ll have a choice. Stick with expensive gasoline, or go for the electric option that gets cheaper every year that passes. Being businesses, which do you guess they’ll go for?
Up next - CATL says they have sodium batteries for passenger cars that are 10–19 dollars/kWh, that is approx 10% of current lithium battery prices, which are already cheaper than gasoline.
All of this, for people who are paying attention, is one more nail in the fossil fuel coffin.
CATL launches sodium batteries: extremely durable and stable at –40°C
It’s thing like this that make unsure when to pull the EV trigger.
I’m currently shopping for a used EV, 2022 and newer, but I’m not sure if I should wait a couple more years and let the tech keep developing.
I just bought my first EV, a second hand Renault Zoe from 2021 and I love everything about the experience. It’s so much fun to drive and a big step further away from the stranglehold of the fossil destroyers. Not needing to stop at gas stations anymore brings me tears of relief. I’m privileged enough to charge it at home from my own wallbox and even without solar on my roof, it’s already cheaper than gas.
Technology will probably keep improving and new types of batteries will hit high priced flagship cars first. It takes time for innovation to trickle down to the lower priced cars, then to used cars. As with phones and computers, life is great (and super affordable) a couple generations behind new technology. So if you don’t want to wait another decade or spend 45.000€, I’d recommend to get one now, enjoy all the good stuff that’s already here and get a next level sci-fi car after that.
I bought my EV three years ago. I have no regrets. It gets me where I need to go, and I haven’t visited a gas station since. Technology is always moving forward. At some point you have to decide “this is good enough for what I need”.
That’s good advice. After looking into the upcoming tech more, I think we have reached the good enough to price point for me.