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BYD needs to create a replaceable battery standard. You go in, your battery gets replaced, ready to go.

triceratops 2y ago
If you can get 250 miles between 15 and 85% charge, and you can charge to 80% in about 20 minutes, it's more than good enough. Just space charging stations closer together and more chargers.
floydnoel 2y ago
batteries are not light, that would be wasting a lot of energy to shuffle batteries around. not great for the environment. battery packs are often structural components, this idea would make that impossible, reducing durability and safety. not all batteries are identical. there are many different capacities and wear levels. imagine bringing in your new car for electricity and getting an old battery back. the battery is a huge portion of the cost of the car- now you have an old one!
- kowabungalow 2y ago
  One has to make a lot of capacity decisions around how well the unreplaced battery is going to perform years out if they are complex to replace, lugging around all that extra is also not good for (the environment or) a consumer who may be better served by half capacity batteries replaced twice as often, etc.
- sanswork 2y ago
  If you make them swappable then your concerns don't really exist. The service station would handle testing batteries and recycling falling ones, they would be uniform by design and it wouldn't matter if you got an older set since you'd be getting them swapped next stop anyhow.
- icegreentea2 2y ago
  I don't think the energy waste shuffling batteries around would be anything significant relative to the actual energy usage of driving cars around. The rest of your points are things that battery swapping needs to address. But yet here we are - a Chinese EV company has 3000 battery swap stations in operation: https://cnevpost.com/2024/12/31/nio-adds-record-high-swap-stations-last-day-2024/ https://cnevpost.com/2024/12/31/nio-adds-record-high-swap-st...
- panick21_ 2y ago
  > battery packs are often structural components, this idea would make that impossible This is not true. A battery can be structural and swap-able. The structure is determined by what it has to survive in a crash. While standing still in a battery swap station, your car does not need to clear those requirements. So as long as it crash safe once the new battery is put into place, your are completely fine.
- lofaszvanitt 2y ago
  well, make the car companies adhere to the new standards. make the batteries standardised. the batteries could be replaced at the station, or whoever uses your battery, that individual pays you for using it... and the station only gets a cut. everything is solvable.
numpad0 2y ago
Battery swap EVs were tried multiple times in the past. None of the companies that had done it extensively survived.
- panick21_ 2y ago
  I'm not a fan of battery swapping but your statement is completely false: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nio_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nio_Inc.
  - rasz 2y ago
    Heavily subsidized, it exist in the same way Hydrogen cars exist in California.
    - panick21_ 2y ago
      It doesn't matter you said it doesn't exist. And what evidence is there that it is heavily subsidized? This is a company that started really small and has been growing for a while. Its not any more subsidized then any other Chinese EV company, and less so then many others.
      - rasz 2y ago
        I didnt say anything earlier, different person :) >And what evidence is there that it is heavily subsidized? 40% https://cnevpost.com/2025/03/10/shanghai-to-subsidize-swap-station-construction/ https://cnevpost.com/2025/03/10/shanghai-to-subsidize-swap-s... https://cnevpost.com/2025/03/06/hefei-subsidies-battery-swap-models/ https://cnevpost.com/2025/03/06/hefei-subsidies-battery-swap... 2024 https://www.jato.com/resources/news-and-insights/how-china-is-driving-battery-swapping-as-a-service-in-the-ev-market https://www.jato.com/resources/news-and-insights/how-china-i... from horses mouth 2020 https://www.nio.com/blog/past-present-chinas-ev-subsidies https://www.nio.com/blog/past-present-chinas-ev-subsidies " Electric vehicles that utilize battery-swapping technologies are not limited to the 300,000 yuan price limit and will still qualify for the subsidies."
addicted 2y ago
Lots of issues with the battery replacement tech. There are significant logistics here. How many batteries should be stocked in any one place. Batteries are large. So you’re also talking about a lot of space. At the same time you still need to build out the electric capacity to charge those batteries. The number of batteries you would need would need to be some multiple of the actual number of cars sold. So if there are 300 cars sold, you probably need something like 1200-1500 batteries in the same city just so a car doesn’t have to travel unreasonable distances to do a swap. The multiple is probably higher and it gets much worse spread out over the entire country/world. Thats burdening each car sale with multiples costs of the most expensive component in the car. It’s mechanical, so there are likely to be more breakdowns and other issues. Battery replacement requires changing the car design and leads to a design that’s almost certainly much less protected from the elements or requires the addition of expensive protection, both in terms of the cost of the additional protection and the weight of the protection. People tend to treat replaceable batteries poorly. Battery replacement is just not a good choice relative to the much simpler ability to pump in electricity.
- lofaszvanitt 2y ago
  You only talk about why it can't be done :D. Modern apps could show the current stock of stations. Batteries could be modularized. So X car might need 4 pieces. Y car needs only 3 etc. Bring in standards about car battery spacing etc. If the station runs out of batteries, just use the backup option, meaning, charge the battery in the car. Anything else needs addressing? :D

If you can get 250 miles between 15 and 85% charge, and you can charge to 80% in about 20 minutes, it's more than good enough. Just space charging stations closer together and more chargers.

floydnoel 2y ago

batteries are not light, that would be wasting a lot of energy to shuffle batteries around. not great for the environment. battery packs are often structural components, this idea would make that impossible, reducing durability and safety. not all batteries are identical. there are many different capacities and wear levels. imagine bringing in your new car for electricity and getting an old battery back. the battery is a huge portion of the cost of the car- now you have an old one!

kowabungalow 2y ago
One has to make a lot of capacity decisions around how well the unreplaced battery is going to perform years out if they are complex to replace, lugging around all that extra is also not good for (the environment or) a consumer who may be better served by half capacity batteries replaced twice as often, etc.
sanswork 2y ago
If you make them swappable then your concerns don't really exist. The service station would handle testing batteries and recycling falling ones, they would be uniform by design and it wouldn't matter if you got an older set since you'd be getting them swapped next stop anyhow.
icegreentea2 2y ago
I don't think the energy waste shuffling batteries around would be anything significant relative to the actual energy usage of driving cars around. The rest of your points are things that battery swapping needs to address. But yet here we are - a Chinese EV company has 3000 battery swap stations in operation: https://cnevpost.com/2024/12/31/nio-adds-record-high-swap-stations-last-day-2024/ https://cnevpost.com/2024/12/31/nio-adds-record-high-swap-st...
panick21_ 2y ago
> battery packs are often structural components, this idea would make that impossible This is not true. A battery can be structural and swap-able. The structure is determined by what it has to survive in a crash. While standing still in a battery swap station, your car does not need to clear those requirements. So as long as it crash safe once the new battery is put into place, your are completely fine.
lofaszvanitt 2y ago
well, make the car companies adhere to the new standards. make the batteries standardised. the batteries could be replaced at the station, or whoever uses your battery, that individual pays you for using it... and the station only gets a cut. everything is solvable.

numpad0 2y ago

Battery swap EVs were tried multiple times in the past. None of the companies that had done it extensively survived.

panick21_ 2y ago
I'm not a fan of battery swapping but your statement is completely false: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nio_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nio_Inc.
- rasz 2y ago
  Heavily subsidized, it exist in the same way Hydrogen cars exist in California.
  - panick21_ 2y ago
    It doesn't matter you said it doesn't exist. And what evidence is there that it is heavily subsidized? This is a company that started really small and has been growing for a while. Its not any more subsidized then any other Chinese EV company, and less so then many others.
    - rasz 2y ago
      I didnt say anything earlier, different person :) >And what evidence is there that it is heavily subsidized? 40% https://cnevpost.com/2025/03/10/shanghai-to-subsidize-swap-station-construction/ https://cnevpost.com/2025/03/10/shanghai-to-subsidize-swap-s... https://cnevpost.com/2025/03/06/hefei-subsidies-battery-swap-models/ https://cnevpost.com/2025/03/06/hefei-subsidies-battery-swap... 2024 https://www.jato.com/resources/news-and-insights/how-china-is-driving-battery-swapping-as-a-service-in-the-ev-market https://www.jato.com/resources/news-and-insights/how-china-i... from horses mouth 2020 https://www.nio.com/blog/past-present-chinas-ev-subsidies https://www.nio.com/blog/past-present-chinas-ev-subsidies " Electric vehicles that utilize battery-swapping technologies are not limited to the 300,000 yuan price limit and will still qualify for the subsidies."

addicted 2y ago

Lots of issues with the battery replacement tech. There are significant logistics here. How many batteries should be stocked in any one place. Batteries are large. So you’re also talking about a lot of space. At the same time you still need to build out the electric capacity to charge those batteries. The number of batteries you would need would need to be some multiple of the actual number of cars sold. So if there are 300 cars sold, you probably need something like 1200-1500 batteries in the same city just so a car doesn’t have to travel unreasonable distances to do a swap. The multiple is probably higher and it gets much worse spread out over the entire country/world. Thats burdening each car sale with multiples costs of the most expensive component in the car. It’s mechanical, so there are likely to be more breakdowns and other issues. Battery replacement requires changing the car design and leads to a design that’s almost certainly much less protected from the elements or requires the addition of expensive protection, both in terms of the cost of the additional protection and the weight of the protection. People tend to treat replaceable batteries poorly. Battery replacement is just not a good choice relative to the much simpler ability to pump in electricity.

lofaszvanitt 2y ago
You only talk about why it can't be done :D. Modern apps could show the current stock of stations. Batteries could be modularized. So X car might need 4 pieces. Y car needs only 3 etc. Bring in standards about car battery spacing etc. If the station runs out of batteries, just use the backup option, meaning, charge the battery in the car. Anything else needs addressing? :D