Electric Car Battery

Over the last decade, electric cars have gone from a minor roadway occurrence into a full-blown automotive revolution. Cars that were once considered impossibilities of science have strutted on the road, showing off their abilities and demonstrating that electric vehicles are a lucrative option for carbon-free driving. From hybrid models to entirely electric cars, gasoline is on the way out.

But there is one thing holding many electric cars back, the heavy and potentially experience electric car battery that they're forced to carry around. Built to deliver a combination of power and effective performance and rarely optimized for longevity, replacing an electric car battery can often be quite an expensive process. Due to the rarity of most electric cars, it can also be quite a lengthy task.

We've looked at the top electric cars, the best electric car batteries, and the ideal electrical motoring solution to find your best option. From hybrid cars and their respectively light batteries to the value offered by many entirely electric machines, this simple guide offers an objective perspective on one of the motoring world's hottest issues – the electric car, its battery, and its respective performance.

Batteries for Partial Electric and Hybrid Vehicles:
Most hybrid vehicles use a combined engine-battery system, wherein the car's gasoline engine will power the electrical reserve battery over time. As the driver powers the standard engine, which isn't used on flat ground and other low-output situations, the engine drives power both to the wheels and to the battery itself, adding to its reserves and producing a backlog of potential engine resources.

This model is fairly efficient, particularly in environments that don't need all that much in terms of engine power. While hybrid car owners have complained about limited fuel efficiency, it's rarely an annoyance in situations where the roadways are primarily flat and free of uphill sections. This leads to an on-off motion for the battery, which is rarely drained to an excess through engine usage.

How does this affect a hybrid car's battery? Over time, the charge and electrical retention value of a battery declines. In electric car batteries, this is a fairly limited and slow decline, likely occurring on a multi-year (or even multi-decade) timeline. The depth of discharge rate can alter this, as a steadily high DOD (such as a near-complete battery drain) will cause an electric car battery to drain quickly.

Fortunately, the vast majority of hybrid car batteries are rarely pushed to their capacity limits, with a generally low rate of wear standard. Hybrid car owners will need to replace their battery on a steady basis, although significantly less than owners of entirely electric vehicles will. Rest easy – not only does a hybrid car result in better fuel efficiency, it's less expensive to operate than an electric car.

Batteries for 100% Electric Vehicles:
The design of an electrical vehicle engine is quite interesting. Alongside the standard engine parts is not just one battery, but hundreds of smaller battery packs. These batteries typically hold a variation of charge levels and voltages, each contributing to a greater combined power output for the vehicle's engine. This can make replacing individual worn battery packs somewhat difficult for owners.

Like hybrid vehicle batteries, the battery packs used in most electrical cars deteriorate more rapidly when exposed to repeated limited charges. When used moderately and charged frequently, a vehicle battery is unlikely to wear out all that quickly. However, when an electric car battery is drained to a low charge level repeatedly, its lifespan will quickly decrease, as will its total output capacity level.

This has caused an interesting conundrum for electric car owners. Do they use their cars to the end of their distance capabilities, therefore reducing their battery power while limiting their lifespan? Or is it better to use their vehicle in smaller, more moderate bursts of activity, decreasing its value as an all-round vehicle but prolonging its life and reducing the costs associated with replacing batteries.

The choice is entirely up to the vehicle owner, but it's often best to err on the side of longevity. The cost of an electric car battery can extend towards the five-figure mark, making replacements a fairly expensive affair for most owners. However, due to the limited costs of operating an electric vehicle, it's unlikely that the replacement cost of a battery will extend beyond that of operating a petrol car.

Despite this lofty replacement cost, the actual cost of replacing an electric car battery can be quite low. Many state and national governments offer a battery replacement refund or tax rebate, aiming to encourage residents to switch to electric cars. Others subsidize the cost of electric batteries in an attempt to reduce the cost burden for owners, and therefore increase the cars' sales popularity.

It's worth noting that a single battery can often vary quite significantly, both in longevity and in the practical driving range that it can deliver. Most electric car batteries are capable of powering a small car for over three-hundred miles, with select packs delivering a six-hundred mile charge in optimum conditions. Some cars can be outfitted with custom batteries to increase their usable driving range.

The current record holder is the Japanese Daihatsu Mira, a tiny compact car designed to deliver the ultimate in fuel efficiency. It has been tested and confirmed to deliver over one-thousand kilometres of constant driving on a single charge, making it the world's most efficient electric car battery. Other manufacturers are currently working on custom batteries similar to those used in the Mira.

In Conclusion
While replacing an electric car battery can be an expensive exercise, a number of public and private efforts have reduced the cost to owners of doing so. Several states now offer a battery exchange and replacement program, whereby owners change their outdated batteries for a newer model at a lower cost than normal. Others offer subsidies and rebates for owners of electric cars and hybrid vehicles.

Despite their hefty price tag, an electric car battery is a good investment for vehicle owners. Both an eco-friendly fuel option and a fairly affordable choice for today's green family, a typical electric car battery is capable of delivering constant performance, incredible reliability, and a driver experience that's truly second to none.