Comment by marcusb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by marcusb | Hacker News Reader

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> The primary benefit of an EV is that you ~never need to stop and “refuel” it unless you’re making a long road trip.

Maybe for some people. I bought an electric car in 2018 because I think over the long haul that, first, they'll be better for the environment and second, disentangle my country from foreign energy producers. Note: I'm not saying EVs or current battery tech are perfect in these ways now, just that I think they have better long-term potential, which will only be realized if people buy imperfect EVs today to justify investment in making them better tomorrow.

All that said, while my family has never had a problem with charging on long-ish road trips (we like to take a break and get out and walk around,) I don't expect everyone to have the same attitude. Some people really don't like the idea of a 20-minute "fill up".

What I'd really like to see - what I hope gets developed long term - is a fast-battery-pack swapping system. Bonus points for a standardized form factor from SAE or some similar standards body. This could solve a few problems:

* Faster recharges on trips - potentially faster than filling up a gasoline or diesel vehicle.

* Optimized energy use, at least to a certain extent. Battery packs could be charged off-hours to reduce load on the grid.

* As part of the cost of swapping the pack, the charging station could take on responsibility for repairing the battery packs.

Battery packs are the most expensive single component in most EVs, and I think some people do have anxiety on getting stuck with a five-figure repair bill if their battery pack goes bad.

Obviously there's a lot to work out, both technologically, and vis-a-vis the business model of a battery swapping network.

The problem with battery packs is that batteries age. It's not like returning a propane tank and getting a full one. If you just bought your car and you go to refuel and they swap your once used battery pack with one that's seen ten thousand charge cycles you aren't getting a fair deal.

I totally get where you're going with this, but propane tanks also age. One time I swapped the tank, and when I got around to replacing it less than a year later it was past it's certification time and they wouldn't take it unless I paid to get it recertified someplace else.

Much less of an issue than getting a bad battery though.

Why do you care if your interest in the battery pack is that it lasts 200 - 300 miles? The only way this model would work is if maintenance/replacement of the batteries is the charging network's problem.

Not sure it’s practical to hot swap EV batteries right now.

“An electric vehicle battery typically weighs between 300 kg (660 pounds) and 900 kg (2,000 pounds).”

https://poweringautos.com/how-much-does-an-electric-car-batt...

It's possible, NIO has battery swap stations, but I don't think it's really viable.

This is especially true, given that advances in battery tech, and fast charging are going to eliminate the need. Recharging as fast a petro fuel filling have already been demo'd.

Of course, here in the US we don't need any of that commonist technology. We're all so great, we're gonna say "Please, Please, don't make me any greater!". Can't wait 8-/

So, qualify what I wrote before with: _in_China_ they'll be able to charge as fast as a refuel.

https://www.nio.com/nio-power?&noredirect=

But it begs a question, who’s liable when the battery is swapped to some faulty unit that catches fire when it’s in your car?

Presumably the battery network would have insurance and would factor that into the cost.

(I’d expect that all-in, this gets a lot closer to the cost of a gasoline fill-up. My current charging costs are far lower than the equivalent cost to fill up with gasoline, but my primary interest in this is environmental. I’ll take the lower cost while I can get it, but I don’t expect it to last forever.)

The weight is the most trivial problem to solve in this whole problem chain. A hydraulic lifting apparatus capable of moving a ton that fits under a passenger car is something that exists today.

Getting automakers to agree to a standardized form factor (and to not put non-battery components in their battery packs ala Tesla,) automatically locating and removing whatever retentioning mechanism is used, having a large enough stock of batteries at each “filling station”, etc. are more difficult problems.

But, as I said, I hope this does happen in the future.

The current bet is more towards even faster chargers, possibly with batteries supporting them in the back.

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