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304 points computerliker | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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zhyder ◴[] No.45042740[source]
Neat idea to mix batteries of different age and chemistries. I've wondered why EVs couldn't do that too with some power electronics and SW. If an EV battery could have multiple such modules, it'd:

1) Make it easier to carry a cheaper lighter less-natural-resources-consuming battery most of the time. Go to some "gas station" to rent and add more modules when taking a road trip

2) Make it cheaper to replace the 1 module used a lot at its EOL, thereby making EVs last longer and be viable as cheap used cars even past 10 years like ICE cars are

3) Allow easier upgrades as chemistry improves: solid-state, sodium ion, etc.

Modules could be electrically tested for fit. I'd think the fit range would be quite wide (e.g. if one supported lower max discharge rates than another) given the headroom we have with EVs' power these days: they have far-more-than-needed power (which mostly comes for free with EV range).

The tradeoff is that they'd need to be built to be modular with some standardization on module dimensions (maybe we'll have "ZZ" size like we have AA, C, etc today), and would take a tad more volume in the vehicle (though the limiting factor is weight rather than volume). Easily worthwhile over the current model with a huge monolithic pack.

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1. hinkley ◴[] No.45044625[source]
I believe we have a new generation of supercapacitors in R&D stage. There were some experiments done in the last year that showed that some assumptions about what makes supercaps work so well turned out to be wrong. I can’t recall the details but it turns out the foamy structure of charcoal is not the optimal structure. So that should result in higher energy density per unit volume.