Carlos Mendez

About

Carlos spent six years at Rivian working on battery management systems, which means he knows exactly what happens inside an EV battery pack at the molecular level when you fast-charge it in 115°F Phoenix heat — and he can explain why the owner's manual advice is sometimes wrong. He left the OEM world because he wanted to write honestly about battery degradation without a PR team reviewing his slides. His thermal management analysis has predicted real-world range loss within 3% accuracy for every vehicle he's tested, and he maintains a private database of battery health data from 200+ EV owners who send him their diagnostic readouts. He's the person EV forums cite when they need to settle an argument about whether fast charging actually damages your battery (it's complicated, and his 8,000-word deep dive explains why).

7 years of experience in electric vehicles.