It makes sense for trucks and such, but there were other attempts before and none stuck. I’m curious how this one will go.
Nio, one that came before still does swap stations. Also is partnered with CATL.
Swap stations work in Asia. Just not in North America.
For cars or trucks?
Both, Nio does the cars and CATL does trucks: https://carnewschina.com/2025/12/23/catl-launched-longest-1250-km-heavy-duty-truck-battery-swap-route-in-china/
Mopeds like gogoro
Right, but those can’t really compare to four wheeled vehicles where batteries are much bigger and harder to swap. I wonder how is the battery ownership working - you probably don’t own the battery?
There are different plans with options to own batteries or rent them or both. Last I checked they were in the 3rd Gen of interchangeable batteries that work with 1st Gen units but expand power capacity.
(Originally 1.35kwh now 1.75kwh; I just googled)
So, 6 would get about 30 miles range in a car and be at the modern 300v minimum if run in series. 8 would be enough for the average American commute of 40 miles (round trip).
While that math does work out to 60 battery packs to get a 300 mile range, I don’t think that much range would be necessary since the battery swap time is so much faster than recharging. That would mean building out a fairly massive battery swap network, but it’s already been done successfully in some countries.
This concept was actually started in Palo Alto 15 years ago but they went broke due to disinterest and heavy threats to oil.
