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Honda Sees a Future Where Cars, Bikes, Mowers Share Swappable Batteries

11 points by ourmandave 4y ago

elmerfud 4y ago
But he's still advocating vendor lock in on batteries. So still a bad idea.
- tuatoru 4y ago
  See Ample[1] for a cross-vendor approach. 1. https://ample.com/ https://ample.com/
  - elmerfud 4y ago
    This is exactly the kind of things governments need to regulate and standardize. If the industry can't get it together and realize that standardizing telephone jacks, electrical plugs, voltages and frequencies, etc.... Has been a massive boom to those industries then government should to avoid the environmental damage of wasted products everytime you change vendors. At one point all of those things I listed also wanted vendor lock in.
LinuxBender 4y ago
Ego has been moving in this direction. They basically have 2 or 3 models of batteries that only vary by capacity, but they are interchangeable with most of their equipment. The riding zero-turn lawn mower can use 4 to 6 of their 56V/10AH batteries at $500 each. The batteries are half the cost of that riding mower. Those batteries can be used with most of the handheld gear such as weed whacker, blower, lawn mower, chainsaw, snow blower, etc... I could see using the 10AH batteries on a bike. It would take a lot of them to power a car but I could totally see Honda making something that would be easy to swap out. Perhaps some day people don't even buy/own the batteries. One just pulls into a "battery station", lets the car drive and position itself into a bay, pop pop, off you go. Fully charged reconditioned batteries. Even faster than buying fuel. After the car leaves, the previously used cells are tested straight away and if faulty, they get routed to a recycling center. If in nominal shape, they get recharged and put back into service.
- moistly 4y ago
  > One just pulls into a "battery station", lets the car drive and position itself into a bay, pop pop, off you go. Indeed, China is heading that route. It makes so much more sense.
uglycoyote 4y ago
We only need to look at the tools department of our nearest box store to predict what will happen. They sell you the kit with two drills and two batteries nice and cheap, and then when you go to buy any other battery powered tools after that you think to yourself "I already have the batteries from company X". I'm with ElmerFud here. I think we need some government oversight and standardization. we need something like what they did with "universal serial bus"... one cord that works anywhere.. right? (scratching head)
- c22 4y ago
  This is why I have 14 drills.

11 points by ourmandave 4y ago

elmerfud 4y ago

But he's still advocating vendor lock in on batteries. So still a bad idea.

tuatoru 4y ago
See Ample[1] for a cross-vendor approach. 1. https://ample.com/ https://ample.com/
- elmerfud 4y ago
  This is exactly the kind of things governments need to regulate and standardize. If the industry can't get it together and realize that standardizing telephone jacks, electrical plugs, voltages and frequencies, etc.... Has been a massive boom to those industries then government should to avoid the environmental damage of wasted products everytime you change vendors. At one point all of those things I listed also wanted vendor lock in.

LinuxBender 4y ago

Ego has been moving in this direction. They basically have 2 or 3 models of batteries that only vary by capacity, but they are interchangeable with most of their equipment. The riding zero-turn lawn mower can use 4 to 6 of their 56V/10AH batteries at $500 each. The batteries are half the cost of that riding mower. Those batteries can be used with most of the handheld gear such as weed whacker, blower, lawn mower, chainsaw, snow blower, etc... I could see using the 10AH batteries on a bike. It would take a lot of them to power a car but I could totally see Honda making something that would be easy to swap out. Perhaps some day people don't even buy/own the batteries. One just pulls into a "battery station", lets the car drive and position itself into a bay, pop pop, off you go. Fully charged reconditioned batteries. Even faster than buying fuel. After the car leaves, the previously used cells are tested straight away and if faulty, they get routed to a recycling center. If in nominal shape, they get recharged and put back into service.

moistly 4y ago
> One just pulls into a "battery station", lets the car drive and position itself into a bay, pop pop, off you go. Indeed, China is heading that route. It makes so much more sense.

uglycoyote 4y ago

We only need to look at the tools department of our nearest box store to predict what will happen. They sell you the kit with two drills and two batteries nice and cheap, and then when you go to buy any other battery powered tools after that you think to yourself "I already have the batteries from company X". I'm with ElmerFud here. I think we need some government oversight and standardization. we need something like what they did with "universal serial bus"... one cord that works anywhere.. right? (scratching head)

c22 4y ago
This is why I have 14 drills.