Battery swaps should have worked, it's stupid they dont.
When you consider that the battery pack of a Tesla costs well over $10,000 (
https://www.thedrive.com/tech/38915/it-costs-nearly-16000-to-replace-a-tesla-model-3-battery-pack), it makes sense that battery swaps don't work.
Battery swaps
might work if you own a fleet. Like rental cars for example, swapping batteries among your own cars is maybe a decent idea. Except at the $16,000+ price point to replace batteries (they're literally the most expensive part of an electric car), it makes more sense to
just buy spare cars rather than spare batteries.
The problem with batteries is swapping a good one, for a lower quality or worn out one so no one would ever do that... but it COULD be possible for a secondary 'range extender' universal style option if someone mandated a universal standard for that sort of thing.
Hmmm, maybe we should use a standardized chemical that stores a lot of energy, and one that can be transferred easily with a hose. A chemical that's lighter and carries more energy than the rest of the battery pack. Different "grades" can be made, like 87, 91, and 93 for example, depending on the specific chemical reaction their cars are designed for.
And maybe in the future, we can think of other chemicals, like Hydrogen, that might work out cleaner than that other chemical.
They gave money for a solution that is utterly trivial?
"Trivial" ?? The battery pack literally weighs a ton and costs over $10,000. The battery pack is not only the most expensive piece of equipment in an electric car, it is
also the heaviest. In the case of Tesla (the car company I talked about before), the battery pack is
literally wielded to the floor.
You can't move that thing, not by the current design. Its wielded there as a safety issue (low center of gravity to prevent the car from tipping over).
Not only that, the battery pack is highly explosive (
https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/ppqqwg
). The battery packs need heavy shields to make sure that rocks and/or dirt that kick up under it won't light the whole thing on fire. Even then, those shields can be penetrated at high speeds if you jump the curb like this video demonstrates.
I'm not seeing exactly how a battery swap is feasible, not by any current EV's design. Especially when you consider the low-center of gravity people want to have (so you want to place those packs under the floor), but still have safety issues (you don't want the car to bottom out and light on fire as it strikes something, like that video from r/IdiotsInCars).
So you have a 1-ton, $10,000+ object that's explosive and requires shielding that you want to swap around with strangers. Along with all the other car things to figure out (center of gravity, suspension, balance, weight, etc. etc.). Cool. Good luck figuring out the tools and equipment to actually accomplish that task.
To be fair, I don't lift engines, but moving car-parts that weigh 1-ton around just won't happen in 5 minutes, or 30-minutes if you take the precautions necessary. No mechanic will do an engine lift job in 30 minutes, and engines are lighter than these battery packs. Its pretty dangerous, not only to the person but also to the car to move such weights around.
Battery swap is one of those things where it sounds like it might work. But the minute you think about the mechanics of the swap (cost, economics, tool design, safety, etc. etc.) it makes no sense at all.
Also, why do electric cars have to be ugly?
