Electric Motors and Batteries 101

My 2022 series on electric motors and batteries is quite popular but I did forget to include yet another simple conclusion to the set, it’s quite obvious: 

Simply and also an example, if your electric car/motorcycle/vehicle has a battery capacity of 100 kWh and your average battery usage per 100 km is 10kWh then the maximum distance your can travel on a full battery charge is 1000 km (Battery capacity divided by usage).  This value is more often reduced than increased by the multitude of factors I wrote about in prior articles. 

However that is mathematically speaking. As I mentioned there are many factors that effect this figure and one of the factors I forgot to add was that the usable battery is not the same as battery capacity. In the case of Lithium-Ion batteries which is the most popular battery type in 2022, the usable battery capacity is reduced to about 8% – according to my understanding. Furthermore Lithium-Ion batteries have a finite lifespan based on the number of charging cycles and since no manufacturer publishes this number I can only guess based on the mobile phone experience.  So after 3 years you’ll notice the battery loss and after 5 years you really need to start looking for a new battery.

Please check out the other articles in the series:

Understanding electric cars and motorcycles and their efficiency.

What affects motor performance and battery performance (Types of batteries).

Types of electric motors.