1-minute Battery Swapping now all over China, this is the future of mass market EV

This is the future of EVs, just drive in and swap the EV battery in about 1 minute. All EVs should implement this standard, as that will dramatically decrease the upfront EV pricing.
A $45K Tesla Model 3 becomes a $30K Tesla Model 3, where you then have to pay about $50 or $75 per month to rent your standard basic range 250km (150-mile) battery, then when you decide to go on a road trip, at all highway entrances would be 1-minute battery swap stations where you can swap to a 500km (300-mile) battery for an upgrade fee of about $2-3 per day.
Then in the near future as new higher capacity batteries become available, and as new lower cost 150-mile batteries become available, you can then swap to even larger range batteries or decrease the monthly rental of your basic 250km (150-mile) battery.
That would also solve range anxiety. It makes the low cost $20K Tesla a definite possibility. It allows for Tesla to manufacture 2x more EVs overnight. Battery Swapping is also a crucial feature for self-driving robotaxis too as those need to drive around 24 hours a day and not stay parked for hours to recharge.

[@elektron2kim666]

I bought some RC trucks and I get similar ideas. One got a remote camera and I made extra battery packs. I moved onto propeller/brushless motors too and it's amazing to fool around with. There is some micro controller projects in it as well.

[@jasongooden917]

It is also hot here in Barrie Canada today. 29C IN October

[@destinyaudio]

The first of such a "container battery reswap station" I saw over five years ago here in Guangzhou, Tianhe district, opposite of Lingtang village at an E bus charging station. It was also made for the Taxis only. The station in your video looks more professional now. The ramps we had here were made of metal, not made of concret, very noisy.

[@oculushut7205]

Thank you for sharing. Really interesting video. Is it only taxis which can use the system? Also, what are the costs?

[@charbax]

I don't know who owns the taxis, my guess is there's no cost, the taxi companies who own the EVs fund the battery swapping network and the drivers just get paid their "usual" share of their revenue, or something like that. I don't know if consumer cars or Didi (Chinese Uber) cars are compatible. I know NIO does 1500 or perhaps more than 2000 battery swap stations used by consumer EVs I plan to try to find out how many Chinese EVs are compatible and if I find out something I'll post a new video. 😀

[@oculushut7205]

Thank you for the quick response. Will look out for that video. Already subscribed! In the UK here and it is interesting to see alternative techs. We definitely seem to be going down the “plug it in and wait” route over here, but it’s still early days!

[@aries_mcrae]

@@charbaxonly Nio has battery swap stations. BYD can’t do battery swap

[@mews56]

Can Chinese & American EV car’s & Battery swapping stations succeed outside of the U.S. & Chinese market? without a universal sized E.V. battery like Ample’s for all EV. cars. Like in rural Australia? With Brands such as Nio & Lucid

[@bravo6177]

Whats the Car Model Geely ??

[@Mnkmnkmnk]

The whole world is always like - "EVs are the future, Battery swapping is the future" etc etc. It is always just talk. But China actually does the work, at least in terms of EV technology. I have heard so much FUD regarding EVs even though EVs are better in terms of almost all aspects compared to ICE cars (efficiency, environmental impact, noise, reliability, maintenance etc), and with this battery swapping tech, even the most common complaint - "I CaNt ChArGe My CaR iN 1 MiNuTe LiKe I FiLl uP My GaS" is solved. But I can't wait to hear what the anti-ev crowd will find to complain about next.

[@TheJsmith1988]

You need to educate yourself some more on the toll EVs take on the environment...ESPECIALLY when it's reached end of life and is time to scrap/recycle The amount of resources that are wasted and how long it takes to recycle them is magnitudes of order higher than ICE vehicles.

[@DD-wx4jc]

​@@TheJsmith1988this is misinformation. There is still an environmental impact, but the only real difference is the battery and alternatives to metals are being used already in China, like sodium.

[@YOGA47]

AUDIO is not mono

[@wric01]

Now if they use the phinergy aluminum air battery, it would cut coal co2 and dirty mining substantially.

[@Nobody-Nowhere]

This also means that you car wont be outtraded if battery tech improves.

[@charbax]

Yes exactly. This makes all EVs fully future proof. In 5 years, in 10 years even in 20 years, you could then easily swap to future cheaper/larger capacity batteries that then become possible.. And who knows which country might provide the best future batteries, they might come from China, or from USA, or from Europe, or from Africa, who knows it depends what best battery chemistries win out the market in the future and where those materials might come from at the best price..

[@Nobody-Nowhere]

@@charbax Yeah. We should have learned from cellphones, non replaceable batteries are a horrible idea. Meanwhile tesla innovates by making the battery a structural part of the frame.

[@charbax]

@@Nobody-Nowhere I believe structural batteries are a mistake. And yet another trick Tesla used to force all its "early adopter" rich Tesla owners to fully subsidize Tesla's massive Gigafactory battery production investment. Tesla just didn't like the idea of putting that risk on themselves by not selling these super expensive early EV batteries upfront. Hopefully though, I really hope Tesla's low cost model will feature Battery Swapping! Doing that, Tesla low cost model can be sold at below $20K!! And it can be future proof! And that's the only way Tesla can massively ramp up production volume in their Gigafactories as soon as they are ready to launch the low cost model car.. Same thing about Tesla's upcoming robotaxi design too! It absolutely needs 1-minute battery swapping support to extend robotaxi range indefinitely.

[@jivanwashington7529]

Toyota got a car coming 2025 700 miles a charge

[@trekpac2]

This also solves the problem of batteries wearing out and affecting resale value of the car. Problem gone! Lowering the purchase price of the car by 1/3rd also is a stroke of genius (just renting each battery). Too bad, Elon!

[@charbax]

Yes when rich early adopters have their 300mile range battery lowered to about half after 5-7 years, they might want to swap to a newer battery but their used battery is still going to give another 5-7 years of use out of the cheaper users who don't mind having half the remaining range still available. So battery swap makes sure all the batteries range is used much better than the current everybody pay for always having max range waste. It's like if lower income people would need to keep filling up the tank on their combustion engine car and then throw out half the tank of gas each time without ever using it.

[@jasongooden917]

The cab driver sounds like an NPC 😂

[@cratecruncher4974]

The Englishman filming isn't fluent in Chinese. The driver was quite friendly towards the foreigner.

[@dinutepes]

There's a timer tickin'. If they don't swap it in time, Taxi will explode

[@americannumber2]

exactly, the battery and car businesses are separated makes a lot of sense

[@greecemobile7610]

This is gac not geely

[@charbax]

Thanks for comment! Yeah I need to learn all the Chinese EV company logos among NIO, XPeng, BYD, Geely, SAIC Motor, CATL, Changan, FAW Group, Chery, Xiaomi, BAIC, SAIC-GM-Wuling, JAC Motors, Hozon Auto, GAC Aion and perhaps more. 😄 I hope all these Chinese EV manufacturers are all able to be compatible to one same battery swapping standard. The Chinese Government hopefully coordinates this so NIO, GAC and others all can swap in the same system. This is what I wish Europe would standardise also, to the point perhaps of even mandating that all EVs be compatible to global battery swapping standards, to limit waste and anticompetitive behavior.

[@alexlo7708]

But the driver guy said it is Geely.

[@jasongooden917]

The future cars will charge as fast as a battery swap

[@user-pc8dx9to5p]

In future, there will be no charge because the energy container will be full all the time, the road will send the power.

[@Rizon1985]

I have been saying this method is the way to go for years. But in the west you have to content with capitalism so we got the bad version. - This means the battery is something you rent over the lifetime of the car. Instead of the very big purchase price of a EV, they become way more affordable to more people. - Batteries' performance depends on the amount of charge cycles. When batteries are integrated in the car, you have heavy users who trash their battery very quick while some people hardly use the battery over it's lifetime. By swapping batteries in a station, you can make sure all batteries get optimally used according to their economical and ecological cost. New batteries can go on heavy users while people who only drive to the store in the weekend can get more expended batteries and extend their lifetime. - Much cheaper infrastructure for the state. You don't need millions of charging stations littered everywhere and getting vandalised by copper thieves. No special parking spots needed for charging cars and frustrating drivers. - Much cheaper infrastructure for companies since everywhere in the world there is already a network of fuel stations that can be converted to battery swapping stations. All the fuel stations can be repurposed, the industries build around those places can stay and all the people working in those businesses can stay. Employers also don't have to start installing charging stations at companies for their employees to charge during the day. - Much cheaper infrastructure for people because now you don't need expensive chargers at home anymore. For an emergency it's good enough to use a normal plug and wire to get you to a swapping station but you don't need expensive stations with thick cabling anymore to get your car fully charged overnight. - Batteries can also be standardised instead of every car manufacturer doing their own thing. This brings down production price, combines R&D budgets and decreases costs of maintenance and disposal. You build a small form factor for 2wheelers and a large form factor for 4wheelers. Both form factors are modular and can be stacked in different configurations according to the vehicle. A small vespa needs a single small battery while a chopper you can but 2 of them in parallel for longer range or on a moto bike you put 2 in series for extra power. Same with 4wheelers where cars, trucks and tractors can get different configurations. It's such a better system with nothing but advantages on price and environmental impact. The only "people" who would suffer are the car manufacturers who can't sell you expensive batteries anymore or lock you into their brand environment. In economical systems where companies still exist to fulfill a social role like they historically had been envisioned to be, this isn't a problem.

[@charbax]

Awesome! I thought I was the only one thinking in this way! I've been all in with battery swap since Project better place. Yes though I do think chargers can also be used, faster and slower chargers too. But building out Trillion $ of chargers everywhere is pointless if the future is going to be driverless Robotaxis anyway! Then also, I think the Robotaxis much prefer swapping the batteries autonomously rather than to design some contraption that can somehow connect the charging cable to the charging port autonomously. Although I do think that it is possible they might design automatic charging cable to charging port connection system, somehow, or use induction/wireless charging somehow. But my main argument, as you say too, is that battery swap brings flexibility! Finally the fleet can manage 100s of different battery vendors, different battery range, different battery age/cycles, flexibily deploy shorter range batteries to EVs that don't need to be used on longer distances, like all robotaxis within cities can just use half range batteries and swap. This frees up capacity to manufacture twice as many EVs using same amounts of battery materials overnight! And this significantly saves money not having to make maximum capacity for all EVs out there just to support the rare longer road trip!

[@HMGeekMa]

nio do it better

[@valleynomad]

I like your enthusiasm for new technology. However, as you may discover later, battery swapping is not the future for EV....

[@charbax]

It is the future. Because not having it is the past. 😄

[@valleynomad]

No, battery swapping for EV was launched first by Better Place and then by Tesla more than 10 years ago. So actually it is the past :)

[@charbax]

​@@valleynomad​@valleynomad I was all over better place and a huge fan, they did excellent lower priced EVs long before Tesla.. though Better Place did not become a standard, basically no car manufacturer supported it, even Renault didn't support it in their Zoe nor Twizy.. and Better Place was trashed and blocked by establishment corrupted by existing car giants, as for Tesla I explained it in my video how swapping was not Elon Musk's preferred strategy as he had to recoup his first tens of Billions of $ in battery investments and his Teslas have enough demand of people not wanting any 30% upfront discount. But for Tesla's next low cost EV and for their robotaxi, it will make sense.

[@hummingbirdman]

For taxis, OK, but for consumers who want to charge at home, don't need to swap. Just wake up, and you car is charged.

[@charbax]

My argument is not about replacing home charging, that can continue for as many people who have home chargers that's fine to always charge at home. My argument is you can save $10'000 to $20'000 on the upfront cost of your car, and at the same time, your car will forever be future proof, when new car batteries are available 2-3-5 years later, you can simply swap to the new battery technology, no need to change your car each time to stay up to date with battery technology. And my argument is car companies can instantly have capacity to manufacture twice as many EVs because overall capacity average doesn't need to be that high when you can easily swap to long range only when you need it.

[@hummingbirdman]

@@charbax I asked google bard about the cons of swapping. I get this. High cost of infrastructure: Building and operating a network of battery swapping stations is expensive. This cost is typically passed on to consumers in the form of higher subscription fees or per-swap fees. Limited availability: Battery swapping stations are not yet as widely available as traditional EV charging stations. This can make it difficult for drivers to find a station when they need to swap their battery, especially in rural areas. Compatibility issues: Not all electric vehicles are compatible with battery swapping. This is because different vehicles have different battery sizes and configurations. Reduced flexibility: Battery swapping requires drivers to go to a specific location to swap their battery. This can be inconvenient if the driver is in a hurry or if they are not close to a battery swapping station.

[@hummingbirdman]

Here are the pros. Faster refueling: Battery swapping can be done in a matter of minutes, which is much faster than traditional EV charging. This can be especially beneficial for commercial vehicles that need to be on the road for long periods of time. Reduced upfront cost: Battery swapping can make EVs more affordable by decoupling the cost of the battery from the cost of the vehicle. This is because drivers can lease or rent batteries from a battery swapping company, rather than purchasing them outright. Extended range: Battery swapping can allow drivers to extend their range without having to wait for their battery to charge. This is because they can simply swap their depleted battery for a fully charged one. Reduced battery degradation: Battery swapping can help to reduce battery degradation by preventing drivers from overcharging their batteries. This is because the battery swapping company will typically manage the charging and discharging of the batteries.

[@hummingbirdman]

I remember Elon Musk talking about the major con of battery swapping, which is that there will need to be a production of more batteries on standby than is actually being used. So if there is a battery waiting for a car to swap, that is one battery extra that need to be manufacturered and not in use, as it is outside the car. So instead of having less batteries in the world, you will have to manufacture more batteries to stock the swap stations. Also, the logistics of how many batteries to stock each station is problem. If all of a sudden, 10 people want to swap, but there are only 4 batteries ready for swapping, then 6 people can't swap. Also, regarding time savings, lets say 2 people are waiting in line at the swap, waiting their turn, during that wait time, one could already be at a charge station filling up. So the time savings is basically a fallacy. I saw a video where it shows 3 cars waiting to get swapped. So they have to wait 10 minutes. With the new lithium/sodium batteries, you can charge the car to full in 10 minutes. The extra cost of storing and charging extra batteries at the swap station will ultimately be passed to the consumer, so not a lot of saving either. So I think Elon Musk is right on.

[@charbax]

@@hummingbirdman Bard just copies stuff from websites that don't understand stuff. When average battery capacity is halved, that significantly reduces the cost of the infrastructure in terms of reducing cost of each car. That significant cost saving is directly passed on to consumers in the form of much cheaper cars and the knowledge of being fully future proof with their EV car investment. You don't need wide availability, battery swap doesn't need to replace home charging nor any of the existing slow or fast charging infrastructure. All general EV car size categories should be compatible and use same battery standards for swapping. That is what I think future standard should become. Whatever Tesla does for the low cost Tesla, they should make it swapping and make it a standard. All European or all Chinese and together they should decide on 2, 3 or 4 battery size standards and make sure all their cars are made to be compatible. BAttery swapping increases flexibility, because you are fully able to choose battery range if you want a long range to always be in your car, just get that, but it will cost you more. The advantage of battery swapping is that now for more than 50% of EV owners, they can now save up to tens of thousands of dollars on the cost of their car, and every single consumer will enjoy that.

[@zukashake9717]

"1 minute" CLICK BAIT!

[@charbax]

Well the guy at the swap station told me it can be done in 1-minute. I didn't warn him that I was going to film this video, he might've queued up each swap to happen faster if I had. OK so in my video it might be closer to 2-3 minute, but getting it to sub 1-minute and fully automated, is definitely doable. There are videos online showing 45 second swap, even quicker.

[@cratecruncher4974]

Thanks for the video. But this is an evolutionary DEAD END. Several problems with this. #1) Standardized battery inhibits design innovation. #2) Owners locked into a service provider like phone. #3) No incentive to take care of battery for long life. #4) No way to tell how good the battery is that you are getting. #5) Higher costs in locations, personnel, etc. #6) Inconvenience when busy. Swapping works for commercial fleets of taxis where they can control the entire process but even this won't make sense once supercharger tech is in widespread use. I get your concern for the common man and affordability. But realize that corporations will use this swap system to control the battery charging market through acquisitions and service contracts to steadily increase costs for the owner just like phones. Direct Access to the electricity grid is harder for Big Corp to control.

[@charbax]

#1) it increases innovation, there will be few size standards, and EV companies can focus on innovation instead of focusing on battery differentiation, battery makers can focus on battery capacity/price differentiation, don't mix EV maker with battery maker, it's like mixing combustion engine car maker with Oil producing industry. #2) It frees up EV owners to use any battery provider instead of being locked into for example only buying battery from Tesla if they own a Tesla, much better to have the choice to pick a much cheaper Chinese battery alternative and pay 40% less upfront for your Tesla quality level EV #3) Current system gives EV maker no incentive to take care of battery lifetime, as they don't offer free battery replacement service when EV batteries lose range after 5-7 years of heavy use. It gives incentive to battery makers to improve battery lifecycle management in their battery technology #4) it's easy to measure battery health, it gets reported by every single EV that uses the battery previously, also there are other ways to measure battery health within the battery swapping station, as a user you get the choice to pick a worse battery at cheaper price, giving users the choice instead of locking them into the expensive overpriced battery options is a huge benefit #5) Battery swap can halve EV cost overnight. There's 25% savings on not needing to buy the battery when you buy the EV, and there's another 25% savings because it encourages EV makers to maximize EV cost savings to bring those savings to the consumer, it enables sub-$20K, sub-$15K and sub-$10K EVs to reach the market in massive amounts in 2024 instead of waiting if maybe those cheaper EVs arrive in 2030 or whenever they might otherwise come to the market. #6) current super charging queues are ridiculous, EV owners waiting hours to charge their EV is a total deal-breaker. Much better to have all these people swap their batteries in 1 minute instead of using up a supercharger for 45 minutes, just a waste of time currently. I don't suggest getting rid of superchargers, you can still also do that, just add swapping options to network. What I am suggesting is you buy the phone then you are free to use any carrier for your phone, what you are suggesting is that when you buy the phone you have to pay upfront for 10 years of a fixed carrier provider and you have no choice to swap to another carrier. Only battery swapping makes sense for users and for EV makers alike. Also Government simply has to regulate battery swapping standards, to make sure no cartels develop to price gouge, just make sure battery swapping stations can compete with eachother and battery providers all get access to the whole market. The Chinese can compete with the Americans and if Europeans/Africans and other Asians/South Americans can figure out to make good betteries too, using their own Lithium and other necessary minerals, all the better!

[@cratecruncher4974]

@@charbax I appreciate your point of view. But realize all car manufacturers with any volume must compete with "aftermarket" parts that fit their products. I'm not forced to buy a water pump from GM. I can buy a cheaper Chinese alternative online, often of better quality, and have it delivered to my door. (In fact I do this all the time!) The same will hold true for proprietary battery packs. The internal battery cells will become a commodity and the unique pack dimensions of each car model will be easy to copy by aftermarket industry. Remember, battery packs currently last about 5 years and will likely last longer with tech advances. (Imagine retrofitting a more advanced pack from aftermarket to IMPROVE residual value of an old ev!) Right now the battery is an oversized chunk of ev price because manufacturing inefficiency and short supply. But there are currently several battery manufacturing plants under construction globally that will dramatically lower the cost of the battery pack. Ev prices will tumble as these cheaper packs become available to manufacturers. In US superchargers are the new standard, meaning they will become much more common in parking lots. Way cheaper to install a supercharger that runs itself with no employees or moving parts. I think these battery swap centers will become completely obsolete in a couple of years.

[@charbax]

@@cratecruncher4974 Cheaper chinese battery alternatives being left to the aftermarket for 5-7-10 years down the line doesn't interest them as much as involving them now day-1 to supply the day-1 low cost batteries that could power the next generation lower cost Tesla and other cheaper Chinese and Europea EVs that should be flooding the market from now. The best way to optimize resale value of all the EVs is to make them future proof now day-1, you can only do that by de-coupling the batteries from the EV itself. 10 years in the future I want my EV to be a perfect car to still use, but if I spend a giant amount of money I know that my EV will be outdated 2-3 years from now, I will not have access to newer battery innovations, I will not have access to flexibility in battery suppliers, I will have a built-in non-removable battery that degrades every day. That instills no confidence to every new EV purchase. EV battery supply is lacking only because EVERY EV is forced to maximize the range that they have to include in every battery. My suggestion reduces by half overnight the required average capacity/range per battery, that immediately allows for doubling the battery production capacities, regardless how many new battery factories are built. My suggestion allows for Tesla to sell twice as many EVs overnight. My suggestion allows for the EV market to grow much much faster. Battery swap stations will forever be future proof, just supply new batteries to them. I bet I can design you a battery swap station that costs more or less the same as 1 supercharger. My battery swap station can swap 45 batteries in the same amount of time as your super charger can only recharge one car. Once superchargers charge in 20 minutes, my battery swap station will be able to swap a full EV battery in less than 30 seconds at that time.

[@cratecruncher4974]

@@charbax I suggest you read about the developing recycle/replacement industry as well as industry projections for battery manufacturing capacity. These aren't 5 7 10 years away. More like two years. The industry and infrastructure will look much different.

[@charbax]

@@cratecruncher4974 it's precisely because the industry is changing so fast that I am convinced battery swapping is the only way forward. Ultra cheap $5000 EVs and self-driving robotaxis will benefit and require battery swapping even more to be future proofed and maximally efficient. And by the way, I wish all electronics get easy battery swapping, phones and laptops need it too, most consumers just buy a new phone/laptop when battery goes bad rather than swapping in a new one, this type of planned obsolescence is not good for the environment, not good for consumers, not good for market competition and it has got to stop.

[@blx2599]

You'll own nothing and be happy 🐑

[@charbax]

yeah when the robotaxis cost 10x less than public transport, that's going to be pretty good. Those need automated battery swapping too.