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Ask HN: What are the limitations on EV service life?

I came across this chart today [1] that compares the greenhouse gas emissions of ICE vs EV over the "life" of the vehicle. Reading the fine print, I find that they are considering 200,000 KM (120,000 miles). That just seems unreasonably low. Modern ICE cars easily hit 300,000 KM with routine maintenance and maybe one or two repairs. What about EVs? It seems that as long as you replace the battery every ??? KM, it should last indefinitely. But in reality, that is not going to be the case. What will the limitation be? My guess is electronics/software failure. At some point (15-20 years) there will be no compatible replacement parts aside from what was stockpiled during the production run.

[1] https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/comparative-life-cycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-of-a-mid-size-bev-and-ice-vehicle

7 points Kon-Peki 4 years ago 33 comments

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