Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Next thing you know, Joe Hacker's total electric conversion uses all the imperfect cells in one poorly balanced battery and burns down a city block.

And you think manufacturers in China give a shit if that happens?



Yes, if they are the well-known large manufacturers, they certainly do to an extend. But mainly it probably depends on the deal the car manufacturers are getting. Supply prices for things not priced by open markets, are a very big secret. So the manufacturers might give car factory especially good conditions, which they don't want to disrupt the market entirely. Which is fine, as long as the batteries all end up in cars, but they don't want the car manufacturers become battery sellers and disrupt the market. And coming back to safety: they batteries might be specially configured for cars, where proper packaging and electronic control can be guaranteed, but you don't want to sell these configurations to non-manufacturers.


I would hope auto companies buying batteries would pay attention to the number of house burned down by batteries from that supplier, yes.


Its not the auto companies restricting resale


No, which is why I think they can sell them so cheap. They're largely immune to the consequences so they don't have to invest in risk mitigation which tends to be expensive.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: