They don’t need them, but there are special plates available. Like MD plates or veterans plates, they might have certain benefits. The dealer (who did all the paperwork for our new car) recommended them. And yes, they exist in other countries.
https://wheelfront.com/the-benefits-and-costs-of-an-ev-license-plate-what-you-need-to-know/
Far from true. One of the features of SSB is safety including those that are being made and released this year
A good overview
AIUI, in my state (Illinois), I think that EVs were required to have special “EL” plates, though that’s apparently changed in recent years. The reasoning was that the EL plate fee included a surcharge to offset the fact that, as EVs don’t use gasoline, owners don’t pay the state tax on gas which goes into the state highway maintenance fund.
At some point, Illinois apparently figured out how to charge EV owners that surcharge without the special plate.
The plates allowed access to HOV lanes in some states regardless of #of passengers. Demento Donny put out a screed condemning that practice.
Move on move on nothing to see here…
For those who don’t want to watch an undescribed video, it’s a guy analyzing a BYD announcement of:
Solid state battery pilot project beginning 2027 building towards cost parity with lithium NMC batteries by ~2030.
Sodium Ion battery chemistry under development with 10k cycle life and half the material cost of lithium LFP batteries.
Not sure exactly what we’re supposed to be taking away from this. SS batteries 3-5 years away from entering the market as usual, and lower performance battery chemistries continuing to move to cheaper and cheaper materials which should result in less expensive entry-level vehicles. Yes, battery technology continues to march onward which will continue to improve the value proposition of BEVs. However, nothing immediately revolutionary unless Donut Labs turns out to be for real. Spoiler: Donut Labs will not turn out to be for real.
You miss the point…. SSB is not the holy grail at the moment tho it is coming quickly…sodium is the big shift and that is now
CATL & BYD
This is flat out WRONG..it is not under development
Sodium Ion battery chemistry under development with 10k cycle life and half the material cost of lithium LFP batteries.
and these are the lovely BYD cars coming to Canada in 2026 and already here in Australia where I live
Getting hung up on Donut Labs misses the real disruptor ….sodium, and that is here now.
Also coming to EV 2 wheelers.
Doesn’t this have its own thread? The one that you advised no one to buy an EV now because these developments will change everything and are here now?
Relevant to the American EV industry, if when these products are widely available then the American industry will have either also developed them or be far far behind. But maybe better off than if they had invested more in a yesteryear’s format?
Under development = in the works but not yet available for sale. There are a couple Chinese manufacturers who plan to launch cars with sodium batteries before the end of the year. They’re not yet available for sale. They do purport to offer some significant advantages over LFP batteries, but they’re going to need to because LFP in the North American market is seen as inferior to NMC batteries due to the decreased energy density and corresponding lower ranges. Given that at least initially sodium energy densities look more like LFP than NMC, they’re going to need their other advantages.
Where sodium might really have the edge beyond just being cheaper is winter performance, with purportedly vastly lower cold weather performance degradation vs lithium. This might be revolutionary for truly cold bits of the North American market. But until these things are actually available for sale, and actually being used in truly cold conditions, we won’t know for sure.
But as someone in the market for a car in the next year, this is largely irrelevant. It might be possible to buy a car with a sodium ion battery in China before the year is out. Okay. Is it a model in the segment I’m looking at? Probably not. Will it be available in Canada? No. How long am I supposed to drive a 17-year old ICE instead of jumping into a current BEV offering with all the improvements in driving experience that will entail, because an incrementally even bigger improvement will be available to purchase at some undefined point in the future?
No.
Mandating EVs before optimizing them was optimistic. Consumers do want to save money on gas and in addition to environmental benefits the cost and quality will eventually make them omnipresent.
The Chinese were wise to greatly invest in universities and STEM research on batteries. They publish a majority of new papers in this. Others invest in executive compensation.
Moderating:
@MacDoc
Please do not post unqualified links. If the preview box explains it that is generally OK but still not encouraged. But bare links like yours are not allowed.
I’m going to edit your posts so the previews show at least.
That explains it then. That used to be the case here in Arizona until the privilege was revoked last October – thanks to gerrymandering the state legislature is much more red than the populace. The plate says Alternative Fuel because CNG, LNG, hydrogen, and solar qualify. Hybrids, plug-in or not, do not.
Do you have solar-power vehicles in Arizona?
Experimental, maybe. Another qualifier is one that is 70% AF, 30% gasoline but the AZMVD site says this is not available in Arizona nor how it is accomplished.
I believe you mean this thread:
Please note, the thread title was created by me quickly when spinning off the hijack, and may not fully reflect @MacDoc’s intention.