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Commercial-Army2431 t1_j23439h wrote

Reply to comment by enjoyoutdoors in ELI5 why do electric vehicles have one big battery that's hard to replace once it's expired, rather than lots of smaller ones that could be swapped out based on need (to trade off range/power/weight)? by ginonofalg

Maybe loss of efficiency with added resistance between multiple batteries and systems? Idk???

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DoomGoober t1_j23sdmh wrote

As I understand it, car batteries are arranged in packs of serial or parallel configurations to intentionally harness the resistance of serial or parallel to achieve desired voltage.

Thus using multiple batteries (and the resistance introduced by serialization or parallelization) gives the designer some control over the voltage.

Whether this is a side effect of needing multiple batteries for other reasons or a specific desired feature, I don't know, but it reduces the need for resistors.

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VrebPasser t1_j24m8z3 wrote

Not quite true as you put it, but the general principle applies. It's about voltage stacking and the same current being drawn from multiple sources.

Think of it as a slide going from the top of a building to the road below. You have a number of people that want to slide down (that would be the load). If you have one huge slide, the people will be hurting each other as they descend. Therefore, you add more paralel slides (batteries) so they can redistribute themselves and be less cramped (less overloaded system). By adding more batteries in series, you make the slope more steep so the people get down faster (more force to "push" them).

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Commercial-Army2431 t1_j242rbp wrote

Weird I’m being downvoted. I thought I was asking a legit question. Oof

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OhNoItsThatOne t1_j243z7d wrote

That was not a question, it was a speculation. And too many question marks. (I didn't downvote)

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corsicanguppy t1_j247xg8 wrote

And the last question was asking us whether he didn't know. That's something we can't really answer without telepathy.

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veloace t1_j244l94 wrote

It's the question marks.

Usually people use multiple question marks like that when they aren't asking a real question but asking a rhetorical question to make the OP sound like an idiot. Usually in the context of trying to point out "obvious" information.

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Commercial-Army2431 t1_j2451f6 wrote

I can see how that would read like a snarky belittling response. It was not my intention.

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veloace t1_j24ex8t wrote

I know it wasn't your intention, just trying to give you some insight on the downvotes. People here will read punctuation before they read the words.

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