Nio is a Chinese auto maker that offers an alternative to charging: just swapping out the whole battery whenever you need it. I borrowed one of their cars. ■...
While this seems like a neat option, I would guess that faster charging, more charging stations and larger batteries will outpace the need for this type of solution.
Yeah, it’s nice, but I’m not sure the consumer market is the right target for this. Like Tom said, you can already get 0-80 in about half an hour, and the time between charges lines up pretty well with the time until you’d already want to stop and take a break to eat or w/e. A quick battery swap is nice to have, but I don’t think it’ll ever see enough demand to break even
I think it would be better to target vehicles that are always on the move, like buses. Where one driver clocks off, the battery pack is swapped, and then the next driver clocks on. That scale would also benefit more from off-peak and low-impact slow charging instead of constantly topping up with fast charging.
While this seems like a neat option, I would guess that faster charging, more charging stations and larger batteries will outpace the need for this type of solution.
Yeah, it’s nice, but I’m not sure the consumer market is the right target for this. Like Tom said, you can already get 0-80 in about half an hour, and the time between charges lines up pretty well with the time until you’d already want to stop and take a break to eat or w/e. A quick battery swap is nice to have, but I don’t think it’ll ever see enough demand to break even
I think it would be better to target vehicles that are always on the move, like buses. Where one driver clocks off, the battery pack is swapped, and then the next driver clocks on. That scale would also benefit more from off-peak and low-impact slow charging instead of constantly topping up with fast charging.