I don’t see how battery swapping is a good bet. We’ve already got extremely fast charging, and the maintenance and capital investment for swapping stations would be enormous.
It has some benefits to both consumers and automotive industry.
I live in an apartament block, as do many people. Can’t really charge when parking by the street. If I could go into subscription like service with a charging network where I don’t own the battery outright and just swap it at gas stations that solves a lot of issues. It’s faster than charging and I don’t have to own a battery outright which lowers initial investment. That battery doesn’t even have to have that great of a range either. Car company / charging network or whoever does the battery leasing benefits long term because they can charge more overall.
Why can’t you charge on the street? You could have parking meter type slow chargers.
I’ve had an EV for three years now without my own charging station. It’s sometimes inconvenient but not a big issue.
Let’s say the infrastructure is there for this, and you don’t have to purchase the battery with a new EV…you just purchase a battery plan for like 100$ a month. It’d easily cut 10-20k off the cost of an EV up front.
Plus, quick charging isn’t quick. At best you’re looking at a 20 minute stop, and you’re praying a stall is open when you get there. This could solve that problem as well.
It’s an interesting idea.
Especially living in a city, this looks interesting to me. ‘Fast’ charging I’ve seen was in the range 30-60 min but then it’s like the phone, from about 20% up to 80%. So living in a city, I’d have to wait for half an hour for half the battery.
With a swap-station, it could be nearly as fast as a fossil fuel stop. About 2 minutes for a 0% to 100% stop.
This also allows for smaller batteries, for smaller cars, for lighter cars. You don’t need to carry a lot of overall range if you can swap/refill to 100% in 2 minutes.
