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Europe’s battery problems show the governments need to up their game (www.ft.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/energy@slrpnk.net

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[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Arg, this is so silly. Car batteries were never going to be a huge market, and if at all we need cheaper and smaller EVs, which of course also require only smaller batteries with likely a lower profit margin.

Yet there is a huge, largely untapped market of stationary batteries. Both at utility scale to stabilise grids that are mostly fed by renewables, and at household scale. Every home with solar pannels should also have a sufficiently sized battery pack. It's a real added benefit, especially if utility companies would finally offer electricity prices based on demand over the day to private end users.

[–] sonori@beehaw.org 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Worth noting that utility scale is always going to be cheaper overall than pushing costs onto the household scale, especially as more and more of the cost of a battery system is in the wiring and inverter rather than the cells themselves.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

True, but that most utilities are refusing to pass on the low costs of electricity during certain times on the day / year is making it double disadvantageous for households. If regulators can fix that, I think a lot more people will consider installing batteries in their home for other reasons than just maximum efficiency.

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sorry, but the fact of the matter is that the EU has a ban on fossil fuel cars starting 2035. The EU parliament is very likely going to have a coalition of EPP, Renew and S&D with maybe some support of the Greens or some groups from ECR. S&D and Renew are mostly pro ban. France just voted in a more left leaning parliament as well. So the Council is very likely to remain pro ban and it takes a qualified majority to change that law. There is basically no way to get the ban removed before the car manufacturers have to make the big investments into new EV factories.

This is CEOs preferring short term profits to make themself richer, while destroying the future of their companies.

[–] sonori@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

From my understanding the ban is only on solely combustion powered vehicles, plug in hybrid and methane steam reformation created hydrogen will still be allowed and expected, so it’s not really a ban on fossil fuel cars, but rather just on the inherently carbon producing ones.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yes, Germany pushed though an "synthetic fuel" exception, but that will be a niche product compared to electric cars.

The main "problem" is that European car manufacturers think small and efficient EVs are not profitable enough, thus they are neglecting that market or even cancelling their existing offers. This of course has a lot of knock-down effects, and with foreign luxury brands also being slowly pushed out of the Chinese market, there is really not much left these European companies can do to keep up their high profit margins (which directly relate to C-suite compensation, hence the big focus on that at the top).

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago

It has to be zero emissions "synthetic fuel" though. So if you use methane it has to be biogas and not natural gas.

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago

The rule is zero emissions for new cars sold in the EU starting 2035. So plug in hybrids are allowed as long as they only use e-fuels. Methane steam reformed hydrogen would also be allowed, as long as the methane does not come from fossil fuels.