4 ms·

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 c

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 1y 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 1y 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 1y 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_ 1y 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 1y 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.

kowabungalow 1y 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 1y 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 1y 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_ 1y 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 1y 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.