1 HN user recommended this demo1 month2020–2024score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Linked as concrete evidence that automated battery swapping already works in practice, especially in China.
Fully Charged episode where Elliot drives the NIO ES8 SUV and visits a battery swap station that replaces the pack in about three minutes. It covers the ownership model of swapping and what it could mean for EV charging.
Here is a video on how it works: [this video] While currently, thr stations have to be manned, there is potential for this to be completely unmanned drivethrough where you take the car and never have to get out of it, you pay and the battery is changed for you in 3 minutes (which also looks like it could be improved, and that could come down to less than a minute). I have no doubt that this will absolutely kill the competition. Also, it doesn't have to be one standard size. A standard interface with a few standard sizes will work just fine.
The Chinese auto maker NIO already has battery swap stations and a service that will drive a charger to your location with a container of electrons and charge your car. Fully Charged on YouTube had a video on this: [this video]
Shows NIO battery swap stations and charger-delivery service.
I was about to say that I don't see this happening due to the way batteries are being built into the chassis. Then I looked it up and it's being done right now with the Nio with a 3 minute battery swap in China. [this video] 580km / 360 miles range. I'm very impressed!
Demonstrates NIO's 3-minute battery swap in China.
> No consumer is ever going to agree to this psychologically Nio has done over two million battery swaps: [link] [this video] Ample wants to do the same but with fleet cars at first: [link]
Evidence that NIO battery swapping works at scale.
> A car battery should be swappable in a day or two Nio currently swaps out their car batteries in about 3 minutes, much like you'd get an oil change at Jiffy Lube or something. It's completely automated except someone pulls the car in/out of the bay for you. I imagine that human step will be relatively short lived. > they have to be heavily shielded in case of an accident. Yes, it's just a simple matter of purposefully designing it to be removed easily. This is cued up to where he gets to the battery swap station: [this video]
Shows the automated battery swap station in action.
Well, I've been looking at Chinese EV's and basically drooling at what they're doing. In this country (USA), an EV is a ball-and-chain over how many miles until you go before a recharge for hours. In China, its 3 minutes to SWAP a battery. You know, the solution the manchild in charge of Tesla said wouldn't work. And here it is, working in USD 12k ev's. [link] [link] [link] [this video] But hey, look at the "bright side" - we now get $7500 off cars that start at USD 70k for EVs. Real 'deal'.
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