Replies

The Battery is the big question. How easy is it to recharge? to swap in and out? I forsee that a work vehicle will be built on a platform where a battery can be inserted and extracted and switched in and out. 1 vehicle, 3 batteries.

This is the only way it makes sense.

“”a work vehicle will be built on a platform where a battery can be, inserted and extracted and switched in and out. 1 vehicle, 3 batteries.””

I thought about that also. They can envision the big trucks, the 18 wheelers. An EV big truck would drive 100 miles, pull into the battery station, the large battery behind the cab would be changed out for a fully charged battery, and the truck would drive another 100 miles.* (no charging time necessary). Two problems, at least. For home use, big pickup trucks, big SUV - if you have 3 battery packs, is the fire danger multiplied by 3?

*I do not like this idea, I was just trying to think like a liberal. I have a headache now.

I forsee that a work vehicle will be built on a platform where a battery can be inserted and extracted and switched in and out.

I mentioned the replaceable battery EV some 15 years ago, before EVs became any kind of popular. There was even an example of that offered by some maker, but that did not take off or even considered. My beef was with the battery and the range issue with EVs. That could have been overcome if the vehicles did not have proprietary batteries and could have batteries replaced on the road as needed in 'fueling stations' that have inventories of batteries ready for vehicles as they came in for 'refueling' Mind you that, those batteries would have to be made with 'sameness' for all makes and models, just like gas has sameness for all makes and models. Perhaps it's not too late. Those swapable battery vehicles can still be made. And, the vehicles would be a lot less expensive than today's EVs, since you wouldn't have to pay for the battery up=front. Just pay for a vehicle with 'battery not included' on tha sales slip, and go get your vehicle 'fueled up' at the next station close by, or by your dealer with a short-range battery at sales time.

The replaceable battery idea has been around for at least 15 years. The EV insanity started creeping into government fleets around that time. I was approached by a company called Better Place that was advocating for battery standardization, and was developing equipment and infrastructure to swap, charge and store EV batteries. It’s difficult, if not impossible to design a removable battery unit (at least for cars, since the battery is essentially part of the vehicle’s structure and is well integrated within it. Even if standardization was achieved, the number of extra batteries that would just be sitting around waiting for a swap is unimaginable. Not to mention the equipment and facilities that would be required - nationwide. I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Everything about EV’s is far more complex and expensive than an equivalent ICE vehicle. Transportation is really a fairly simple task. Why are we complicating it so? It’s silliness IMHO.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company)