Perhaps Tesla maintains ownership of it so that you never have to worry about whether someone you're swapping with is unloading a bad battery on you. At a certain degradation, they just give you a new one.
It's not even dead weight! Just extra battery capacity that's removable.
Standardize the form factor and turn it into a uniform standard that every manufacturer can adopt.
If you extrapolate this to the whole pack you get Nio's swappable battery system.
I don't see this scaling out well especially with trying to get multiple manufacturers onboard with standard packs.
Every EV can accept 120V or 240V power, and that can be obtained in a lot of ways including generators, portable battery packs, or inverters on ICE or EV vehicles.
A 240V output from one vehicle and a standard charging cord seems like a more universal solution to me than moving 100lb battery packs around.
Fully swappable batteries seems untenable for a number of reasons.
a) It seems unlikely that you can standardize the battery form factor between different models. You'll still have a handful of different standards between small, full size, and truck/suvs, and semi truck forms. It's been hard enough getting manufacturers to standardize on a single charging port. Battery form standardization would be another order of magnitude hard.
b) Even if you somehow manage to do it, you're forever stuck on that form. Limits the experimentation and flexibility you have to develop for new use cases. Upgrading battery tech, like Tesla's switch to the bigger and more efficient 4680 in the cybertruck, would also get added friction since it wouldn't be compatible with older standards.
c) Tesla at least is starting to turn the battery pack into a structural element to reduce mass. Unlikely you can do this and be swappable at the same time.
You can add that an EV's battery is the most expensive part of the car and that a user can easily damage the battery if they drive/charge in a non optimal way.
I really do not want some other yahoo's battery after I take care of mine meticulously.
I've often thought that EVs with "adjustable range" would be nice, you can buy it with the stock battery that gets you X range, and maybe that's all you need, but you can buy add-on packs that give you more range, or rent them.
>"Perhaps Tesla maintains ownership of it so that you never have to worry about whether someone you're swapping with is unloading a bad battery on you. At a certain degradation, they just give you a new one."
Someone Call Google and give them all the details! (reference required)
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>Standardize the form factor and turn it into a uniform standard that every manufacturer can adopt
ANYtHING that requires power from the utility grid should have a standard plug.
Imaging buying a washing machine or refridgerator and having to update the wiring in your home because you want an LG washer and a GE fridge?
Oh wait, thats how cell phones seem to work and basically you cannot be a modern human without this tether.
Yeah, dork... you know how many FN years it took and the impact of the mountains of e-waste before we could beat politicians with a stick from eating that corporate donut?
Perhaps Tesla maintains ownership of it so that you never have to worry about whether someone you're swapping with is unloading a bad battery on you. At a certain degradation, they just give you a new one.
It's not even dead weight! Just extra battery capacity that's removable.
Standardize the form factor and turn it into a uniform standard that every manufacturer can adopt.