If anything, Nio battery swap stations would allow car users to swap to newer types of battery as they become available. I say this knowing Nio is one of CATL's most important partners[1].

[1] https://eletric-vehicles.com/catl/catl-calls-nio-an-irreplac...

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newyankee 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In a well designed urban environment where cars have space for 2-3 modular batteries with swapping capabilities, I see no reason why taxis etc. need to carry battery payload > 150 km of range needed for local use, which would mean better fuel efficiency as well. Battery swapping done right is integral to this

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0xfaded 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Sorry, but I giggled at this. A well designed urban environment would have no cars.

	▲	taskforcegemini 5 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		but you/stuff still needs to go from a to b. taxis (or individual self driving pods) should however be the future of public transport.
	▲	horsawlarway 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Frankly - I agree with this take. If anything - my opinion at this point is that cars were a mistake in vehicle sizing caused by internal combustion engines. For the vast, vast majority of ubran transit, something akin to a bike in size seems to make more sense. We see this already in urban regions in India/Asia where scooters are the predominate transportation method, and I think even traditional scooters are heavy enough to be problematic. But a class 2 ebike (so throttle with no need to pedal) can weigh as little as 40lbs (20kg), and go 30 miles at 20mph. It's insane that we're not designing urban transit for bikes at this point. Much better density, much safer, much easier to store and park, much cheaper to operate and license.
	▲	vfclists an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Cars,those urban monstrosities the vehicles that weigh over 25 times their payload and take up 20 times the space on the roads. Should I adjust the figures for American sizes? Should I also add that they are engineered to travel at speeds over 120 mph and usually ply the trade environments where 30 mph is a dangerous speed?

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an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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DennisP 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That'd be an interesting situation. They'd probably replace their fleet of batteries gradually, so with each swap sometimes you'd get upgraded, sometimes downgraded. Your range and home charging curves would change with the batteries, and Nio would have to update the battery management software when it puts in a different battery type.

But over time, you'd get upgraded on average without having to pay for a new battery, as long as Nio kept updating to keep its batteries competitive.

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pjc50 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This is in fact the main argument to me why swaps would never work at all, economically: the "state" of the battery is a significant part of the value of the car. Being swapped to a worse one makes you several thousand dollars worse off.

It only works in a leasing scenario, and everyone hates those.

	▲	toast0 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I think you'd need a contract where you buy (or lease) the car without a battery and lease/rent the battery separately. With some guaranteed offer for a battery with minimum spec X at maximum price Y when you exit the battery program. Preferably, not a mandatory offer, because one hopes specs go up and prices go down over time. Then have you pay something per month for having a battery (maybe depends on the specific battery installed), something per kWh for charge used, plus a rebate per kWh for charge added. Or roll it into usage tiers, whatever. There's lots of people that love leasing cars. I don't understand it, but it makes a lot of people happy?
	▲	sowbug 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I used to own a truck whose fair market value would double, temporarily, whenever I filled the tank.
	▲	cucumber3732842 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		How's that any different than putting new tires on a shitbox?

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xbmcuser 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Nio already has a service to swap to higher capacity battery if you want to go on a long road trip etc. It prices its cars according to battery capacity so even people that chose lower capacity car on purchase still have the option to swap to a higher capacity battery. Though I think the main use for battery swap technology will be for commercial trucking and if I recall correctly Chinese government and OEM are working on standardisation for that so all those truck batteries are swappable no matter which company builds the battery.

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dirck-norman 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

5 minute swap is not needed for this.

	▲	cestith an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Well, if it degrades to 90% after three years, and let’s extrapolate to 81% after another two to three years, then a battery swap in 5 minutes might be reasonable to do instead of charging once every three to five years or so. I guess it depends on the quality and retained capacity on the batteries being swapped in.