Million km cars may not be typical, but it’s not an incredibly difficult number to reach with an ICE. But my issue here has always been the whole getting a bomb dropped on you issue of BEVs. The batteries have gotten better over time, but they can still fail fairly early sometimes and then it costs more to replace than the residual value of the vehicle. Whereas a poor person with skills can rebuild parts of an internal combustion engine for a reasonable amount of money because it’s possible to offset the labor into a time cost instead of money. Plus you can get a junkyard engine for cheap and go another 100k km or maybe way more if you’re lucky.

It’s a second, third or tenth owner problem which is why a lot of people overlook it.

Now the extra charge cycles of the sodium battery compared to lithium are already a significant step in making this a non-issue, but the true progress is in the fact that they’re cheaper, so out of warranty battery replacements might start making financial sense compared to parting out a car after only 10 years due to replacement costs.

This could be a true game changer for second hand EVs. Which means the people who buy brand new cars should also be more motivated to buy EVs because depreciation might become more reasonable. Right now the prices drop off a cliff as the battery warranty starts nearing its end.