The new (2022 onwards) Kia Niro EV has a solution for that problem. It has a 'brake cleaning mode' which when selected temporarily disables the regenerative braking so the next few times you touch the brake pedal it solely uses the mechanical brakes. I don't know if other EV manufactures have a similar feature.
I have driven a regeneratively-braked hybrid for 20+ years, the regenerative braking retardation is determined by the ability of the battery to accept charge and the state of charge of the battery, when the battery is near-full or full, regen diminishes to low levels to avoid overcharging the battery, so friction brakes are needed and used. Wear and tear of friction brakes is less but the friction brakes are never inactive.
The buyer is accepting at purchase that the battery may degrade up to the point where its capacity is 70% of new. Not that it will. I suspect that manufacturers will be reluctant to design and build something that is so close to this tolerance as to be likely to result in a warranty claim. That would not be good business. Thus, statistically, I suspect that by the time you scrap the car for other reasons, it's probably going to still have a perfectly usable battery. There is some limited evidence of ultra-high mileage cars that remain perfectly usable, but it's still too early to say for certain, one way or the other. But either way, you are "safe" for its first 8 years. Direct Line cite that the average age of cars on UK roads is rising at around (only) 9.4 years (in 2023).
Friction brakes are used to a far lesser degree in EVs as most of the braking force is provided by regeneration/retardation. Hence they wear much, much less, but are somewhat more prone to corrosion since they don't get worn and thereby polished to the same degree. But (depending on the car) you either can, or unavoidably will, use friction some of the time. In my car (and they aren't all like this) if the battery is full then regeneration doesn't work for the first few miles, for that would attempt to overcharge it and that is prevented. And my electric retard/regen only slows the car to a crawl at best; it doesn't stop it; again, friction is needed. So they do get enough wear to keep shiny. In other cases, an occasional otherwise unnecessary sharp application of the brakes is all that is needed to maintain them. And, of course, as you say, any necessary sharp application (such as an emergency stop) does the same thing.
At consultation stages of drafting of the ZEV Act of Parliament, car makers sought a permitted degradation to 60%, the Act passed with 70% as the permitted degardation figure, if the car makers are so confident of the battery technology, then why such a low 60% or 70%, why not 85% as the trigger point fro the warranty?
Alledgedly the £100 leisure battery doesnt have the right capabilities of driving the electric cars control system? as a consequence the correct battery requires to be coded so the central "computer" recognises it and will power up the car. Apparently the Golf battery costs around £500 plus VAT the remainder is the fitting and labour costs for correctly coding it. According to my source who might be a patrolman for a major motoring organisation. You can give the old battery a quick fast charge and the car will get the owner back to London but it will most likely fail again in the next 10 days. They dont have any contacts for non main stealer batteries.
I am aware of "coding" a car to a 12 V battery, the service bay enter a setting in the ECU when a new 12V battery is installed if the new battery is not the same chemistry as the old, the car ECU and alternator match charging control to the chemistry of the battery installed.
As I said before - it's simply not economic or realistic to set the mandated threshold at a point where it brings a high probability of claim. There are limits as to what battery technology can achieve and some degradation is unavoidable. Put simply - if the mandated threshold is too high, then the probability that unavoidable variances in production and/or in drivers' behaviour will give rise to a warranty claim rises with it. And ultimately, the cost of those warranty batteries is only ever borne by the customer as part of their initial purchase price.
In the past had an an interesting conversation with a young Polish Graduate Engineer on a 2-hour train journey concerning those first generation Nissan Leaf cars, he was an all-round engineer in electronics and programming. Young , keen,versatile, highly employable.... very switched on!
Fuel cells are muscling into industrial applications, but not in cars, the fuel cells are used for demand balancing, eg electrical demand of a chemical plant, the aim is for the plant to negotiate with an electricity supplier a price for a contract for electricity supply with strict rules and penalties for exceeding contracted demand and even dipping below contracted demand. The purpose of the fuel cell in such arrangements is to assist with control and regulation of power requirements of the plant to avoid penalties
which (presumably) is irrelevant / of no use at all in the UK!
Oh how wrong that is. Much of our consumer legislation is the same or equivalent that that established by the EU. It will continue to be that way at least for decades.
If you were going from Folkestone to Dunblane youd go M20/25/11/A14/1/66 to join the M6 at Penrith via Scotch Corner its shorter and nearly always quicker that way. The only regular hold up on that route is the A1 Doncaster Bypass between the M18 and M62. In fact its often quicker to take the M18 eastwards and then the M62 back west to ferrybridge. In 30 years of travelling between Kent and Faslane the only time Id use the M6 south of penrith was when Stainmoor was closed by snow. Its about 485 miles to Dunblane using that route.
There are expectations that you can work on your own car, it is not in law, but it is a very cultural thing in most of Europe.
My major car recovery patrolman reckons that the reason ICE car reliability is plummeting is the overcomplicated electronics are failing rather than a mechanical fault. he reckons that is already an issue in terms of motorway breakdowns for some makes of EV. He is particularly scathing of one German manufacturer (not part of VAG). He covers the M20/5/6.
Oh absolutely. I have a '93 Merc, it has done 330k km, without major mechanical issues, the only issues have been electrical.
Source please.
