Battery swapping is a technology that could solve one key barrier for EV adoption: consumers’ range anxiety and the long waiting time for battery charging. Wouldn’t you feel more assured on a weekend trip if you knew you could stop at a swap station and replace depleted battery packs with fully charged ones in five minutes? But this isn’t easy to do, as Tesla and Better Place’s past failures. In China, however, battery swapping has been a reality for a couple of years. How did Chinese companies like Nio make it work with 2,300 swapping stations nationwide? What can companies outside China learn from the Chinese experience?
OK. I understand we can’t get more energy out of it. But maybe something without high pressure tank or industrial freezer to keep it in liquid form? I know I’m in a state of denial but I have a gut feeling that EV, at least with lithium batteries, shouldn’t be the way forward.
If hydrogen is really a dead end, maybe solid state batteries that doesn’t be a fire hazard and full charge in 5 minutes? Standardization of EV batteries are the way to go but I can see lots of resistance on the path.