As it continues to push towards its goal of significantly ramping up all-electric vehicle production over the next few years, one of the biggest hurdles Ford faces is securing enough battery packs to power those vehicles. Aside from obtaining raw materials and entire batteries from a wide berth of suppliers, FoMoCo is also exploring recycling, as well as innovations that aim to reduce the risk of fires. In the meantime, following a recent teardown and examination of the Ford F-150 Lightning, engineer Sandy Munro also found that the Ford EV battery packs present in that model are more service-friendly than units from some of its competitors, and that has major implications for the future, according to Reuters.
Ford EV battery packs were designed from the start to be repairable, which is notable for a number of reasons. For starters, battery packs are the most expensive component in an EV, meaning that in the case of vehicles with non-repairable packs, insurance companies are sometimes writing those vehicles off as a total loss in the event of an accident, which also causes insurance rates to rise.
Additionally, these non-repairable battery packs often wind up in scrap yards, which essentially defeats the purpose of the eco-friendly nature of EVs in the first place. “We’re buying electric cars for sustainability reasons,” said Matthew Avery, research director at automotive risk intelligence company Thatcham Research. “But an EV isn’t very sustainable if you’ve got to throw the battery away after a minor collision.”
This is true of certain models such as the most recent version of the Tesla Model Y, which utilizes new 4680 cells as part of its structural battery pack. Munro has said that this model has “zero repairability,” which creates a conundrum for consumers. “The number of cases is going to increase, so the handling of batteries is a crucial point,” said Christoph Lauterwasser, managing director of the Allianz Center for Technology, a research institute owned by Allianz. “If you throw away the vehicle at an early stage, you’ve lost pretty much all advantage in terms of CO2 emissions.”
We’ll have more on Ford EV battery packs soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
Not to mention the MachE was dropped by Consumer Reports for poor reliability. Also be sure to take your car ‘offline’ like most are doing. Don’t need the EPA feeding power robbing updates to new vehicles.
The real concern around BEV ownership that cheerleaders keep ignoring is the cost of owner ship including insurance.
As it stands now, and reported by independent news services, Tesla for instance has batteries that are 100% non-repairable.
What this means to an insurer is a) you will pay more to insure and b) even a scratched battery may render an otherwise sound battery pack a write off due to risk management mitigation.
That means in simple terms, no insurer will risk a future lawsuit for having insured nothing less than a new, undamaged BEV.
This will almost guarantee very weak values for used BEV and no value for written off units.
It is an open question as to rebuilds of previous write offs, some of which will be ‘like new’ but deemed uninsurable.
This is just some of the stuff the cheerleaders do not want any one to focus on…. and it will be a costly mess for some owners of BEV and jeopardy for purchasers of used product.
Recent news articles are already talking about how expensive EVs are and how Americans aren’t adopting them. EVs are a horrible idea for our country, no one is interested.
Oh my our old K-street pal J(usFor)D(ummies) slipping in with his non cited “recent articles” FUD regarding cost, adoption and terribleness for patriots.
MSN had a big article just last week. Talked about how EVs aren’t selling, and how it’s not related to parts shortages.
LoL. Not true. What’s more to say. Would be useful if you posted a link to back up such statements.