> It will have 15 percent higher specific energy than a Tesla Model S 85 kW-hr pack. That works out to 98 kW-hr.
Except that their ship date is 2 years out (best case, since it's really aggressive!). That gives Tesla a pretty good window to improve their own battery packs. This isn't a market you can win by getting a 10% improvement on battery life / range -- there's a lot more nuance than that. I hope they have other value propositions in mind...?
There won't be much need for competition between EV-manufacturers for another decade or so.
As long as the car has some type of niche/edge over Leaf/Tesla and can convince ICE-drivers to go electric there should be enough demand to grow a startup for 5-10 years.
"should' being the key word. There have been dozens of failed Electric car and electric motorcycle startups in the last 5 years alone. As far as I know, Tesla is the only startup to actually make a viable production car. Zero and Brammo are the only ones to make a viable production electric motorcycle and Brammo was just sold to Polaris because of money troubles. Every once in a while, companies come along with a prototype and a dream (Mission Motors, for example). But few ever make it far enough to put anything into production. It's considerably more expensive than a software startup, for example.
i personally know one of the first people that brought electric cars to your country (im assuming USA, sorry if im wrong!) and i know for a fact he was sunk by your oil companies on purpose and they threw the idea away. in his case, it certainly wasnt anything to do with a lack of market or bad business decision, big corporations ruined him on purpose.
You're dead, gorgak, but I'll respond anyway because it's a point I think needs addressing. I don't think the oil companies single out electric car companies for failure (at least not anymore... Nissan and Tesla have broken that seal), but I do know the car manufacturers do. One of the biggest reasons electric car and motorcycle companies fail is they underestimate the cost of homologation[0]. Those regulations were lobbied for by the car companies to make sure they weren't seriously threatened by any new competition, electric or otherwise. There's a reason the only new american car startups that make it to production are three wheeled designs. Three wheelers are exempt from most of the ridiculous legislation.
I think those numbers, on their own, are as good as meaningless. Volume, weight, and price of the battery pack and either of these relative to the size/power efficiency of the car will be way more important than that relatively tiny difference in capacity.
I think the author of the article might be confused. "Specific energy" normally refers to energy per unit mass, which is a useful thing to compare between batteries. The author is acting as though it refers to total capacity, which is less meaningful.
Except that their ship date is 2 years out (best case, since it's really aggressive!). That gives Tesla a pretty good window to improve their own battery packs. This isn't a market you can win by getting a 10% improvement on battery life / range -- there's a lot more nuance than that. I hope they have other value propositions in mind...?