I see SAIC are running fully electric cars in China where the battery is swapped out at a special "filling station" rather than recharging - full battery swap takes a minute apparently.
autonews.gasgoo.com/m/Detail/70018076.html
and including a video of how it happens
www.shine.cn/biz/auto/2103196223/
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Interesting but raises a lot of questions. It must require a high degree of standardisation.Wasn’t this what scuppered similar trials a few years ago?
It probably needs a skilled operator for safety reasons. I am not sure I would want my car lifted every couple of weeks but something like this needs to be part of the recharging mix.
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I wonder what will happen as the swapped batteries deteriorate.
You can choose to change your car if the range deteriorates, but with this model if the battery supplier does lent renew them or you get stuck in an area with poor turnover of batteries, you could be stuck with degraded batteries.
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I wonder what they crash protection is like, I was led to believe that the cell was a part of the crash protection and the overall ridgity of the car when being driven.
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Spose you'd just have to "fill up" more frequently if you got a duff battery. Though I expect the tech is there for them to test each battery as part of the process...
The cars must be designed for this so I'd be happier with it being done automatically than by the spotty work experience :-) I imagine they will standardise on fittings and batteries, though maybe a small range of different types (particularly physical measurements) of battery.
I'd go as far as to say they've probably already thought of most of the things a few geezers on a tiny UK forum might come up with, plus a whole lot more!! :-)
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They may well have, just curious as it was always described by plenty of the big car companies that is was a none starter and companies that had tried it in the past got no where with it. I wonder what they managed that others couldn't.
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It's not going to happen here
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Big dumbass complex expensive waste of time.
Might work in a one-party, one-EV state :-)
About as likely to work as hydrogen fuel cells in cars.
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This may not need a standard battery as I assume the equipment will be fully automated eventually, and entirely capable of differentiating different models and battery specs.
Having said that a standard spec would make stock control and associated battery replacement kit much simpler. This is something a command economy like China can impose centrally rather than trying to get separate competing manufacturers to agree.
The big challenge is that vehicles need to be designed at the outset to enable a quick battery swap - it is most unlikely to be a retrofit job. By the time they would hit the market in sufficient numbers in the UK, I suspect that rapid charging a la Tesla will be more commonplace.
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I never did understand the Renault Zoe battery leasing strategy. Are used Zoe owners always got to be paying Renault a monthly fee for batteries or was it only for initial term?
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The leasing strategy was to enable a low sticker price (13-14 grand I think) to get into the car. (plus a monthly for the battery) and due to the fairly common view that the battery would "only last 3 years" or whatever.
Owners can now buy out their leases depending upon the age of their car, which wasn't possible for the first 5 or 6 years.
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Fill 'er up - martin aston
