I mean sure but if you already own an electric car then a spike in battery price doesn’t particularly affect your day to day like a spike in gas prices would.
Yeah fair, it’s mostly useless in my state, but very prevalent in other states I just forget it exists. But also swapping a stove, water heater, and AC is still a lot cheaper than a new car. (I mean the AC is the only one that’s even close) are there other things people use gas for I’m forgetting?
Heating. Swapping which is far above the price of a used car.
Edit: i realize now you said water heater, but switching off gas generally involves swapping the entire heatinf system, the costs of which are usually 5 digit for a single family home.
Fair, most buying an EV I assumed are new and not used so I was looking at like 30-60k (in America) for car vs like 10-20k for new AC/water heater/stove+new wiring (more expensive than the stove or water heater themselves.) but it’s a lot more comparable when looking at used (still like 10-20k). Also realize availability and pricing for cars is likely better outside the US.
Also I realize I’m in hot world where AC=heating and cooling and in not-hot world heating and AC might not be interchangeable but I can’t imagine heating costs much more than an AC unit?
Yes, it is more so the efficient processing and refining that is rare.
You can make a T-shirt anywhere, but if you have to first build your own cotton farms and factories locally, construction will take years and your shirts will cost 10x more.
Sodium ion batteries are already in production. They’re not quite at the energy density of lithium but it’s close and also irrelevant for grid storage.
Yes, then we will fight over Rare Earths.
I mean sure but if you already own an electric car then a spike in battery price doesn’t particularly affect your day to day like a spike in gas prices would.
Much of Europe uses gas for heating their houses. Much of industry uses vast amounts of gas for heating all sorts of materials from asphalt to bread.
Yeah fair, it’s mostly useless in my state, but very prevalent in other states I just forget it exists. But also swapping a stove, water heater, and AC is still a lot cheaper than a new car. (I mean the AC is the only one that’s even close) are there other things people use gas for I’m forgetting?
Heating. Swapping which is far above the price of a used car.
Edit: i realize now you said water heater, but switching off gas generally involves swapping the entire heatinf system, the costs of which are usually 5 digit for a single family home.
Fair, most buying an EV I assumed are new and not used so I was looking at like 30-60k (in America) for car vs like 10-20k for new AC/water heater/stove+new wiring (more expensive than the stove or water heater themselves.) but it’s a lot more comparable when looking at used (still like 10-20k). Also realize availability and pricing for cars is likely better outside the US.
Also I realize I’m in hot world where AC=heating and cooling and in not-hot world heating and AC might not be interchangeable but I can’t imagine heating costs much more than an AC unit?
I think bombs dropping on heads will still affect daily life.
Rare earths are not geographically rare. There is just a lower % of them per sample.
They also are used in ICE catalytic convertors in every vehicle. But, unlike ICE, EV rare earths can be recycled.
You can recycle catalytic converters though, that’s really not the big problem for combustion engines…
not very efficiently. There’s a reason crackheads steal newer ones.
Yes, it is more so the efficient processing and refining that is rare.
You can make a T-shirt anywhere, but if you have to first build your own cotton farms and factories locally, construction will take years and your shirts will cost 10x more.
Sodium ion batteries are already in production. They’re not quite at the energy density of lithium but it’s close and also irrelevant for grid storage.
Rare earths aren’t just used in batteries, lol
Are they? I haven’t really been able to find any being offered.
https://electrek.co/2026/02/05/first-sodium-ion-battery-ev-debuts-game-changer/
Cool! I kinda meant “can I buy the cells”, but if they’re being produced in car scales, it’ll probably be a yes pretty soon.
After a little more digging, yes you can!
https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/catl-sodium-ion-battery-cell.html