not sure about that

https://www.gogoro.com/news/gogoro-network-battery-swapping-can-help-transform-cities/

Ha, ha the Norwegian word for accelerator is "gasspedal" :)..

... sounds like a nation that has one of the most extensive EV fleets in the world might need to reinvent a few words they are carrying over from a bygone era.... 

Tesla tried this when they first launched the Model S and had a battery swap station. It was quickly discovered that the swapping process was overly complex and most people don't care waiting 20 minutes for a charge. Afterall, after driving 5 or so hours on a maximum charge nearly everyone is ready for a break that would have the car charged in that time. In New Zealand it's even less relevant for private vehicles since our land mass is relatively small - full range on a long range EV is at least half the length of one of the islands in most cases.

It may be useful for the heavy vehicle industry, such as trucks and trains but even then we're getting to the point where it's unnecessary.

Nio has an interesting business model with these battery swaps. you can purchase one of their cars new without the battery lowering the price of the car then subscribing to their battery as a service plan.

Be interesting to see how it plays out in the long run - if it works it will be an incredible passive income for them

insane: This will be obsolete once ultra fast charging becomes the norm. Interesting idea though, wonder if anyone could make that viable and follow the LPG gass bottle swap model.

My '06 car actually has a similar feature, you park up at these refilling stations and basically swap air for decomposed dinosaurs, and off you go. Also only takes a couple of minutes ;)

How fast is ultra fast likely to be?

500km [edit of battery range] in under 10 min and I'm sold (at the right price, of course).

dt:

 

Nio has an interesting business model with these battery swaps. you can purchase one of their cars new without the battery lowering the price of the car then subscribing to their battery as a service plan.

 

If I bought an EV incl battery I wouldn't want to swap out my new and/or well-cared-for battery for some other battery whose quality was unclear. I'd imagine that a battery swapping scheme would be a convenient way to replace your very tired old battery with a nice shiny new one.

Likewise, if I was buying a car with a swappable battery, I wouldn't want to own the battery.

So I think that's an excellent business model. But it does depend somewhat on them keeping their battery fleet in good nick.

The Gogoro model is interesting for densely populated cities where two wheel transport is already in high use (eg. South East Asia). For a scooter that carries two ~10-12kg batteries then swapping is something an individual can do without the need for any help. The advantage for swappable batteries in this scenario is it negates the need for fast charging which degrades batteries quicker than conventional slower charging. 

afe66: 

Wirh kids in car you just can't do long long runs so the need to stop to charge would line up with kids or dad needing a pee anyway.

We always did long runs with kids,  especially at night while they were sleeping. Put them to bed in the car and take shifts driving and sleeping.  It's amazing how well you can cover the distance at night.  ICE's tend to work more efficiently when the air is cooler too.

Given the value of a battery for an EV, i'm not sure I'd want to risk getting a battery in worse condition of my own by swapping it out.

I've seen the swappabattery concept in videos for things like mopeds, which I think is fine because the value of the battery itself is not so high that you'd be terribly disadvantaged either way. As much as I want this to work for EV's i'm not sure it'll fly until the battery itself is not owned by the vehicle owner, and there's some assurances around condition etc...

Like Swappabottle for BBQ's.