Life and Death of Li Ion batteries

Life and Death of Li Ion batteries

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OutInTheShed

Original Poster:

7,544 posts

26 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
A little study shows Tesla battery capacity typically heading for the 80% watershed around 10 years:
https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/study-real-life-tesla...

Some science about Lithium batteries:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-71...

Summary for shed drivers:
Once a battery is getting down to ~80% of new performance, failure mechanisms are accelerating and it's rapidly downhill.

SWoll

18,341 posts

258 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
Why do you consider 80% a watershed?

A current Model 3 LR at 80% battery life would still be capable of 250 miles between charges. Hardly at the end of its useful life and still considerably more than many other EV's when new?

SpeckledJim

31,608 posts

253 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
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Average annual mileage of a UK motorist is about 8000. And falling.

So you’re saying after 25 years the car is still basically fine.

Sounds alright.

anonymous-user

54 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
SWoll said:
Why do you consider 80% a watershed?

A current Model 3 LR at 80% battery life would still be capable of 250 miles between charges. Hardly at the end of its useful life and still considerably more than many other EV's when new?
Anyone who’s owned an old iPhone knows it doesn’t work like that. They have about 20% of the performance at 80% capacity. Basically they are knackered which is why they are repurposed as part of somebody’s power wall. After that they are recycled.

NDA

21,565 posts

225 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
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wormus said:
Anyone who’s owned an old iPhone knows it doesn’t work like that. They have about 20% of the performance at 80% capacity. Basically they are knackered which is why they are repurposed as part of somebody’s power wall. After that they are recycled.
I suspect most EV's have a more advanced battery management system than 'an old iPhone'.

Evanivitch

20,038 posts

122 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
OutInTheShed said:
A little study shows Tesla battery capacity typically heading for the 80% watershed around 10 years:
https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/study-real-life-tesla...

Some science about Lithium batteries:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-71...

Summary for shed drivers:
Once a battery is getting down to ~80% of new performance, failure mechanisms are accelerating and it's rapidly downhill.
It's weird that you linked an article that doesn't support what you've written. Why is that?

The cars at 8 years old had mileage far in excess of the average car mileage. Which suggests age isn't the determining factor alone.

It also doesn't support the idea that at 80% these vehicles are no longer useable.

It also ignores the change in Battery Management Systems and chemistry over the last 10 years.


Sporky

6,210 posts

64 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
SpeckledJim said:


Average annual mileage of a UK motorist is about 8000. And falling.

So you’re saying after 25 years the car is still basically fine.

Sounds alright.
That graph is textbook "how to lie with graphs". If the y-axis started at zero it'd look a lot better.

GT9

6,537 posts

172 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
wormus said:
Anyone who’s owned an old iPhone knows it doesn’t work like that. They have about 20% of the performance at 80% capacity. Basically they are knackered which is why they are repurposed as part of somebody’s power wall. After that they are recycled.

That's right, a small passively-cooled phone battery differs in no way at all to a large, liquid-cooled actively-managed 400V EV battery. In fact, I've got a Tesla battery stuck to my ear right now, that's how similar they are. What does 20% performance even mean?

SWoll

18,341 posts

258 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
wormus said:
SWoll said:
Why do you consider 80% a watershed?

A current Model 3 LR at 80% battery life would still be capable of 250 miles between charges. Hardly at the end of its useful life and still considerably more than many other EV's when new?
Anyone who’s owned an old iPhone knows it doesn’t work like that. They have about 20% of the performance at 80% capacity. Basically they are knackered which is why they are repurposed as part of somebody’s power wall. After that they are recycled.
Do you really think the batteries in an EV are comparable to a piece of cheap, disposable consumer electronics with built in obsolescence?

It's not a time thing anyway, it's charge cycles, local temperatures, charging speeds etc. that affect EV degradation. Essentially a lot more complex than "at 8-10 years old it'll be finished" Could easily take 15+ years to get to that point for most normal users doing <10k a year, living in a moderate climate and rapid charging rarely.

FeelingLucky

1,082 posts

164 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
SWoll said:
Why do you consider 80% a watershed?

A current Model 3 LR at 80% battery life would still be capable of 250 miles between charges. Hardly at the end of its useful life and still considerably more than many other EV's when new?
Because........Grrr, bloody Elon, erm, panel gaps.

OutInTheShed

Original Poster:

7,544 posts

26 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
SWoll said:
Why do you consider 80% a watershed?

A current Model 3 LR at 80% battery life would still be capable of 250 miles between charges. Hardly at the end of its useful life and still considerably more than many other EV's when new?
Because the decay (for want of a better word) is not linear.
As described in the second paper.

Once a cell is down to the 80% region, all the decay processes are accelerating and it's relatively short haul to 50% and then more quickly still to 10% and time for recycling.

This isn't about Teslas specifically, it's just that Teslas and Leaves have useful amounts of data.

80% is a vague consensus or average of the 'knee point' in the graph where decay steepens.
Different studies with different conditions and methods put the knee anywhere from 95 to 70%



anonymous-user

54 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
GT9 said:
wormus said:
Anyone who’s owned an old iPhone knows it doesn’t work like that. They have about 20% of the performance at 80% capacity. Basically they are knackered which is why they are repurposed as part of somebody’s power wall. After that they are recycled.

That's right, a small passively-cooled phone battery differs in no way at all to a large, liquid-cooled actively-managed 400V EV battery. In fact, I've got a Tesla battery stuck to my ear right now, that's how similar they are. What does 20% performance even mean?
Oh good, another thread to illicit irrational hatred from the EV freaks smile are you saying EV battery life is infinite? Here are some randomly selected facts to help with discussion https://www.midtronics.com/blog/do-electric-car-ev...

Active battery management is a factor but so is the rate of (rapid) charge and discharge. It’s commonly accepted that an EV battery needs replacing every 10 years or 100k miles.

Nomme de Plum

4,513 posts

16 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
wormus said:
SWoll said:
Why do you consider 80% a watershed?

A current Model 3 LR at 80% battery life would still be capable of 250 miles between charges. Hardly at the end of its useful life and still considerably more than many other EV's when new?
Anyone who’s owned an old iPhone knows it doesn’t work like that. They have about 20% of the performance at 80% capacity. Basically they are knackered which is why they are repurposed as part of somebody’s power wall. After that they are recycled.
I buy my iPhones outright. We do not seem to be suffering the battery life/performance problem you allege.

SpeckledJim

31,608 posts

253 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
wormus said:
GT9 said:
wormus said:
Anyone who’s owned an old iPhone knows it doesn’t work like that. They have about 20% of the performance at 80% capacity. Basically they are knackered which is why they are repurposed as part of somebody’s power wall. After that they are recycled.

That's right, a small passively-cooled phone battery differs in no way at all to a large, liquid-cooled actively-managed 400V EV battery. In fact, I've got a Tesla battery stuck to my ear right now, that's how similar they are. What does 20% performance even mean?
Oh good, another thread to illicit irrational hatred from the EV freaks smile are you saying EV battery life is infinite? Here are some randomly selected facts to help with discussion https://www.midtronics.com/blog/do-electric-car-ev...

Active battery management is a factor but so is the rate of (rapid) charge and discharge. It’s commonly accepted that an EV battery needs replacing every 10 years or 100k miles.
rofl

Commonly accepted by you, perhaps. Who else?



Merry

1,366 posts

188 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
wormus said:
It’s commonly accepted that an EV battery needs replacing every 10 years or 100k miles.
Is it? For which chemistry? LFP is capable of many more cycles than NMC, for example. So it would hardly be a hard and fast rule. The answer on battery replacement is more like 'it depends'.

Batteries do degrade, no doubt about it. We had a Mk1 Leaf so know all about that - but it strikes me as becoming less and less of a problem going forward, particularly taking into account the average miles someone in the UK would do.

As someone pointed out due to the size of some of these packs even 80% remaining capacity would still give you a pretty useful vehicle.

SWoll

18,341 posts

258 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
wormus said:
Oh good, another thread to illicit irrational hatred from the EV freaks smile are you saying EV battery life is infinite? Here are some randomly selected facts to help with discussion https://www.midtronics.com/blog/do-electric-car-ev...

Active battery management is a factor but so is the rate of (rapid) charge and discharge. It’s commonly accepted that an EV battery needs replacing every 10 years or 100k miles.
The only irrational hatred is for people who talk bks, hence you are often find yourself on the receiving end funnily enough. smile

Commonly accepted by who BTW? You speak of EV batteries like they are all manufactured and used identically, which is ridiculous.

The article you link to mentions 1500 to 2000 full charge cycles, not time. For an EV with a 75kWh battery doing 3.5 miles/kwh that's 112,500 to 150,000 kWh, or enough to cover 500,000 miles. It then mentions the batteries are nothing like that found in a phone. smile

Also "Because of this cycle-aided degradation, the batteries will gradually lose its capacity. However, it may take nearly a decade for you to see any noticeable dips in performance."

I do find it funny you've posted a link that contradicts all of your previous statements. biglaugh

Earthdweller

13,518 posts

126 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
Nomme de Plum said:
I buy my iPhones outright. We do not seem to be suffering the battery life/performance problem you allege.
So do I

This is my 2 year old iPhone now, it has 80% capacity and it’s performance over the last 3 months has deteriorated massively to the point it won’t last a full day, my wife’s bought at the same time is even worse and literally lasts a couple of hours

It really don’t think the above example is unique at all, it’s worth reading the first paragraph below


DMZ

1,391 posts

160 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
It would be good to know this stuff one way or another as it’s not exactly a small thing to have the battery failing. I don’t know if I would trust a reading from the car re battery capacity as it changes with ambient temp so those readings tend to be fairly random.

anonymous-user

54 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
Nomme de Plum said:
I buy my iPhones outright. We do not seem to be suffering the battery life/performance problem you allege.
I know this is PH so cash is king, but what has this got to do with battery life?

Earthdweller

13,518 posts

126 months

Tuesday 28th February 2023
quotequote all
wormus said:
Nomme de Plum said:
I buy my iPhones outright. We do not seem to be suffering the battery life/performance problem you allege.
I know this is PH so cash is king, but what has this got to do with battery life?
rofl

Sweet fanny Adams

thumbup