Something that really gets me about the state of battery development is that consumers have so many amazing battery powered devices now.
Cordless stick vacuums have become very mainstream. Almost everyone is using cordless power tools, in fact lots of auto shops hardy use air tools anymore!
In addition to that, smartphone batteries are lasting so much longer. I am using a 5-year-old phone as a business line and it still works fine.
Batteries have gotten amazing and cheap! Yet somehow, despite all the evidence everywhere, a good lot of people somehow aren't convinced.
Feb 3, 2026 13:43I'd like to be tolerant here and say that most people's experiences with batteries are smartphones and they do get dramatically worse over time (though you could make the argument that this is far more a software problem than a battery problem)
But I'm probably being too generous.
The wild part is how many long life batteries I have that *have* lasted a really long time, from the hump starter I bought like ten years ago to power tools to Bluetooth headphones.
Anyway, that's a long winded way to say I'm totally on board here (and that's as a guy that probably can't own an EV)
Does the disconnect exist because the two items that most people regularly interact with - phones and laptops - have not improved or have even got worse, despite battery capacities increacing by nearly an order of magnitude?
The battery life of a 2025 phone isn't much different from a 2015 phone.
