[citiguy]

I rented a Model 3 from Hertz last year and drove about 120 miles in it. Due to the super cold weather (like 12 degrees), plus the fact that I drove in the mountains in New England, and I used the heat (it was freezing and I had my child with me), I had the charge the car 1/2 way there, which made me stop in the middle of nowhere for 30 minutes while I waited at a super charger. Honestly this experience stunk.

I think the Tesla is nice if you don't need to go anywhere too far. For trips stick to gasoline.

[xwolfi]

In France we had this big plan to swap batteries near instantly at the charging station, like we did with horses 300 years ago (but it's an old idea since electrical batteries were used to power vehicles everywhere), and tested it in Israel of all places with Renault... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company) . Didn't work but maybe that's one idea ? Now if only we could standardize this...

[m463]

Tesla figured out how to do it and implemented it.

Problem is, nobody wanted it. They would rather wait to charge than turn in their personal battery, and later come back for it.

Would you want it? Would you turn over your decent, brand new battery at some charging station?

What's interesting is that they did it differently with the cybertruck. You can buy an additional battery that I believe is swappable.

[maxerickson]

They didn't really try to bring it to market. If the battery was just leased while it was installed in your vehicle (so you were only paying some reservation charge and a use fee instead of the full up front price), you might not feel so attached to it.

[Dylan16807]

Do you have a source for "nobody wanted it"?

From what I can tell they showed it off to get some tax credits, then decided not to deploy it anywhere (but keep the money of course).

[tuatoru]

The battery market is not yet mature enough for this. When the big car manufacturers have all had another decade's experience selling EVs, and battery tech has stabilized, the logic of standardization and swapping will become apparent.

[arein3]

Swapping batteries makes sense for scooters because they are not heavy, and it is done already in asia.

Swapping a battery that weighs a ton and is part of the car structure is another story completely.

I think the more sensible solution is to have fast charging and a reliable network. 800 volt batteries and a good architecture enable incredible fast charging, and in the fjture it might be even faster. Combine that with cars with a lot of range, ex. 400+ miles and a 30m stop once 300 miles doesn't sound bad at all.

[tuatoru]

Battswap is being trialled by trucking companies, with much larger and heavier batteries than in cars. The engineering problems are fiddly and time-consuming to get right but not intrinsically difficult.

With battswap also being done at the lightweight end, eventually there will be convergence in the middle. But I think we have another decade or fifteen years to wait before standardization efforts have a chance and battswap can be vehicle manufacturer agnostic.

Battswap is an obvious way to lower the sticker price of vehicles, which is key to selling the next half billion of them.

[lasfallas]

Battery weight might decrease drastically with next gen tech.

[bushbaba]

We can likely get super charging down to 15 mins with latest tech. Which is an overall better long term approach than battery swapping which requires standard battery sizes limiting innovation

[naijaboiler]

Rented model3 in New England, drove 1 trip, paid some $33 in town for charging cost, for a distance for which the gas equivalent wood have been no more than $15. Spent time hunting for charging stations until I found the supercharger.

Came here and said EV was not cheaper to run for me, many people on here disagreed. I gave up

[osullip]

You can stop half way and recharge? That is amazing!

[rdtsc]

Probably less amazing if it's a shady place in the middle of nowhere, with a dirty bathrooms, and shady characters roaming around asking for money. I don't see having to hanging out in some of those places for 30 minutes a positive experience. It's got it's excitement, but usually not the good kind of excitement.

[light_hue_1]

I've been to countless superchargers in a good chuck of the country. I've never seen a shady one with anyone begging, dirty bathrooms, or anything similar. They're in reasonable places, mid to upscale, next to grocery stores, etc.

[rdtsc]

That's good that it's the case. I mainly pointing out that if it's ever not the case, and the place is not one would enjoy hanging out around, with an IC car it's a 5 minute deal and you're out of there. With an EV it's a half an hour, and possibly going out of your way, which adds extra time.

For instance, when I travel with my regular IC car, I don't plan or think too much about where to refuel, how I am going to drive there, etc. It's usually a last minute decision. Having to spend half an hour somewhere it's a bit more tricky, now the trip revolves around recharging, waiting, possibly combining with lunch or dinner, etc.

[bluGill]

Pretty much anywhere. chargers are scattered all over. not every town has them, they are often hidden, and off the beaten path. If you start navigating to them when you are down to 150 miles of range you will ba okay and not have to go too far out of your way.

[bonzini]

Filling in a gas tank does not take 30 minutes.

[srott]

I agree, with my kids I rarely do it in less than an hour

[smohare]

There’s tons of folk routinely driving EVs from the Bay Area to Tahoe / Yosemite.

It’s like any inconvenience though. I used to bicycle commute everywhere that was within about a 20 mile radius. Rain, shine, or snow. This was so routine that it never bothered me. But if you’re a person who hasn’t ridden a bike in ten years and I asked you to adopt my routine, I can’t imagine you’d be terribly happy.