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Excellent idea. And one I had thought about for many years. Unlike gasoline where we own the fuel in our car, it actually makes better sense for the batteries

Excellent idea. And one I had thought about for many years. Unlike gasoline where we own the fuel in our car, it actually makes better sense for the batteries in our car to be a service. Every "gas station" just acts as a dead battery replacement depot. The only bottleneck I can see with this model is the depot's recharging units. If too many people show up at the same time, there may not be enough stock of charged batteries to go around. On Top Gear UK a few years ago, Jay Leno was interviewed and he made a point about the viability of electric cars. Paraphrasing, he said that until electric cars can recharge as fast as a gasoline car (i.e.: 5 minutes to pump fuel into a car) the electric car is always going to lag behind fossil fuel vehicles. BetterPlace is at least a step in the right direction.

muhfuhkuh 15y ago
"Every "gas station" just acts as a dead battery replacement depot." There is somewhat prior art in the US. Blue Rhino[1] rents propane tanks. You buy one for $40 or so, or you switch out your empty for a full one for (I think, it's been awhile) ~$15 or so. "If too many people show up at the same time, there may not be enough stock of charged batteries to go around." That could theoretically happen with gas, too. Which is why there can be a warehouse connected directly to [insert incumbent renewable or dirty electricity provider here] that charges these swappable batteries 24/7, loads them on trucks and "refuels" the charging stations. The station itself likely doesn't even have to provide charging facilities at all and can go on selling Twizzlers and Funyuns to munchied travelers passing through. [1]http://www.bluerhino.com http://www.bluerhino.com
jessriedel 15y ago
> Paraphrasing, he said that until electric cars can recharge as fast as a gasoline car (i.e.: 5 minutes to pump fuel into a car) the electric car is always going to lag behind fossil fuel vehicles. This could actually be a selling point for electric cars. Once standard battery specifications are agreed upon, there's no reason the engineering couldn't get good enough to swap batteries in under a minute.
- PotatoEngineer 15y ago
  My main worry about battery-swapping is that batteries die after a while. At some point, you're going to show up to the battery-swap station expecting a battery that goes 100 miles, and get a battery that only goes 50 miles. That won't be a problem most of the time, but for a few edge-cases, you can strand someone.
  - mc32 15y ago
    One would hope the batteries (or the station) would know how much energy is stored in each battery --maybe offering a discount (credit) on the subscription if the battery is below certain energy threshold. 10% discount on a battery with 80% energy store of a new one, for example.

muhfuhkuh 15y ago

"Every "gas station" just acts as a dead battery replacement depot." There is somewhat prior art in the US. Blue Rhino[1] rents propane tanks. You buy one for $40 or so, or you switch out your empty for a full one for (I think, it's been awhile) ~$15 or so. "If too many people show up at the same time, there may not be enough stock of charged batteries to go around." That could theoretically happen with gas, too. Which is why there can be a warehouse connected directly to [insert incumbent renewable or dirty electricity provider here] that charges these swappable batteries 24/7, loads them on trucks and "refuels" the charging stations. The station itself likely doesn't even have to provide charging facilities at all and can go on selling Twizzlers and Funyuns to munchied travelers passing through. [1]http://www.bluerhino.com http://www.bluerhino.com

jessriedel 15y ago

> Paraphrasing, he said that until electric cars can recharge as fast as a gasoline car (i.e.: 5 minutes to pump fuel into a car) the electric car is always going to lag behind fossil fuel vehicles. This could actually be a selling point for electric cars. Once standard battery specifications are agreed upon, there's no reason the engineering couldn't get good enough to swap batteries in under a minute.

PotatoEngineer 15y ago
My main worry about battery-swapping is that batteries die after a while. At some point, you're going to show up to the battery-swap station expecting a battery that goes 100 miles, and get a battery that only goes 50 miles. That won't be a problem most of the time, but for a few edge-cases, you can strand someone.
- mc32 15y ago
  One would hope the batteries (or the station) would know how much energy is stored in each battery --maybe offering a discount (credit) on the subscription if the battery is below certain energy threshold. 10% discount on a battery with 80% energy store of a new one, for example.