Electric Cars have Battery Problems?

Hey Guys, Welcome to Motoroctane, How are you all? Guys, we receive a lot of doubts, Which car to buy? Petrol, Diesel, Electric, CNG, Hybrid, There are so many options available in the market. So in today's video, we are talking about electric cars specifically, And as a car expert, I will try to clarify all your doubts about electric cars. Today’s topic of discussion is electric car batteries. That’s it! Nothing else. We will not talk about anything else as we receive maximum doubts regarding t

he battery. So this video is dedicated to the electric car battery and we will try to clarify all your doubts, And will let you know if you should buy the electric car or not. I will not talk about petrol, diesel, or hybrid, In this video, I will discuss the doubts about electric cars, Specifically on batteries, And give a clear clarification. I will explain you in the simplest language so that it will give you as a car buyer clarity. Also, if you are confused if you should buy an electric car i

n 2023 or not, For that, I have already made a video and I am leaving the link in the ‘I’ button, Do go and check it out. Without waiting any further time, Let’s go in the video. [Music] So in this video, we will talk specifically about electric cars, How are they? Should you consider it or not? And this video is dedicated just to electric car batteries. I know you guys have many doubts, And the video we made before on if you should buy an electric car in 2023 or not, So today’s video is sort of

follow-up video of the same as we received doubts on the battery, And to some extent the doubts were not appropriate. They are more like myths. We will completely educate you in this video about electric cars battery, And we have made a complete series called Go Electric, Just to clarify your doubts about electric cars. We talk to owners, We will try and cover detailed information about technology, And this video is all about the battery pack. Now, there are two types of batteries, One is the L

FP, And the other is the NMC. LFP is Lithium Iron Phosphate, While the NMC stands for, Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide. I am repeating it so listen carefully. LFP is standing for Lithium Iron Phosphate, And NMC stands for Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide. Now you don’t need to remember the entire name and you can just remember the abbreviations. Talking about the automakers that use LFP batteries are- Tata Motors, Volkswagen Group, and even the BYD, And many other automakers use LFP b

atteries. While talking about the NMC, They are used by Mercedes Benz, BMW, And even for a matter of fact Volvo, And many other performance oriented brands like Hyundai and Kia, Also uses NMC batteries. But there are few brands that either use both technologies, Or may use one for a while or other for a while. For instance, we have the MG ZS EV with us which was introduced to India in 2020, And it was launched with NMC battery. But now it comes with LFP battery. On the other hand, if I talk abou

t Tesla or even Mahindra, They use both these technologies. So Tesla uses NMC in its high end cars, And LFP batteries for their standard range cars. While talking about the Mahindra XUV 400, It is equipped with NMC battery, But as they have tied up with VW group for their upcoming cars, And since VW group uses LFP batteries, They will provide LFP batteries in the Mahindra cars. So it is not like LFP is better or NMC is better, The brands use the battery pack according to them, Trying to make the

m efficient and beneficial to the car buyers, According to their potential. Now let us first talk about the Advantages of NMC, And let’s make it very easy and simple. The very first point is the NMC has more power holding capacity. Let me explain it to you. Suppose you buy a normal pencil cell and a Duracell pencil cell, And Duracell says their batteries last longer. So their fundamentals are expensive as their batteries have the capacity to hold more power. In short, if the life of Duracell is

longer, Then the battery charge is more. Similarly, the NMC can hold more charge compared to the LFP. So suppose the battery pack is 10kW, Then in that case the battery size of NMC will be smaller compared to LFP, And you will not have to reserve more battery space in your car, And you can utilize that space for boot and a lot more things. I mean you can utilize that extra space for anything else. Whereas in LFP you have to compromise by dedicating more space to it. Now in both cases, the techno

logies have received improvements, By making NMC batteries denser, And many brands are using different technologies for LFP, like blades to make them compact, And a lot of work has been done. The second advantage NMC batteries have is the power discharge is pretty fast. So if you want a performance car then the NMC batteries are preferable. And so most performance-oriented cars are equipped with NMC batteries. The third advantage of the NMC batteries is they work pretty good at lower temperature

s, Compared to the LFP. While talking about the advantages of LFP batteries, The most important advantage is the charge cycle. Now what exactly is a charge cycle? So suppose you have charged your car to 100% And the battery drops down to 5% after use. Now when you charge it back to 100% Then that will be counted as one charge cycle. So in that case, You get 2500-3000 charge cycle in LFP, And around 1500 charge cycles in NMC. That way the battery life increases as you get more charge cycles. The

second advantage is that the chemical stability in the LFP is better than the NMC. So the chemical reaction is stable in LFP compared to an NMC. Now let’s talk about the negative that people think about, And we will clarify if they are really negative points or misunderstandings. So the very first negative point that people usually think is that the technology of batteries of electric cars is very old. And soon a new technology will be introduced and that will be much better. So firstly this is

just for the sake of saying, And if such technology has developed, Then it will take a minimum of 5 to 6 years for that technology to get into production. They have to make an entire supply chain. They have to decide supplier, manufacturer, Then they will test the car and then launch it. So the process does take at least 5 to 6 years time. But the current technologies that are available, NMC and LFP, Both are pretty sorted. Many have said me that NMC is an old and outdated technology, But that’s

not true. Talking about NMC, At least 60% of the electric cars sold worldwide, Are equipped with NMC. And it’s not like NMC manufacturers are shifting to LFP or they are shutting down the NMC, That’s not the case. The users of NMC are continuing to use NMC and more new cars are launched with NMC batteries. Similarly, those who are using LFP are continuing with LFP. So it’s not like one is the best as some automakers use both technologies. Like Tesla is offering LFP in their low end cars and NMC

in their high end cars. So there’s nothing wrong. And I am not claiming either of them is better, I am saying that both technologies are best in their own ways. So those who say LFP is better or NMC is better, Both technologies have their own pros and cons, And both are suitable for Indian conditions also. The second point is that electric cars catch fire easily. You might have either heard it or eye-witnessed it. But let me break down some facts for you. There is combustion in a petrol engine

with the help of a spark plug, And the temperature in the process goes up to 800°-1000°c. So for that, we use the engine coolant because of which the running temperature of the engine stays below 200°c. Now just by adding a coolant if you can bring the engine temperature down to 200° from 1000°c, Then in electric cars, there is no combustion or no petrol inside, Right? The battery pack runs with the motor, And mostly the battery cells heat up while fast charging, And that is when the battery man

agement system comes into the picture as the coolant is included to cool down the battery pack. Now just for your understanding, There is a term called Thermal Runaway for catching fire in electric cars. So in NMC it is 210°c and in LFP it is 270°c. And it is very difficult to reach that temperature as the battery cooling prevents it from heating to that extent. Now let me share some interesting statistics with you guys. There is an insurance site in the US called Autoinsurance EZ, And according

to the stats of these two boards that measure all the accidents in the US, Through them, they concluded that for every 1-Lakh electric cars sold, Only 25 cars caught fire. Whereas, 1529 cars catch fire from every 1-Lakh ICE cars sold. It’s 1500 for every 1-Lakh car. At the same time, When every 1-Lakh hybrid car are sold, Almost 3,474 cars catch fire. So technically Hybrid cars are more prone to catch fire, And the electric cars are the least. Now let me give the facts. We do hear a lot about e

lectric cars catching fire, But let me tell you a simple fact. Just go and search how many petrol cars or bikes catch fire. You will be shocked to know that almost every day a petrol car or bike catches fire, But they don’t get the coverage importance. While electric cars being a new technology, They are in the limelight if they catch fire. So here I would highlight an important point that there is a combustion in a petrol car, And I am not saying to avoid petrol technology, But all I am trying

to say is I am just sharing the facts in this video. The next point I hear a lot which is funny that after 3-5 years you will have to scrap your electric car because it gets damaged. I mean from where do you guys jump to this conclusion? Do you own an EV or have you ever experienced it? Is that happening with you or you are concluding just by reading it on mobile or laptops? Please tell me honestly! These facts are completely wrong. Let me share a very simple fact with you. LFP has 3000 charge c

ycles and NMC has 1500 charge cycles? So let's consider the 1500 charge cycle. Now considering these three cars, Let's talk about XUV 400 as it has a claimed range of 300km in real life. Considering 1500 charge cycles, 1500 multiplied by 300, It’s 4.5 lakh km before your battery goes waste. Technically after that the battery degradation actually starts, But I am talking according to your point of view. Let us assume that the battery will not work after 4.5 lakh km, Now among all of you, How many

have driven the car for 4.5 lakhs km? One out of ten or maybe one out of a hundred. So we don’t really drive a car for 4.5 Lakh km. Now some may say even if they don’t drive that much still the battery will get damaged after a few years. So now let’s answer that point. Now taking XUV 400 as an example, If you drive your car for 100 km per day, Then you will charge your car on every third day. It means that you will charge the car 10 times every 30 days, And 120 times in a year. So if I divide 1

500 (charge cycles) by 120, Your battery life will be more than 12 years. Now say for many years you use the car. Let us break even further. If you drive for 50 km per day, Then you will charge the car every 6th day, And the battery life will go up to 24 years. So talking further about NMC batteries, Tesla too uses NMC batteries. So an owner of the Tesla Model S, Drove his car for more than 16 Lakh km, With 12 Lakh km was run on the original battery pack. Have you driven any car for over 12 Lakh

km? Be it petrol or diesel, Have you ever thought of driving your car to this extent? Also, the 12 Lakh km was driven on the original set of battery pack. This talks a lot about durability and strength and you simply don’t have to worry about them. Now some people have commented that insurance cannot be claimed in case of accidents. So we did research and even spoke to a few insurance companies, And they said that if we are insuring an electric car then why will we not insure the battery pack a

nd motors? But it depends on condition to condition and as not everything is covered under insurance, There are few terms and conditions with insurance companies and few companies offer extra packs on batteries, And everyone has different terms and conditions. To be very honest I am not an insurance expert, I am a car expert. And the insurance companies that insure your electric cars, They insure the battery pack, Be it replacement or any damage it suffers in an accident, And each company has di

fferent terms and conditions which I can’t tell in detail, Because it’s something that you will have to read yourself while buying insurance for an electric car. The final doubt or the question people have is what will happen after the standard 8 year warranty on the battery expires? See I’ll be very honest and frank, All the cars present here, The majority of electric cars offer 8 years and 1,60,000 km of warranty. Do any petrol or diesel cars offer 8 years of warranty? Generally you get a warr

anty of 3 years, And few offer for 5 years, right? But not for 8 years. And in that case, you don’t think that what will happen to the petrol engine after 3 years. That is because petrol and diesel engines have a long history and we know everything about it. But electric cars have no history in India so how can we simply claim that electric cars won’t be successful? The question is right and let me clarify the doubt. Talking about NMC batteries, Again I am coming to NMC specific as many think th

at NMC batteries have less charge cycle which is not suitable. Let me break it down here for you. There is a survey with Tesla as they have sold a lot of cars and have run for a lot of kilometres. So they have found that Tesla cars that have crossed 2 Lakh miles or 3.2 Lakh kilometres, The battery on those cars has degraded by 12%. So if consider XUV 400 as an example, This car has a real life range of 300 km, And if you drive it for 3,20,000 km, Its range will drop by 12% and will give a real l

ife range of 260-265 km. Now, if you charge your car at home then the running cost of an electric car is 1-1.5 rs per km. Whereas talking about petrol or diesel cars, The running cost is 10-12 rs per km specifically for a petrol car. So on an average you save 10 rs per km in an electric car. Now this analysis becomes very important. If you drive an electric car for 3 Lakh km, Listen to me carefully, Multiplying 3 Lakh by 10, You will already save 30 Lakh in fuel. You save 30 Lakh for a car that

doesn’t even cost 30 Lakhs. So, in short, your savings will be a lot more compared to a petrol car or a diesel car. And I have already explained about the battery life of an electric car. So I hope I was able to clarify your doubts about electric car batteries. I have already made a few videos that you can watch. Should you buy an electric car in 2023? Is the title of that video, And you will get other analyses in that video. So I have clarified your doubts about resale and since your battery is

n’t affected then how can the resale? Hope you are understanding the facts and figures. So this was all about today's video and I hope I clarified all your doubts, Specifically on electric car batteries. If you still have some doubts you put it in the comments, And we will try to answer them or by making videos eventually as we go ahead with time. Now, with so many options in the market of petrol, electric, diesel, or even hybrid, You might get confused. You might decide on the body style but ma

y get confused about which fuel to opt for. So in that case you can join me or my team of experts on a phone call and get all your doubts clarified. All you have to do is, Visit motoroctane.com/car-consultancy, Fill up some of your details, And book a call timing with an expert. It is that easy. But subscribing to Motoroctane is even easy. We bring exciting content on a daily basis that will give clarity to you as a car buyer that which car to buy and for what reason. So ending today’s video, we

have put in a lot of effort. See you tomorrow with an all-new video guys, Take care, See you tomorrow, Bye!