Everything that is old becomes new, they must have forgotten history. This was done over 100 years ago. It's not a novel idea by any means. Doesn't mean it's a bad idea, it's just not new.

A History of Swapping EV Batteries Since the 1890s

The first experiments with exchanging batteries in electric cars date to America's Gilded Age in the late 1890s

www.asiafinancial.com

 

This is what's so interesting about this time in history. Ingenuity will be the driver of innovation. There will be many ideas put forth until someone literally stumbles on to the right one and off it'll go. I was talking to my wife's opthmologist yesterday about macular degeneration. My aunt had that in the 80s. It was back then a sentence of blindness. Now it's treatable with an old cancer drug. It takes an injection once a month, but it keeps it in check. Will something less invasive come along? Sure, at some point. But she always told me not to worry something will come along when your my age. She was right. And she was part of the greatest generation.

 

Great idea, but the OEMs want to use their own batteries.

Secondly, imagine having to stock batteries for hundreds of different models.

Lastly, the battery packs have now become part of the vehicle's structural integrity.....if that fails, who is liable? The OEM or the battery changer?

 

Not to be a Debbie downer, but this would require standardization among the manufacturers. And Erik has a good point about battery packs as part of the structural integrity and the many different batteries.

And how to apply warranty issues on the battery?

 

Note how Apple handled the ability to swap batteries. It really upset many customers, but then Samsung followed suit and now it is near impossible to find a decent mobile phone that can swap batteries.

 

Out of Spec reviews has a great video on the battery swap machines in Europe. I kind of think of it like when you swap propane tanks at Home Depot.

 

I have a Samsung Galaxy S21 that I bought about two years ago. Not able to swap in a new battery. Previously I had a Motorola cellphone. When the battery went on the Motorola (wouldn't hold a charge for more than 8 hours), the only option was to purchase a new phone. The battery could not be replaced.

 

I've never owned a phone without a replaceable battery. Two Motorolas, two LGs and now a Samsung. I guess it depends on the model.

 

It seems that is not an option for most phones these days. Granted, I have not any research in this regard, but even the few I have looked at don't have a replaceable battery.

 

FWIW, this would probably not be for everyone. Bob Sheaves said it would be inevitable for NYC cabs, for example. I'm thinking also of big rigs - instead of hydrogen, which is kinda nutty to a degree. You could also have cars designed with a part accessible battery, part built in battery so you could get say 50 miles near-instantly, though now that I write that it seems pointless and inane, so maybe not.

The future may not be one size fits all, so I'd ask that you reserve criticism of particular ideas until you consider different use cases. The big example there is big rigs—long haul and short haul are very different. If you're refilling supermarkets, you can probably go on all battery, every day, without problems, even without chargers at the supermarkets (or maybe with chargers at some of them but not others). If you're moving Coors from Colorado to Georgia or whatever, trying to make some sort of arbitrary deadline, then the battery replacement or hydrogen may work better.

Again, I remember how people opposed the switch to computerized cars and fuel injection, partly because the early systems were so persnickety and short-lived. There are downsides even now to EFI but overall, most people would not want to switch back, and the downsides COULD largely be addressed through legislation, e.g. demanding that automakers keep repair parts in stock for 20 years and then, if they don't want to make / sponsor them after that point, open-source the designs. Frankly, with 3D printing techniques we have today, it seems silly not to do that anyway, though I get that chips are an issue... (of course some of that is design insanity, like the shifter in ZF-type transmissions having chips that have to be programmed with the car’s serial number.)

 

I'm going to wait for them to come up with something more energy dense. Instead of switching out the battery maybe the storage medium could be some sort of liquid, stored in something like a simple tank. Maybe the liquid could be energy dense enough the propulsion system wouldn't even have to be super efficient to get good range and fast recharge times. Probably a pipe dream but you never know what the future might hold.

 

The electric forklifts where I used to work had easily changeable batteries. The batteries were stored in charging racks. Granted these aren't vehicles, but the concept worked, instead of taking a long time to charge, a battery module could be swapped out in a few minutes keeping the forklift operational.

 

I have a Makita electric blower, to use it for hours, I have 6 batteries that I keep charged, it works pretty well that way. It takes 2 batteries so 6 gives you 3x the normal time of use. If my wife (who uses it most of the time) doesn't feel like waiting for a charge, I fire up the old Echo 2 stroke ES 230 blower.

 

I have a Makita electric blower, to use it for hours, I have 6 batteries that I keep charged, it works pretty well that way. It takes 2 batteries so 6 gives you 3x the normal time of use. If my wife (who uses it most of the time) doesn't feel like waiting for a charge, I fire up the old Echo 2 stroke 240 blower.

I use a rake or broom, depending on the requirements!

 

OK!! You win!!

 

Smartphones and flip-phones are very different in battery replacement. With smartphones, very few makers let you keep the phone with full security updates for six years. My family still has a couple of 6S phones in daily use. We've had one iPhone break so far, and we've bought all of them well-used. having to go to the store and pay a little extra is money well spent, compared with a Motorola or whatever Android, given the much longer software support. (There are two or three major Android companies which support their phones for long periods, or at least some of their phones, but I don't think they allow user battery replacement either.)

I've taken apart iPods to replace the spinning hard drives with solid state memory. Oddly enough I've never had an iPod whose battery was far gone enough that I wanted to replace it, but I could. I did replace one, the first one I opened up, but the new battery wasn't any better than the old one! So maybe iPhones can also be taken apart by end users... I have no desire to find out...

 

If there is a battery swap system in the future, I would like to start up a Battery Booster company like a tow truck service. Need a 'Boost' because you didn't plug in the EV motor block/battery heater? Forgot to plug the hybrid in? Didn't plug it in on purpose? Have banks of briefcase sized charged batteries ready to install in a Promaster van, or something that can handle the weight safely. Then do To-the-Door deliveries of warm charged packs. Self-diagnosing batteries should snitch if there was damage or abuse from overheating, freezing, or improper use and such.

Set up a delivery subscription and scale up the company as the route increases. Like a kid delivering papers in the morning. Expensive daily delivery plans. Less expensive weekly and longer contracts. Have a micro refund/credit incentive aspect that depends on the remaining battery levels to encourage less driving. A battery swap would still happen to 'Fill the tank.' with a discount. It doesn't matter what it costs. Just cheaper than gas and can scale up as the price of fuel goes up for non-contract emergency calls.

Have dual alternators for topping up the batteries that were returned with acceptable levels. Yes, it may have to be a liquid fuel engine based 'charger'. Load up the batteries overnight. Also, maybe have a Drive In Depot. Park and pay charging right next to the Bitcoin Car Wash. Or a premium battery pack swap that can be done quicker and cheaper than filling up a 'fuel tank' for 20 minutes. Still pricy but the convivence is worth it for people who's time is more important than money. Let them flex their ego with a positive environmental EV-Owner image. The Road-Side emergency swap at a high price would keep a van extra busy in cool weather.

I -kind of- miss my Samsung 5S or S5 for the full remove-battery reset. I could also evaluate the life of the battery once some bloat starts to show up. Hyper charging and hyper depletion.