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I've heard that the issues with the "swap the battery" model are: 1. The battery is one of the most expensive parts of the car. People won't want to swap it f

I've heard that the issues with the "swap the battery" model are: 1. The battery is one of the most expensive parts of the car. People won't want to swap it for some random battery, and you risk an illicit market for swapped out "good" batteries. Sure, if swapping is very common, then batteries are fungible and maybe it all evens out. I doubt it, though. 2. Batteries are large, heavy, and not necessarily centrally placed. You'd need some sort of winch/harness/crane system, which is dangerous and expensive to automate. Even if you figure it out, swappable batteries might be a negative design constraint for electric cars (e.g. "what if we want to put battery cells throughout the body of the car?"). I also like the model, but how could it be made to work well?

BurningFrog 2y ago
This assumes the car has one big battery. What if it has a number of smaller ones that can easily be swapped out by one person? Or maybe one big unswappable battery, and 1-3 smaller swappable ones?
eichin 2y ago
NIO just did the expensive-to-automate part, it's not just theory... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNZy603as5w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNZy603as5w (Tom Scott demo/walkthrough.) Press release from April says https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/chinas-nio-to-expand-battery-swap-services-to-gain-ev-infra-edge-.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/chinas-nio-to-expand-battery... "it completed 40 million battery swaps" across 2300 stations. It still has to scale up from there and get traction from other car vendors beyond paper-only "partnerships"... but they've gotten vastly farther than https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company) did before it failed 10 years ago.
jopsen 2y ago
> 1. The battery is one of the most expensive parts of the car. Obviously, a swappable battery is something you rent. Car manufacturers would love to charge us a monthly fee. They are currently trying all sorts of schemes to do it. But a swappable battery might justify a monthly fee.

BurningFrog 2y ago

This assumes the car has one big battery. What if it has a number of smaller ones that can easily be swapped out by one person? Or maybe one big unswappable battery, and 1-3 smaller swappable ones?

eichin 2y ago

NIO just did the expensive-to-automate part, it's not just theory... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNZy603as5w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNZy603as5w (Tom Scott demo/walkthrough.) Press release from April says https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/chinas-nio-to-expand-battery-swap-services-to-gain-ev-infra-edge-.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/chinas-nio-to-expand-battery... "it completed 40 million battery swaps" across 2300 stations. It still has to scale up from there and get traction from other car vendors beyond paper-only "partnerships"... but they've gotten vastly farther than https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company) did before it failed 10 years ago.

jopsen 2y ago

> 1. The battery is one of the most expensive parts of the car. Obviously, a swappable battery is something you rent. Car manufacturers would love to charge us a monthly fee. They are currently trying all sorts of schemes to do it. But a swappable battery might justify a monthly fee.