Re: Battery shape?
In EVs you don't replace the main battery pack every 3-4 years
Only because of the expense. The cells suffer from the same degradation in principle, although the battery management electronics do their best to keep the cells in good shape. Buy a three or four year old EV, and you won't get the same range as new. Some makers (eg Nissan) even have a dashboard indicator for the condition of the cells.
I suspect that some makers are also "over-provisioning" the cells when new, in a manner similar to SSD over-provisioning. You'll recall Tesla selling 75kWh models at a discount, with a 60kWh limit in software. Logically, that could be done when new even on a 75 or 100 kWh pack, so perhaps 85 or 110 kWh of cells fitted, and the car ensures that all the driver ever sees is the "purchased capacity", but there's no degradation for much longer than would be expected without over-provision..
Biting the hand that feeds IT
