Lucid & BMW Execs Claim Efficiency More Important Than Range For Electric Cars – CleanTechnica

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Lucid and BMW build electric cars with large batteries and long range. Both think the future will belong to cars with smaller batteries and less range. That may seem contradictory, but that’s the message from Peter Rawlinson, CEO of Lucid, and Frank Weber, the head of development at BMW. In an interview with InsideEVs, Rawlinson said because of his company’s emphasis on efficiency, a future model with 180 miles of range would only need a 30 kWh battery — about two thirds less than what many manufacturers install in their electric cars today. “Then we can make a battery pack for about $2,500 — maybe $2,000 — instead of $20,000 or $25,000 today,” Rawlinson told those in attendance at the BloombergNEF Summit in San Francisco recently. “And that is the driver for the mass adoption of the EV to save all mankind in the future.”

The key to this medium range future is more investment not just in DC fast-charging stations, but also in slower Level 2 chargers, which Rawlinson thinks have been overlooked. Level 2 chargers aren’t as sexy as the high-powered DC chargers that can charge an entire battery in 20 minutes, but they are cheaper to install and work well for apartment complexes, on-street parking, and offices — places where people typically leave their cars for extended periods. People are fixated on how fast their EVs can charge, but that is old-fashioned thinking left over from the days of gasoline. No one wants to spend any more time than necessary at the gas pump. The idea that their car can charge while they are off doing other things is an alien concept that takes some getting used to. “My view is there is a myopia, an over-focus, on DC fast charging,” Rawlinson said. “The narrative should be about AC charging, overnight charging.”

Once charging infrastructure is abundant and reliable enough, drivers will get used to juicing up whenever they’re parked, he said. And once you can plug in anywhere at any time, you won’t need hundreds of miles of extra range as a buffer. By 2030, Rawlinson believes buyers will accept a range of 200 miles for a family car. While that would not be ideal for long road trips, Rawlinson points is that most people don’t drive too far on a typical day. According to the Department of Transportation, Americans tend to drive just under 40 miles daily, which means if they had 180 miles of range, they could go three to four days without charging. Imagine that!

BMW and EV Range

In an interview with Automotive News, BMW development boss Frank Weber said companies can’t “make batteries bigger and bigger because then BEVs don’t make sense anymore.” He mentioned that there is much talk about EVs that can drive more than 620 miles on a full charge, but he says building such cars creates an “unnecessarily bad” carbon footprint. Instead, working on the car’s efficiency is “much more important than ever-larger batteries.” According to some polling by BMW, EV drivers are satisfied with a vehicle that can drive 250 to 310 miles on a full charge under real-world conditions. BMW already has several EVs that meet that need, but things are about to become better for drivers of electric BMWs. When the upcoming Neue Klasse models are available, the company claims real-world ranges will increase by almost 30 percent compared to current models. That is a huge improvement.

“From the data we have, only very few people travel distances of several hundred kilometers with a BEV,” Weber said, underlining once again the need for more efficient EVs as opposed to heavier cars with bigger batteries. The latest battery tech is also a big factor in making EV owners’ lives easier. The upcoming Neue Klasse EVs will be powered by new cylindrical cells that were developed in-house by BMW, which the company claims will offer 30 percent faster charging compared to current cells, which will make adding about 190 miles of range in just 10 minutes possible. When it comes to solid-state batteries, which are touted as the next new thing in cell technology, Weber believes that they are still a decade away from commercial production at scale. “They will come, but they are still at least one vehicle generation away,” he said.

Solid-State Batteries from Hyundai

That last part is interesting. Multiple news sources are reporting that Hyundai intends to introduce its first solid-state battery in March and expects to have a prototype electric car that uses the new battery technology by later this year or early 2026. Top Speed says that sources have told ET News in South Korea that Hyundai will hold an opening ceremony on March 9th at its Uiwang Research Center in Korea. At that ceremony, Hyundai reportedly plans to publicly unveil its solid-state battery production line. According to sources in South Korea, representatives from General Motors will also be present as well as key officials from Hyundai Motor Group. The pilot line is designed to test what a full-scale production line will look and operate like. Hyundai will carefully monitor the line’s ability to produce solid-state batteries that meet the specifications established by the company.

Solid-state batteries have higher energy density for longer range and faster charging times but are more expensive to manufacture at the present time. Costs are expected to come down as volume production begins later this decade. At the present time, Hyundai anticipates its first cars with solid-state batteries will go into production in 2030. Some other companies such as Honda and Toyota say their cars with solid-state batteries will be available a year or two earlier than that.

Solid-state battery technology fits nicely with the smaller, lighter battery approach that Rawlinson and Weber see as the path forward for their respective companies. But as Rawlinson says, the expansion of public Level 2 charging networks will be key to achieving that goal. Also key is changing people’s attitudes about electric cars. Unlike gasmobiles, if adequate charging infrastructure exists, people can plug in whenever it is convenient, even if it is only for a half hour or so while they visit a fast food restaurant or an hour for a business meeting. EVs are like humming birds. They can get a sip of electricity here and another sip there. There is no need to charge to some arbitrary level at every opportunity. As long as there is enough charge in the battery to get to the next charging opportunity, that is more than adequate for virtually all drivers.

The EV revolution is not over, although it has run into policy hurdles in the US. The percentage of EV sales is increasing steadily in most countries and chargers are being added every day. New technologies like solid-state batteries are getting closer to commercial production. For EV advocates, you have nothing to fear but fear itself. As we say around the breakfast bar at CleanTechnica global headquarters, Keep Calm And Charge On!