Do people really need an EV with longer range?
Recently Elon Musk posted that Tesla could have made a 600 miles Model S 12 month ago, but it would have made the acceleration, handling and efficiency worse. He believes that it’s not necessary to prolong the range of electric cars.
However, the argument of alleviating range anxiety among new electric vehicle owners still is a common problem. In order to solve the range anxiety of pure electric vehicle users, we should not blindly rely on the battery capacity of pure electric vehicles, but should actively deploy infrastructure projects including charging network and fast charging technology.
Meanwhile, there are mainly three reasons that could explain why Tesla doesn’t want to prolong the range for several types of car.
First, reducing the range will also reduce the cost of each car producing, it is understood that the energy density of the 4680 batteries has been increased by 5 times compared with the current Tesla battery, the battery life has been increased by 16%, and the output power has been increased by 6 times, but the cost has dropped by 14%. This also means that Tesla can use a smaller number of 4680 batteries to achieve the existing battery life, but the cost can be greatly reduced.
Second, reducing the range increases productivity, as we know that in the case of the same 4680 battery, compared to the Model S that Tesla originally planned to launch with a battery life of nearly 1000 km, the Tesla Model S with a battery life of less than 700 km will occupy at least 30% of the power battery capacity. This also means that if Tesla does not produce a Model S with a battery life of nearly 1,000 km, the battery capacity it saves for every three cars can be installed in one more car.
In the end, the advantage of long range is no longer for Tesla only. Tesla can completely abandon this "sick" competition in the absence of an absolute advantage. The reason why Musk dares to give up the long-range competition is because Tesla already has a well-developed energy-replenishing network area and cutting-edge supercharging technology. Tesla, which has basically completed the layout of the "bucket" new energy vehicle industry, does not need to rely too much on the long battery life of the car.
Do you have range anxiety issue in your country? What do you think of Elon Musk’s statement？We would love to hear from you!