this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2025
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Electric Vehicles

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Overview:

Electric Vehicles are a key part of our tomorrow and how we get there. If we can get all the fossil fuel vehicles off our roads, out of our seas and out of our skies, we'll have a much better environment. This community is where we discuss the various different vehicles and news stories regarding electric transportation.


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[–] hylobates@jlai.lu 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm not that tech savvy: what is the average Li-ion density?

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

This is from memory, but i think it's approximately accurate, especially in relations to each other:

Li-ion have 280-320 Wh/kg but they have the disadvantage that they're explosive. If you get in an accident and the battery gets damaged, it explodes rather violently, and you don't want that for safety reasons.

Then there's LFP batteries which also contain Lithium as the main ingredient, but they have the advantage that they don't explode when they're damaged. They have 220-250 Wh/kg.

Then there's Na-ion, which also have the advantage of not exploding when damaged, and they have 160 Wh/kg (depending on type, new types with better energy density are being actively researched right now). They have the additional advantage of not containing Lithium (Li), instead they contain Sodium (Na), which is significantly cheaper and more widely available worldwide. So the batteries have the prospect of being much cheaper, especially if produced in large scales, and that's really the main advantage they have.

It's not so much about Wh/kg for stationary applications (like grid stabilization or home storage), instead it's about Wh/$, i.e. how much storage capacity you get per dollar. And that is significantly higher for Na-ion than for Li-ion or LFP.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

A tank of gasoline is far more likely to explode with 10x more energy.

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 8 points 3 weeks ago

Unfortunately I can't seem to refill my tank by passing in excess electricity. Pretty sure I can recharge the battery more than 10 times and get more energy over lifetime of usage

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

i'd say it's equally likely, and yes, internal combustion engine vehicles are literally madness. it's a miracle anybody actually uses these machines, IMO. they sound insane.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not equally, much more likely as a function of distance driven. If we had started with EVs and considered transition to gasoline, people would have considered it insanely dangerous.

That not even considering the ships, tanker cars and trucks blowing up, sometimes taking out entire cities.

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 1 points 3 weeks ago

What truck has taken out an entire city? We did pretty much transition from EVs to ICE, EVs have been around at least as long as ICE vehicles.

[–] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 3 weeks ago

EVs explode at about 1/40th the rate of combustion vehicles. They are 40 times less likely to explode.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Easy peasy to set 96kwh of these on the side of my house or in a utility closet and I'll basically never experience a blackout or loss of power again.

[–] khannie@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I didn't know either but Wikipedia says 1–270 W⋅h/kg for specific energy. It lists energy density in litres.

The ones typically used in cars are listed as 90–160 [Wh/kg].

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 weeks ago

Sodium chemistry works well down to -20C , they don't drop off in efficiency like lithium.