Battery swapping is a technology that could solve one key barrier for EV adoption: consumers’ range anxiety and the long waiting time for battery charging. Wouldn’t you feel more assured on a weekend trip if you knew you could stop at a swap station and replace depleted battery packs with fully charged ones in five minutes? But this isn’t easy to do, as Tesla and Better Place’s past failures. In China, however, battery swapping has been a reality for a couple of years. How did Chinese companies like Nio make it work with 2,300 swapping stations nationwide? What can companies outside China learn from the Chinese experience?

See, Apple? Even cars can do it :)

    • umami_wasabi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      122·
      5 months ago

      Subscription for my car? Don’t we have too much subscriptions already?

      And neither solve the ownship problem, and a tons of other problems.

        • umami_wasabi@lemmy.mlEnglish
          5·
          5 months ago

          Gas is more like pas-as-you-go. Battery no so sure. And they are different by nature: gas can’t be reused, batteries can.

          • Brkdncr@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            5 months ago

            The energy inside both can’t be reused. Both a gas tank and battery can be refilled.

            Gas is just easier to transfer between containers. Electricity needs it be moved inside its container.

            • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              5 months ago

              Electricity is incredibly easy to move between containers. That’s how electric cars work.

              Making charging faster by removing most of the range (because you have way less volume to use if it’s removable) and making a cheap power source obscenely expensive makes no sense.

    • TAG@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      5 months ago

      The model only works if users are forced to subscribe to a battery swapping service for the full life of the vehicle (or there is a large upfront fee to join with a used vehicle). Otherwise it would be too easy for a consumer with a worn out battery to do a one-time swap and get a like-new battery as a cheap alternative to very costly battery repairs. The dumped battery is likely to have very poor range and the battery swap company will need to dispose of it.

        • Pips@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          62·
          5 months ago

          Sort of like how you pay over and over for gas, without which your car doesn’t work?

            • Pips@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
              11·
              5 months ago

              I don’t see anywhere that you can’t also just buy a battery and charge it yourself if you’d prefer that over a subscription.

              • umami_wasabi@lemmy.mlEnglish
                22·
                5 months ago

                Which the manufacture will either set a high price or simply not offer it. We had this in software (Adobe), and movies/TV shows (Netflix). Companies prefer continuous steady streams of revenue over burst because the numbers will look better for the investors, and easy to show them the solid future of the company.

                I won’t be in the “Owns nothing and be happy” camp. Or honestly, rarely have things I do not own.

          • umami_wasabi@lemmy.mlEnglish
            42·
            5 months ago

            But for gas you don’t need to worry ownership problem as you can’t reuse gas. Once it is burnt, it’s gone.

            Batteries are different because you can recharge it, which brings ownership problem into sight. And unlike gas tank for your grill, which the port is somewhat universal and shape doesn’t matter too much. Car batteries have wear level that affects performamce (range) and are likely designed to fit a car/platform. It isn’t that interchangeable.