Upcoming Upgrades

One of the hardest things for people to grasp when it comes to considering an electric car is the range.  Most electric cars just don't have much range on a full charge. You can buy a Tesla S P85 and get 300+ miles before you need to recharge, but you'll need at least $60k to get started or $1k per month in spare change for the lease.  So if you don't have that kind of money to use for an EV that is comparable in range to a gas-powered, what can you get?

Many EVs in a more common price range of $25k-$35k average about 70-100 miles to the charge.  But unlike a most cars, which need to be refueled at a service station, electric cars can be refueled just about anywhere, and for next to nothing.  Alas, there is yet another advantage in electric cars, that gas cars do not have (at least not readily).  Electric cars can get battery upgrades.

The Smart ForTwo Electric Drive is currently the only vehicle available on the U.S. market with a battery lease plan.  That is to say that you can lease the car and battery, or just the battery.  But why would you want to do that?  Leasing the battery, like most leases, means that if anything goes awry, you don't own it. If for example the battery fails before its time, you can get a replacement for nothing extra.  However, the better option is the possibility that you get an upgrade to the battery within the span of the initial lease.

Let's say that within the first 5 years that you own a Smart ED, battery technology improves to the point where it is possible to get double the capacity for the same price.  The Smart ED currently has a range of 68 miles per full charge, that would mean it would have a range of 176 miles per full charge.  And what if the tech advanced to four times, I think you get the picture.

But for those who out-right own the car and battery, an upgrade might be a bit costly.  Of course, it's expected that if the capacity of a battery goes up, the price is likely to come down.  So maybe it won't be so bad.

The big difference between the electric car and the gas car in this case is that gasoline itself, is not getting more efficient.  If you want to do the same thing for a gas car, that you will be able to do for an electric, you'll have to change out the engine too.  And that is not likely to be comparable to the cost of a battery upgrade alone.

I expect that in next ten years when gas cars are required to have at least an efficiency of 50 mpg, that electrics have (with their already 100+ mpge) have at least 300 miles of range.