 Battery exchange
kfz-tech.de/Ye228
Changing the battery can be worthwhile if it is your turn as quickly as possible with enough stations on site. The customer would have a 90 percent charged battery, 10 percent more than usual in case of good 20 to more
than 30 minutes today.
Charging the replaced batteries more slowly would make them last longer. The customer would no longer come near a partially defective or severely degraded battery because the manufacturer could automatically sort
them out.
Exchange stations would generally put less strain on the grid because they draw electricity much more evenly. This could significantly shorten the approval process. However, the fact that there is only one manufacturer
makes the process expensive for the customer.
One can assume that with such a system, even if it is only offered by one manufacturer, he also provides other options for its customers. That would also be necessary, because an exchange station is blocked for five
minutes for every car in the queue.
| The devil takes the hindmost |
Important to know, you only have one plus/minus connection of the pack to the outside. The pack has to take care of the air conditioning itself. If you take the intensive integration of heat pumps into the overall system, then
unfortunately the battery, which is so important, has to be left out.
Conversely, the manufacturer can do whatever he wants within a pack. For example, trying out totally new technologies where a long service life is not guaranteed. Because if the battery breaks earlier, he sorts it out.
Recently there has been a lot of talk about hybrid technology within batteries, i.e. the combination of two or even more technologies. Here, too, scenarios are conceivable to make the customer a tester as well. Others also
tap data, but here the conditions could be changed.
Nio initially offers two capacities with 75 kWh as an LFP and 100 kWh as an LMC battery. A presumably designed as a solid-state battery with 150 kWh has been announced. The weight, which is said to be around 550 kg for
all of them, is amazing.
The concept seems to make a lot of sense for people who don't have direct access to a kind of wall box, where the vehicle could stay for the whole night. Nio claims to already have more than 100 exchange stations in
Shanghai, for example.
To sum up: The system has advantages for city dwellers, people who consistently only use the battery size they need at the moment and companies who no longer have to take care of the needs of different employees.
That leaves the options of suddenly appearing as a supplier of very special electric cars, or the use of very large batteries with very short breaks. However, one hears from the example of Nio that the costs clearly catapult the
system into the premium area.
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