If you could get all the batteries standardized then you could just treat them as a consumable (rather than part of the vehicle), and have the charging station automatically check battery health and rotate out batteries for refurbishing/recycling as needed, so the end user never has to even worry about the battery lifecycle. It would need a lot more infrastructure though.
Stressing the if.
Also, I don’t really see the “downsides of gas stations” - if you’ve been driving long enough to need a battery swap then you should get out and take a break and you might need to use a restroom and get a drink or something.
On long trips you need a break. I don’t need a break on my daily commute. To me, never having to stop at gas stations is one of the key benefits of driving electric.
The larger downsides are mentioned in the article. Gas stations, charger sites and potential swapping sites all require massive investments in land, infrastructure and idle batteries. And they still experience shortcomings in peak periods. The idea of driving somewhere and stopping there for refueling is probably the least efficient method of distributing energy.
I’m sure the gas station companies will gladly push for this method and it will be nice to have the option, but I will always prefer not having to go there at all.
For long drives, where you do need a break, the fast chargers are quick enough. Cutting the waiting from 15 minutes to 5 minutes is really not worth the investment.
On the idle batteries part specifically, if you had a station with racks of pre-charged batteries waiting for cars to swap with, you could also have that station be part of the local power grid, so the batteries are not really idle and not a waste of space, and you now have a second reason to keep them constantly at like 80% charge.
If you could get all the batteries standardized then you could just treat them as a consumable (rather than part of the vehicle), and have the charging station automatically check battery health and rotate out batteries for refurbishing/recycling as needed, so the end user never has to even worry about the battery lifecycle. It would need a lot more infrastructure though.
Stressing the if.
Also, I don’t really see the “downsides of gas stations” - if you’ve been driving long enough to need a battery swap then you should get out and take a break and you might need to use a restroom and get a drink or something.
On long trips you need a break. I don’t need a break on my daily commute. To me, never having to stop at gas stations is one of the key benefits of driving electric.
The larger downsides are mentioned in the article. Gas stations, charger sites and potential swapping sites all require massive investments in land, infrastructure and idle batteries. And they still experience shortcomings in peak periods. The idea of driving somewhere and stopping there for refueling is probably the least efficient method of distributing energy. I’m sure the gas station companies will gladly push for this method and it will be nice to have the option, but I will always prefer not having to go there at all.
For long drives, where you do need a break, the fast chargers are quick enough. Cutting the waiting from 15 minutes to 5 minutes is really not worth the investment.
On the idle batteries part specifically, if you had a station with racks of pre-charged batteries waiting for cars to swap with, you could also have that station be part of the local power grid, so the batteries are not really idle and not a waste of space, and you now have a second reason to keep them constantly at like 80% charge.