🔋 The Extended Battery Decision (Poll: Which battery option suits you best?)

[ElectricShitbox]

There's another factor in the small/big battery decision for me that I just realized. New York has an EV tax credit still, and it's $1k for an EV with 40-199 miles of range, $2k for 200+ mi. So I would theoretically get a net $1k off whatever the big battery upgrade costs.

 

[metroshot]

With a super long battery warranty (8 years), I do not worry about longevity or battery degradation.

I charge mine to 100% on L2 and DCFC and never worry about reaching 8 years.

EVs I plan on keeping it at least 5 years.

 

[beatle]

While most of the miles I plan to do in a day will be well within the capability of the standard battery, only having 150 miles of range really changes your road trips, sometimes forcing DCFC targets over 80% which is a real drag. Experimental route planning with ABRP on a 339 mile trip I routinely take shows that I'd be stopping every 45 minutes to charge in the winter with the standard pack, adding 1h 45m to a trip with 5h 45m of driving. The extended pack drops an hour off the charging time.

I guess it's not insurmountable to road trip with the standard pack, but it's still pretty restrictive. This is also assuming I don't have a motorcycle in the bed cutting range down further. I think the 240 miles of range with the extended pack will be plenty. I had that with my old 2015 Model S that charged slow as can be by modern standards, and I still thought it was plenty fine for almost all road trips.

 

[Driven5]

Modules are designed to operate at the architecture voltage and bussed (connected in series) within the vehicle battery pack.

This is a completely self-contradicting statement. With more than one module in series, module voltage cannot be architecture voltage. Modules must either be low-voltage (operating at a 1/#modules fraction of pack voltage) connected in series, or they are operating at full pack voltage connected in parallel. I am not aware of any EV's operating pack voltage modules in parallel, only low-voltage modules in series.

Slate is designing around 10.5 kWh 400V modules

Source? Sure the math dictates 10.54kWh modules, but there is zero available on the actual voltage beyond being 400V charger compatible... But that does not mean 400V pack voltage, as noted below.

Number of modules will have no effect on architecture voltage.

Manufacturers creating unique battery modules for each different kWh pack capacity might achieve equal pack voltages, but manufacturers that use common modules across the different pack capacities actually run at different pack voltages.

Blazer EV Standard: 10x 8.5kwh 28.8V modules = 85kWh 288V pack
Blazer EV Extended: 12x 8.5kwh 28.8V modules = 102kWh 345V pack

So of all the vehicles advertising their 400V charging compatibility, many (most?) are not actually running a true 400V pack thanks to the system ability to automatically adjust the charging voltage to the specific pack need... They're just not advertising that part of it.