[benten10]

Here's a question I've always wanted to ask someone about electric cars: Why don't the companies make cars with detachable batteries, and basically do a battery 'swap' in the charging stations, so that the charging time becomes very little, if people want to?

[brbsix]

I guess people didn't care.

http://fortune.com/2015/06/10/teslas-battery-swap-is-dead/

[shpx]

You're mistaken, Tesla's batteries are swapable. In less time than it takes to fill up a tank of gas.

https://youtu.be/CH-H3-F4Ztc?t=2m8s

[lallysingh]

Two issues, I think:

- Building out these charging stations. That's a huge capital outlay for anyone.

- Standardizing batteries, tough when they're in a rapid development phase both in chemistry and form factor.

[rhino369]

The batteries are huge and expensive. You and the company would have to be comfortable swapping 5-10k dollar parts. You'd probably have to do that on a leasing model.

And you'd need something bigger than a gas station and way bigger than a charging station. And they would need to be everywhere to have value. Nobody wants to drive miles out of their way to swap.

[ZenoArrow]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place