[rdiddly]

Why not treat it like a propane tank exchange? The company owns all the tanks(1); you don't own the tank(1) and aren't paying for the tank(1) (other than maybe a deposit to ensure you'll return it someday). When you swap it, you pay only for the propane(2) inside; you're just buying more of the contents.

(1) battery

(2) electrons

[notahacker]

You'd need the deposit to be the price of buying a battery, because unlike a metal tank a high capacity lithium battery is pretty useful if you never use that company's charge facility again, but if the status quo is that the company only swaps their own serial numbered batteries within certain time frames, the whole notion of swapping an old one for a new one is meaningless. Sure, sometimes people will wreck a battery but return it anyway, like any lease business, but there's no way of using them as a general bad battery disposal service

[rdiddly]

Swapping old for new IS meaningless and not the goal. In fact some swaps would inevitably be new-for-old. The company would own both, so who cares. This idea is only about swapping depleted for charged, so you don't have to wait around while it charges. Obviously the only way it would work is if swapping were made easier and faster than charging. As for abnormal or unusual occurrences, if a battery is nearing end-of-life the customer can do the company the favor of reporting it, or the company can find out themselves by testing it. If you demonstrably wreck one, or just keep it, the company has your deposit (which I agree should be close to the price of the battery), and you just bought a battery.

It's early and people still fetishize the batteries a bit, but they're really just containers for the thing we actually want - the charge.

[chiph]

A propane tank can have a useful life over 20 years, while a battery pack will wear out quicker than that. Or become obsolete because new technology is developed, or the vehicle manufacturer changes the design making older ones incompatible. So you'd have to account for that possibility in what you charge.