When it comes to the battery life of electric vehicles, many people think it is the higher the better, but Elon Musk said amazingly that Tesla has already made electric vehicles with a battery life of more than 900 kilometers and it is really useless.
The battery life of an electric car is the most concerning issue for many people, especially those who have never bought an electric car. With the launch of the Mercedes-Benz EQS with a battery life of more than 700 kilometers and the American startup Lucid Air even claiming a battery life of 800 kilometers, it seems that mileage anxiety will gradually disappear. However, electric car leader Tesla disagrees.
When asked by netizens about battery life, Tesla CEO Elon Musk pointed out that Tesla could have actually made a Model S with battery life of more than 960 kilometers a year ago, "But in my opinion, that will only lead to a worse product." Musk believes that for 99.9% of driving time, the vehicle owner is driving with a huge useless battery, which will only worsens acceleration, handling, and efficiency.
At present, Tesla's high-endurance vehicles have a range of more than 600 kilometers. Musk pointed out that most car owners cannot even use a 600 kilometer battery and the extra battery will only exacerbate energy consumption.
Musk's point is that when battery life exceeds 600 kilometers, does the owner need more battery life or better performance? This is reflected in the Lucid Air, which is evident in the fact that due to its extreme endurance, most orders are pouring into the performance version rather than the long-range version. Even if range is reduced by 80~100 kilometers, the owner would rather switch to a model with 100 more horsepower.
However, Musk didn't say this when he promoted Tesla's Roadster 2. In addition to zero-hundred acceleration in less than 2 seconds, its other selling point is endurance of over a thousand kilometers. Is Musk just slapping himself in the face?
The problem is still battery technology. If you simply use a year-old battery with an old car model, efficiency will indeed fall if the battery life exceeds 900 kilometers. However, Mercedes and Lucid have made breakthroughs in body aerodynamics and battery technology seems to have hidden a secret. Even if the EQS battery capacity is only 7kWh more than Model S, its battery life is 100 kilometers longer. There is indeed a secret in the sauce.
On the other hand, what Musk said is right. Although the EQS has better battery life than the Model S, the irony is that its price exceeds NT$8 million. The EQS 53 AMG 4MATIC+, which emphasizes performance, with the official zero-hundred acceleration AMG Dynamic Plus package added, also takes 3.4 seconds to go from 0-100 but battery life drops significantly to 586 kilometers. Thus, the choice between battery life and performance is not an easy one.
In other words, if a passionate car owner spends nearly NT$10 million buying an AMG EQS 53 4MATIC+ and encounters a Model S Plaid that sells for less than NT$5 million on the road, he will only be able to beat the Tesla when parked. Regardless of battery life, performance, or autopilot he loses to his opponent.
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