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I'm interested in $/kWh, that is the most limiting factor for cars.


volume/kWh also matters for car use-cases (but especially for less high end cars not as much as kg/kWh)

$/kWh is mainly affected by: material cost, manufacturing cost, cost of safely using it (e.g. shielding but also e.g. fire insurances), replacement cost (lifetime, frequency of repairs, needs full replacement for repairs?, refurbish-ability etc.)

As far as I can tell the material and safety cost should be much and somewhat cheaper, the manufacturing cost is hard to say but initially is likely more expensive as it's a new process and the durability and refurbish-ability are probably major points which will decide weather it's competitive in the vehicle market or not.


Will Volume/kWh really matter if they use the battery also as a major structural component? Doesn't skateboard chassis require structural reinforcement even at the cell level?


It can because even "skateboard chassis" have limited volume.

For high end e-cars the maximal reach tends to matter a lot, even if for some buyers it only matters in advertisements.

For less high end cars they often anyway compromise on range so it might not matter as much but then in many places (which are not in the US) having small cars matters a lot to a point that sometimes e.g. typical SUVs might not be usable _at all_, and I mean EU style SUVs not US style SUVs (through most times its just very inconvenient). And small cars mean little space for batteries (potential only 50% of the space).

Lastly there are some aspects of different styles of "skateboard chassis" having different usable volumes for battery cells. And some especially save and refurbishable chassis designs come with the penalty of having a bit less volume to use.

So the answer is very dependent on the context.




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