Tesla's former CTO: Electric car batteries should last 15 years

Beijing time, March 29 morning news, according to reports, JB Straubel, who previously served as Tesla's long-time chief technology officer, recently talked about electric vehicles. He believes that the battery of an electric car should be able to be used for about 15 years. For Straubel's new business, the durability of electric car batteries is very important.

When it comes to electric vehicles, one of the most frequently asked questions is “how long does the battery last?” For consumers interested in purchasing an electric vehicle, in addition to range, the most important thing they care about is battery life. How many years will the battery last, and how many kilometers can the vehicle run before the battery pack needs to be completely replaced?

However, as of now, we do not have enough data to answer this question directly because electric vehicles have not been widely used long enough and the previous generation of electric vehicles are still on the road today and have not yet reached the scrap age.

In addition to those defective battery packs, most of the replaced battery packs are on electric vehicles with excessive mileage. For example, foreign media reported a Model X with a mileage of more than 400,000 miles (640,000 kilometers), which replaced the battery at about 325,000 miles (520,000 kilometers). However, for most electric car owners who use their cars normally, we have to estimate the life of the battery pack based on the degradation of the battery, which in most cases is quite small.

Tesla co-founder and former CTO Straubel said in a recent interview that he believes electric car batteries should be able to last 15 years, depending on utilization.

“It’s a subjective thing and depends on what people’s goals are for the car, but I think in most cases it’s easily 15 years,” he said. “I think the battery life is probably going to be the lifetime of the vehicle. I personally think people are unlikely to put a new battery in an old car.”

When it comes to battery issues, Straubel can be said to be very professional. He was responsible for Tesla's battery development before 2019.

Since leaving Tesla, the engineer has been keeping a close eye on how electric vehicle batteries age, a topic that will be critical to his new venture, Redwood Materials.

Redwood Materials is currently developing new processes for recycling materials, and the company's business focus is on electric vehicle batteries. The company also recently announced that they will also begin battery cathode and anode material production and will build a battery material plant in the United States with a capacity of up to 100GWh.

The longer a battery pack lasts, the better. But one of the main advantages of electric vehicles over gasoline-powered cars is that when the vehicle and battery are scrapped, the battery pack remains very valuable due to the large amount of base metals it contains.

Straubel's new venture has already partnered with Ford and Volvo to recycle battery packs at the end of their life, but this is just the beginning. Right now, only tens to hundreds of thousands of electric cars are scrapped each year. In the future, if we believe Straubel's timeline, this number will rise to millions within 15 years.