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This is happening at a pretty large scale in China with NIO brand vehicles. For it to work, as you said it is a subscription model for the battery. It require

This is happening at a pretty large scale in China with NIO brand vehicles. For it to work, as you said it is a subscription model for the battery. It requires a very large fleet of vehicles that all use a standardized battery size. That means not offering lower priced vehicles with smaller battery packs, since you're just able to swap it anyway. And it means not having higher-end larger vehicles with larger packs, since now they aren't standardized. That also means you are using more battery cells than needed for some customers, and you need more total battery packs in circulation as well. So it can work, but there are definitely tradeoffs to vehicle design, and I doubt the US market could come together to create a standard used by a large enough percentage of the fleet to be worthwhile. We have some brand segmentation in DC fast chargers, but imagine if Chevy and Ford and Honda all had different battery swap stations. And within brands, can an F-150 use the same battery pack as a Ford Escape?

geenew 5y ago
I would think you would only need a standard size battery, and have vehicles capable of holding as many standard-sized batteries as necessary for their weight/performance. So a compact car would have 1 C-sized battery (joke), and a F150 would have 5, for example.
- konschubert 5y ago
  I would be worried that the complexity needed for multiple battery slots would drive up cost and reduce range immensely.
stainforth 5y ago
But the market is so efficient, it will find the best way soon enough.
ComradePhil 5y ago
Here is a video on how it works: https://youtu.be/hTsrDpsYHrw https://youtu.be/hTsrDpsYHrw While currently, thr stations have to be manned, there is potential for this to be completely unmanned drivethrough where you take the car and never have to get out of it, you pay and the battery is changed for you in 3 minutes (which also looks like it could be improved, and that could come down to less than a minute). I have no doubt that this will absolutely kill the competition. Also, it doesn't have to be one standard size. A standard interface with a few standard sizes will work just fine.

geenew 5y ago

I would think you would only need a standard size battery, and have vehicles capable of holding as many standard-sized batteries as necessary for their weight/performance. So a compact car would have 1 C-sized battery (joke), and a F150 would have 5, for example.

konschubert 5y ago
I would be worried that the complexity needed for multiple battery slots would drive up cost and reduce range immensely.

stainforth 5y ago

But the market is so efficient, it will find the best way soon enough.

ComradePhil 5y ago

Here is a video on how it works: https://youtu.be/hTsrDpsYHrw https://youtu.be/hTsrDpsYHrw While currently, thr stations have to be manned, there is potential for this to be completely unmanned drivethrough where you take the car and never have to get out of it, you pay and the battery is changed for you in 3 minutes (which also looks like it could be improved, and that could come down to less than a minute). I have no doubt that this will absolutely kill the competition. Also, it doesn't have to be one standard size. A standard interface with a few standard sizes will work just fine.