Nio is a Chinese auto maker that offers an alternative to charging: just swapping out the whole battery whenever you need it. I borrowed one of their cars. ■...

Originally posted on [email protected].

Tom Scott’s latest video seems relevant to this community. Swappable batteries is an interesting concept, though it remains to be seen if it can compete with the proliferation of DC fast chargers.

  • @[email protected]English
    10•7 months ago

    If Nio can successfully persuade other manufacturers to adopt their battery swap standard, I can see battery swapping becoming mainstream. With the ability to easily replace a worn out or obsolete battery, depreciation becomes much less of an issue.

    • Dr. DabblesEnglish
      4•7 months ago

      The issue is all of the swap schemes make you take your charged battery back, or you have to lease a battery from the manufacturer. The financial aspect doesn’t really make sense for most people, I suspect, until battery rental/leasing is much cheaper.

  • @[email protected]English
    5•7 months ago

    This was demoed by Tesla 10 years ago, and offered as a service for a year or so before being abandoned in 2016, apparently due to lack of demand. Guess the landscape may be different now, but single vendor systems are likely still quite a problem.

    • Maëlys
      1•6 months ago

      american consumer behaviour isn’t really a benchmark.