Re: The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout

On 12/06/2025 14:21, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
 [...].

>
Around here it is well known that the battery is a profitable option, if
you have the capital to pay for it.

 [...]
 

Electricity is cheaper than petrol. Fuel cost isn't a big part of the
expense of owning a car - depreciation is main expense.

 How does the depreciation of an electric car compare with (e.g.) a
diesel one?  What is the battery life and does it have 'negative value'
when it comes to disposal?
 

On average, the resale value of electric cars drops faster than for petrol and diesel cars.  But make and reputation can have a bigger effect - a petrol Chrysler will deprecate much faster than an electric Toyota, and there is significant variety within particular brands.  I would also expect variation between countries.
In the early days of electric cars, there was a lot of concern about battery lifetime - but it seems that those fears were overly pessimistic, and newer cars have better batteries.  You can expect ranges to drop somewhat as an EV gets older, but usually not dramatically.
The scrap value of an old EV battery is going to vary hugely from country to country according to regulations, subsidies, etc.  It is never going to have negative value - that would encourage dumping.