“1. Standardize battery modules between manufacturers.
2. Shift to easily replaceable batteries.
3. Pull into an EV service station, and the automated machine swaps out your low charge modules for freshly charged ones.
4. Off you go in 5 minutes.
5. The automated system charges your removed modules in a rack, performs a wellness check and prepares it and other in inventory for the next vehicle in line.”
Won’t work, as they’ll have to charge for depreciation of the battery pack, along with the electricity to charge it (of course). That will make the per-mile cost of driving the EV more than driving a gas engine.
That’s why it’s not being seriously proposed at this time.
Gotta disagree. The driver, as I mentioned in my post, WILL have to pay a higher cost per kilowatt to cover the costs of owning and operating the EV system.
Right now I pay for electricity at the utility rate to charge. That’s my variable cost.
AND I have to amortize the cost (higher) of buying the electric model of my chosen sedan, AND amortize the cost of the degrading battery.
I have no illusion that the overall cost of my EV is lower per mile than the gas version of the same vehicle. I ran the numbers: I will have to drive the vehicle for almost 250,000 miles alongside a market price of gas of $3/gal before I would break even. I DO NOT expect to break even by going EV.
We ENJOY the nearly silent electric vehicle experience, and my wife has a 12 mile each way commute. She never buys gas. She likes it.
Not all choices are 100% economic.
But if the replaceable battery model were to take off, I think it would start in the freight industry, on dedicated lanes, where a company like Pilot pairs with a freight hauler like Hub Group.
It would work.
We can disagree.
No more accidental spillage at the pump!