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Structural integrity is an issue. Another one is battery quality and care. When a battery pack has a high residual value, and you're taking it with you, there

Structural integrity is an issue. Another one is battery quality and care. When a battery pack has a high residual value, and you're taking it with you, there is a real risk of quality mismatch, fraud, theft, and abuse in and around the battery swap. I may have a brand new car, with a near perfect battery; if I go on a trip and do a couple of battery swaps, I'm going to be pretty unhappy if the battery I get back at the end of the chain of swaps is 5 years old with only 75% original life. That's even before the risk of malicious owners. I'm sure there would be many attacks, but one that comes right to mind is intentionally swapping in low-quality cells into swapped batteries to extract and sell the new high-quality ones you pull out.

jonnycomputer 3y ago
I think I don't understand this criticism. The idea here is that you swap each time you're getting a new charge. You're not investing in any one particular battery, you're investing--as a car owner--in a service that maintains quality of it's "fleet" of batteries. You don't "own" the battery, and if the charging service gives you a shitty battery, you go back and have them swap it out for another one. You're approaching this from the perspective of someone who think's they've invested in a hunk of lithium and doesn't want to come out on the bad end of an exchange. But you buy the car battery-less, and sign up for a charging service that gives you one.
- secabeen 3y ago
  That has generally not been the approach I've seen in the market. Most programs expect you to charge your battery for your daily driving. Battery Swap is for long-distance and fast-charging only. Even if swapping was common, I still think there is risk, it would just be on the charging network, and getting a swap would be like renting a car or other expensive item. The battery would be checked for damage after every use, and damage or excessive wear found would be assumed to be the fault of the most recent renter, regardless of that accuracy.

jonnycomputer 3y ago

I think I don't understand this criticism. The idea here is that you swap each time you're getting a new charge. You're not investing in any one particular battery, you're investing--as a car owner--in a service that maintains quality of it's "fleet" of batteries. You don't "own" the battery, and if the charging service gives you a shitty battery, you go back and have them swap it out for another one. You're approaching this from the perspective of someone who think's they've invested in a hunk of lithium and doesn't want to come out on the bad end of an exchange. But you buy the car battery-less, and sign up for a charging service that gives you one.

secabeen 3y ago
That has generally not been the approach I've seen in the market. Most programs expect you to charge your battery for your daily driving. Battery Swap is for long-distance and fast-charging only. Even if swapping was common, I still think there is risk, it would just be on the charging network, and getting a swap would be like renting a car or other expensive item. The battery would be checked for damage after every use, and damage or excessive wear found would be assumed to be the fault of the most recent renter, regardless of that accuracy.