CATL signs deal to bring over 100,000 battery-swappable cars to Car Inc's fleet
CATL signs deal to bring over 100,000 battery-swappable cars to Car Inc's fleet
cnevpost.com
CATL signs deal to bring over 100,000 battery-swappable cars to Car Inc's fleet
Does anyone know why battery swapping has not been the standard from the start? It would have simplified so many things. Not to mention completely sidestepping the EV viability roadblock of long charging times.
I think it’s an open question whether hot swapping is ultimately better than just faster charging.
Most early EVs were built on top of existing ICE platforms so it wasn't an easy way to add removable batteries.
Tesla did a demonstration in 2013, but it didn't go far: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_battery_station
Back then, using the Supercharger network was free for Model S users, whereas they wanted to charge money for each battery swap. Not surprisingly, they said there was no demand for swapping and canned the whole thing.
The CATL swap model makes the most sense, however, so you don't have to swap the whole battery, but can do a quick swap of each segment. Also, that it's not limited to a single manufacturer (like Nio) which will likely expand the reach and let the cost of swap stations be spread across different vendors.
Lack of standardisation seems to be a problem. I wish the industry voluntarily agreed on a standard — like they did for USB. I don't get why tech keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
Takes up a ton of space
Batteries are heavy
Fully charged batteries can be dangerous