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What about making the battery packs "hot swappable". You pull into the station, the current pack is unloaded and a new one is loaded. I It can also have interes

by calgoo 10y ago

What about making the battery packs "hot swappable". You pull into the station, the current pack is unloaded and a new one is loaded. I It can also have interesting effects on the battery upgrade you need to do every X amount of years. The packs could be owned by the gas station chain, so you can stop at any of their establishments and get a new one refiled. These battery pack charging stations could then also be used as power offloading for local power generation.

vertex-four 10y ago
Tesla designed that, built one, then dropped it last year as nobody was using it. It could be more useful in vehicles which don't charge as fast, perhaps?
ZeKK14 10y ago
The french car maker Renault tried this : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z.E https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z.E. (<- the point is in the link) It didn't work.
- avar 10y ago
  Just escape the .: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z%2EE%2E https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z%2EE%2E
- Tempest1981 10y ago
  Sounds like it wasn't profitable, at least in 2013: "The company's financial difficulties were caused by the high investment required to develop the charging and swapping infrastructure, about US$850 million in private capital, and a market penetration significantly lower than originally predicted..."
dagw 10y ago
There have been many demos of hot swappable battery packs. However as long as every car maker has their own battery packs and swapping methods it means you'll need a half dozen different swapping stations at each location making the whole concept very financially inefficient.
ZeroGravitas 10y ago
One of the founders of HTC is doing this for mopeds. With a much smaller battery, you just pull it out and carry it with you to the swapping station. Seems quite interesting: https://www.wired.com/2016/01/electric-scooter-maker-gogoro-is-sidestepping-a-big-obstacle/ https://www.wired.com/2016/01/electric-scooter-maker-gogoro-...
andruby 10y ago
Shai Agassi tried that with Better Place. It raised about $850M and filed for bankruptcy after 6 years. Less than 1400 cars were using the 38 deployed swapping stations in Israel and Denmark. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place

by calgoo 10y ago

vertex-four 10y ago

Tesla designed that, built one, then dropped it last year as nobody was using it. It could be more useful in vehicles which don't charge as fast, perhaps?

ZeKK14 10y ago

The french car maker Renault tried this : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z.E https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z.E. (<- the point is in the link) It didn't work.

avar 10y ago
Just escape the .: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z%2EE%2E https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z%2EE%2E
Tempest1981 10y ago
Sounds like it wasn't profitable, at least in 2013: "The company's financial difficulties were caused by the high investment required to develop the charging and swapping infrastructure, about US$850 million in private capital, and a market penetration significantly lower than originally predicted..."

dagw 10y ago

There have been many demos of hot swappable battery packs. However as long as every car maker has their own battery packs and swapping methods it means you'll need a half dozen different swapping stations at each location making the whole concept very financially inefficient.

ZeroGravitas 10y ago

One of the founders of HTC is doing this for mopeds. With a much smaller battery, you just pull it out and carry it with you to the swapping station. Seems quite interesting: https://www.wired.com/2016/01/electric-scooter-maker-gogoro-is-sidestepping-a-big-obstacle/ https://www.wired.com/2016/01/electric-scooter-maker-gogoro-...

andruby 10y ago

Shai Agassi tried that with Better Place. It raised about $850M and filed for bankruptcy after 6 years. Less than 1400 cars were using the 38 deployed swapping stations in Israel and Denmark. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place