What you’ll see in 3 years will be a moderate reduction in weight, but the main difference is they’ll be mostly sodium batteries by then, so no risk of fires, much better performance in cold weather, and insane battery life. 5 million km. The battery will outlast the car by multiple times.
CATL, the word’s largest battery manufacturer, says that their long term tech will be Lithium air batteries, in the 2035 potential timeline. Which they say will have around 12,000 Watts per Kg. Compared to today’s batteries at 160-230 Watts per Kg. We’re talking about a 10Kg battery with a similar range to current EV battery packs. There are a number of issues to solve yet, and the best real battery running in a lab is currently achieving 1,200 Watts per Kg.
In the meantime, with incremental increases in battery density, different manufacturers are going two different directions. Some are keeping the same weight, while increasing range, but some are keeping lower ranges with a lighter battery pack, with the philosophy that you rarely use the extended range, so why carry all the extra weight around for the 5% of the time you actually need it.
Imagine the different brands of personal drones currently being made, but with a 2000km range instead of a 50km range. The flying car that the Jetsons always promised might finally become a reality
My car was in some of the earliest into AU, in early 2023. I am pretty sure the car has been enhanced since then, which might explain my indifference to the car itself. There’s actually a lot of things I dislike about it. Quirks, rattles, poor design. But it’s essentially free to run. Is pretty good in a lot of ways.
I’m already looking for different models to replace it with. But nothing jumps out. The N Series would be pretty wild, but realistically if I’m spending $100K + I’d probably prefer something a bit more exotic, like a second hand ICE. Could get a Nissan R35 for example.
Volvo has reccently announced a new model EX60. In EV RWD form it will be initially offered with 610 km range, but next year they are promising a model with 810 km range (probably about 700 km with the aircon etc running). Over 2 tonnes though. Medium SUV.
I’d look very seriously at that. Hopefully they’ll next have a slightly smaller and lighter model with the same sort of range. The performance is plenty good too – lots of power and torque.
I worked for Nissan car factory back when the first GTR came into Australia. I also had a mate who did the the exhaust design and welding for HRT. He said they had all trims off their car and holes drilled into as much as possible to keep it light for racing. The GTR was running full original trim, much lower boost than it could take, and the rev limiter was set lower to keep them running more reliably. And it was still smoking everything else on the track.
The first car I owned was a Mazda RX3, extend/bridge, tubbed wheels and Yokohama 352’s.
Mates and I bought them for peanuts and rebuilt motors & gearboxes in the kitchen.
I can afford a lot more than I could then, and they’re well outside my price bracket now.
If I were to go back in time and buy and garage a car from that era, I think it would have to be a Ford Sierra Cosworth. A good one sells for North of $1M nowadays
That’s pretty accurate. But the change will happen faster than you’d think from that chart alone.
Battery electric and plug-in hybrid EVs were 29.6 per cent of new vehicles sold in Australia in May 2026, and EVs made up over 2/3 of those.
Australia normally turns over around 8% of the current vehicles on the road each year, so there will be petrol and diesel cars around for some time yet. But percentage of new car sales is shifting fast.
And all those unregistered cars being driven around by unregistered drivers.
Mate of mine runs a massive warehouse in outer western Melbourne. He says that at least 40 % of cars in their car park are not currently registered and most of the owners do not have a valid licence. Seems many just cannot afford it and insurance.
When we lived in Sydney and had to get your car checked every year, it was a pain the bum, and was just about money for someone. Maybe every 5 years or ten years, but every year is nonsense.
