The Faster, Cheaper, Better Way to Charge Electric Vehicles

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3 points·homeless_engi··5 comments

How does this work with battery pack being a structural component in newer platforms ? I thought that would make them not easy to swap out

China is looking like it may go in an alternative direction for EV technology. Rather than integrating battery packs as a structural component, automakers in the country are pushing for increased standardization of battery packs, [1] allowing for swapping and potentially lowering overall costs.

1 https://cntechpost.com/2020/08/18/chinas-first-battery-swap-...

It doesn't. Because those manufacturers realized it doesn't matter.

Think of how simple a charging station is in comparison to a place that could swap batteries, yet how hard it is to even get chargers installed in enough places.

I'm not sold on the technology yet either, but this company has built over 135 batter swap stations in China. [1]

For reference, that compares to about 500 supercharger stations in the country.

While building swapping stations does seem a hard problem, it doesn't seem insurmountable given the potential benefits to consumers.

1. https://www.nio.com/blog/brief-history-battery-swapping

Maybe it would be for semi-trucks? They might be able to design a battery that attaches to the trailer, and can be swapped out at a charging station.

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