One of my concerns with buying an electric car would be that I'd be buying a very expensive battery that will date very quickly - within a couple of years, it would be replaced by lighter, cheaper, more capable batteries. If I was renting batteries, I would expect to keep up with the technology.

but c'mon. 70 - 80% capacity after 10 years? My laptop can't do that after 10 months!

Where Barnes & Noble got the idea for naming their new e-book reader. Cross over customers will be able to read their Nook e-book while sitting in their Leaf e-car...

(I know, should have been 'I'll get my coat' rather than 'Joke Alert)'

Well, that's not that bad. I've seen a lot of 10 year old petrol cars aren't 80% as efficient as they were when they were new.

The reason your laptop batteries get knackered is because they are not managed properly in terms of charge and temperature. Car batteries are tightly managed. Honestly they simply wouldn't be able to release a car that was knackered after a couple of years use it would be commercial suicide!

..and I'll say it again.

Standardise on a power-cell form-factor, and user-swappable batteries for sale at "petrol stations" will allow you to refill and extend your range without waiting hours for a recharge. Solves the problem of range, solves the problem of finite battery life, solves the problem of power-cell obsolescence (to some extent)

@miknik, have you driven a ford lately? Known to mechanics as part eating machines. They are designed to become knackered after 2 or 3 years.

Ran on a rolling road they lost about 4HP/year.

How many 5 year old cars have been maintained well enough to retain their original HP?

The difference between a properly running engine and one that leaks oil all over the place is about 2thou (50micrometres)..

Given the battery is the major item that will degrade/fail over the life of an EV something which addresses that problem is a key element of improving takeup.

This has bugger all to do with battery life / costs.

It's do with how crap the economy is.

Unless of course you know how much a £ against a dollar / euro / Yen will be in a years time, in which case you really shouldn't be on a techie site.

had an old Fiesta ages ago that my sis just dropped on me when she left the country.. damn thing never broke down - the cooler fan stopped working at some point but it still had no problems...

twas a rust bucket but it had a really strong heart!!...

plus it had a great anti tailgate feature!!.. turn the choke on when anyone's cruising to close and it would smoke them out!!!!

They should reintroduce that feature methinks...

Beer icon being raised to that old Fiesta (in a scrap yard somewhere...)

Not true! Ive had fords for the past 20 years ranging from fiesta, escort, sierra, ka, mondeo, focus and now an smax. *all* of them died of high mileage and since im self employed claiming 60k via my umbrella company the ones in the past 10 years have had some fair use. The SMax has already put on 80k in just short of 2 years without skipping a beat and the focus before it was sold on ebay at 215k (for £500 too!)

Granted the mondeo and focuse needed suspension bushes at 120k, the focus needed a new maf sensor and throttle body assembly but that is all (apart from maintenance parts).

All cars can be lemons but with a bit of maintenance and not getting the arse ragged off them they will survive. I very much DOUBT that batteries will be 80% capacity for 10 years in the sort of use that a car will need them for. Sure you can get nicads that (if looked after) will do so but not LI batteries. They self consume dont they? Hence even STORING them degrades performance!

Renault and Peugeot have been using this commercial model (buy the shell, lease the batteries) for a long time with their private and industrial e-vehicle, starting in the early '90s with the Clio, 106 and Traffic van.