The only reason Zero has potted the battery cells is because they are not capable of designing and manufacturing a sealed battery case.
There are several reasons for potting.
The resin helps transfer heat the the outer casing. If they weren't potted they would likely need an active cooling system which is more complex, more costly, and take up more room, resulting in a more expensive, fail-prone battery with less energy density. Potting also gives the pack better shock absorbing abilities which on a motorcycle is pretty necessary.
If zero was working with a huge amount of space, like the skateboard under a tesla, then potting wouldn't be as valuable. and they could approach it in a different way. But potting their pouch cells is a very efficient way to get the energy density Zero needs while still being robust enough for a motorcycle.
For comparison, the 1st gen chevy volt batteries don't use any potting, but they're not even in the same ballpark for energy density as Zeros batteries from the same years. Chevy was using at least 5x the space for the same capacity, and still needed a much more advanced thermal system that took up even more space. The coolant manifold on the volt's 16kwh battery by itself is about 1/3 of Zero's entire 13kwh monolith from the same year.
To say that potting was done for waterproofing alone is just not true, though waterproofing is another good reason.
But a bike without a battery isn't worth anything but a bike with a battery is worth $5400.
EVs can't be priced only on age, they're priced on battery life. Just like a car with a trashed interior won't get you the full price, or a flawless old car will give you more for it.
Saying it's totalled without a battery is just not thinking clearly. The battery is what makes it worth anything at all.
-Crissa
That's what I'm saying though. The battery provides almost all of the value of an EV. This is very different than an ICE vehicle which while notably more complex, individual parts are far less likely to be the entire value of the vehicle.
So if the battery goes, it's totaled. Because the battery is where the majority of the value is. You're acting like those are conflicting statements, they're not. This is precisely the thing I'm talking about that makes EV's value and longevity unique compared to ICE vehicles. Ice vehicles do not have the majority of their value in a single part, and their more valuable parts actively degrade or depreciate at the rate batteries do. This makes the act of maintaining the two different vehicle types over multiple decades look very different, as an ICE vehicle is more likely going to have many smaller repairs spread out over time, while the EV is more likely to have one or two huge problems at single points on the timeline.
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Topic: Battery problem (Read 2677 times)