BYD needs to create a replaceable battery standard. You go in, your battery gets replaced, ready to go.
There are significant logistics here. How many batteries should be stocked in any one place.
Batteries are large. So you’re also talking about a lot of space.
At the same time you still need to build out the electric capacity to charge those batteries.
The number of batteries you would need would need to be some multiple of the actual number of cars sold. So if there are 300 cars sold, you probably need something like 1200-1500 batteries in the same city just so a car doesn’t have to travel unreasonable distances to do a swap.
The multiple is probably higher and it gets much worse spread out over the entire country/world. Thats burdening each car sale with multiples costs of the most expensive component in the car.
It’s mechanical, so there are likely to be more breakdowns and other issues.
Battery replacement requires changing the car design and leads to a design that’s almost certainly much less protected from the elements or requires the addition of expensive protection, both in terms of the cost of the additional protection and the weight of the protection.
People tend to treat replaceable batteries poorly.
Battery replacement is just not a good choice relative to the much simpler ability to pump in electricity.
Modern apps could show the current stock of stations.
Batteries could be modularized. So X car might need 4 pieces. Y car needs only 3 etc.
Bring in standards about car battery spacing etc.
If the station runs out of batteries, just use the backup option, meaning, charge the battery in the car.
Anything else needs addressing? :D
battery packs are often structural components, this idea would make that impossible, reducing durability and safety.
not all batteries are identical. there are many different capacities and wear levels. imagine bringing in your new car for electricity and getting an old battery back. the battery is a huge portion of the cost of the car- now you have an old one!
The rest of your points are things that battery swapping needs to address. But yet here we are - a Chinese EV company has 3000 battery swap stations in operation: https://cnevpost.com/2024/12/31/nio-adds-record-high-swap-st...
This is not true. A battery can be structural and swap-able. The structure is determined by what it has to survive in a crash. While standing still in a battery swap station, your car does not need to clear those requirements.
So as long as it crash safe once the new battery is put into place, your are completely fine.
the batteries could be replaced at the station, or whoever uses your battery, that individual pays you for using it... and the station only gets a cut.
everything is solvable.
And what evidence is there that it is heavily subsidized? This is a company that started really small and has been growing for a while.
Its not any more subsidized then any other Chinese EV company, and less so then many others.
>And what evidence is there that it is heavily subsidized?
40% https://cnevpost.com/2025/03/10/shanghai-to-subsidize-swap-s...
https://cnevpost.com/2025/03/06/hefei-subsidies-battery-swap...
2024 https://www.jato.com/resources/news-and-insights/how-china-i...
from horses mouth 2020 https://www.nio.com/blog/past-present-chinas-ev-subsidies " Electric vehicles that utilize battery-swapping technologies are not limited to the 300,000 yuan price limit and will still qualify for the subsidies."
Just linking a few articles about limited subsidizes doesn't mean the company wouldn't exists or would be bankrupt if not for subsidizes. And some of the articles don't even specifically mention a lot of money.
First article, 40% subsidize on some stations in a single city. The build most of those stations before this new subsidy. So at best this articles shows that they might get some subsidy in the future.
Second articles, a few cities give out subsidizes for cars with battery swapping. Literally a pilot project that has only recently started. Third article just mentions the same pilot program.
Forth article, small change in regulation to existing subsidizes making it slightly more attractive to have a battery swappable car. Since 2020 regulations about what gets how much subsidy have changed many times over in China. And have been in general reduced by a whole lot as China wanted to get its industry of subsidies.
We are talking about a market of millions vehicles with billions of money put into intensives and infrastructure. With government putting in billions as well. Such as the US with the 7500$ tax credit.
To call them specifically 'heavenly' subsidized is just plane inaccurate, they got some subsidy, like every other EV maker. Swapping has got some funding once in a while, but its far from the primary thing that gets subsidies. The company didn't do swapping because it received the most subsidizes.
That's the same wrong argument people made about Tesla for years. Link to any article about the word 'subsidy' and then claim that the whole business only exists because of that.
Its not at all like hydrogen in California. NIO alone makes more cars then global hydrogen sales.
And just to be clear, I don't even like swapping or think that its a good idea but that it has bankrupt every company that tried it or its only viable because of some massive subsidy (that you fail to prove exists) is completely false. Nio has existed since 2014. Unless you can actually point to a subsidy program, specifically for swapping, that funneled multiple billions of $ into Nio pockets, I'm gone call bullshit.