THE MILLION-MILE BATTERY

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said earlier this year that the Model 3’s body and motor can last up to 1 million miles, and the battery can last up to 500,000 miles.

Professor Jeff Dahn of Dalhousie University, who has a battery research partnership with Tesla, has developed a next-generation battery with an NMC cathode and a new, advanced electrolyte that will last two to three times as long as current batteries. Dahn predicts that the batteries could last 20 years or more, even with constant use. Part of the secret is having an active cooling system and not charging the batteries to quite 100 percent.

While Professor Dahn is thinking about the application would work for robo taxis, which put in a tremendous number of miles, we’re thinking of keeping a bike for a long time and not worrying about the capacity of the battery going down over time.