Well, the face value of a doubled range is that you may need only half of it. An eight minute charge to 47% instead of fifteen minutes to 80%. That's comparable to an ICE.

They do, but it their range still sounds daunting for someone who does not want multiple cars, and still wants the ability to do long range trips. Especially in places where charging infrastructure isn't great.

+80% range is probably a place where that argument is no longer relevant as it outranges most ICE cars.

An EV can probably cover 99,9% of trips made in densely populated areas. Very few trips are 350km roundtrip. I’ve had EV’s for the past four years and we rent an ICE when we’re going on ski trips and such. The continued saving on gas more than pays for it.

Yes, but range anxiety still exists, and this would quell it, as well as make EVs viable for more niche use-cases. It's relevant.

If renting a car wasn't such a PITA that would be somewhat tolerable.

You book a car, get to the rental place (only open 8am-5pm), and wait for 30 minutes while the one counter person working helps other people trying to pick up their cars. They get around to you, and they don't have the car you reserved. They try to upsell you on a larger car. You have to fool around with inspecting the car and noting any damage. If you miss anything, you fear they might try to charge you for it. You spend 15 minutes on other paperwork. They try to sell you all kinds of extra insurance. Finally, after about an hour, you're driving out in a car.

A couple of times a year, this is acceptable to me.

I have taken my kia e-niro on 1000km roundtrips, and this is totally acceptable as you have to stop for at least one meal, possibly two.

The convenience of an EV is fantastic - but I’m lucky to live in a building where charging is available.

Where I live there are car clubs with cars parked on residential streets which you can book on an app on drive straight off.

Some rental companies have free programs where you just pickup the keys at a kiosk.

Range anxiety could also be solved with marketing.

1. Design a graphic symbol that means, “this parking lot has a charging station”

2. Put that graphic on relevant signs as tall as the ones which advertise Exxon or Shell gas stations.

This would create the impression of ubiquitous charging.

Energy density is important. A lighter battery means more range for same charge because the vehicle is lighter.

Seems like an improvement in KWh/kg could make a big difference in weight, and hence in efficiency.

Sufficient for certain markets and applications, but less weight and volume is always better.

Less energy to accelerate, and smaller motors, lower powered drive electronics, and less demand on the battery (and the less current you draw from a battery, the lower the internal resistance losses, so weight really does matter.)

It's better for roads, for one; heavier vehicles, with higher ground pressure, chew up roads faster. More weight means longer stopping distances and less handling capability for the same amount of tire (and you can't just slap bigger, stickier tires on. Efficiency plummets) so this relates to safety. And mass mattes in a crash, too. Drivers are stunningly good at crashing into all manner of stationary objects. I suspect as EVs get more popular we're going to see much more serious car vs building crashes, for example.

The market for an EV eighteen wheeler explodes once you surpass the range a driver can legally drive in one day (you need more because otherwise there's a huge efficiency loss if the driver has to stop early in order to get a charge before running out of range, even if he's got the time logbook-wise. Ideally he's charging the rig while sleeping, though.)

Work trucks like the Sierra HD or F250/F350/F450's, etc. can't yet be replaced because giving them the equivalent battery capacity would result in a truck with a fraction of its normal cargo and towing capacity.

The livery industry can't really use EVs because charging stations are too far apart and too unreliable and too unavailable; while the range might be relatively close to a typical towncar's for a single tank of gas, obviously a towncar can be refilled in under 5 minutes from a fuel source almost anywhere along where it needs to go, with little wait for a free pump.

Performance car segment - right now EVs are only seen in GT class cars and sedans. Lots of people like lightweight, responsive vehicles (Miata, BR-Z, "hot hatches", etc) and you can't do that with current battery tech.

In vehicles made on platforms not fully committed to an EV powertrain, the battery ends up eating up passenger compartment space, cargo space, or ground clearance. Handling is more stable due to lower Cg, but less capable due to a pretty massive increase in weight. So: minivans, cargo vans, passenger cars...

Unsure why I'm downvoted. What I meant was: Yes, energy density would be nice to improve, but is not what is stopping people buying EVs currently.

Imagine if they halved in cost but kept the same energy density. Yes, driving 1 tonne of batteries sucks, but I'd gladly do it versus my current polluting ICE, if the appropriate vehicle was available at an appropriate price.

EVs have enough range but many get there with lots of batteries which are heavy. This reduces the eMPG of something like the bmw i4 or vw id4 to 80 (vs. 130 for Tesla model 3) which reduces their efficiency advantage over IC cars.

This will dramatically help with that.

driving 1 ton of batteries around is very much worse than driving 500kg of batteries.