09-11-2011, 07:28 PM
BernDog wrote:
[quote=Black]
[quote=freeradical]
If batteries were being swapped out at swap stations, there would have to be room on site for both fresh and discharged batteries, and it would take a lot of work to get old batteries sent to some location to get recharged, and to receive fresh batteries. The trucks that did this distribution would of course br diesel powered.
Another option would be to recharge the batteries at the swap stations, but that again would take enormous amounts of space, and be hugely labor intensive.
And we'd have piles of spent batteries dumped everywhere in addition to the piles of tires and such we already have. This is a solution for a more environmentally responsible populous.
Transporting to recharging stations? That's just silly. All gas stations already have electrical service (yes it'd probably have to be beefed up). Gas stations also all already have plenty of space underground. That's where the gas tanks are now. Labor intensive? Yeah. We'd go back to stations being full service, like they used to be. Prices on that end would go up because you'd have to pay the staff (or build the robots to do it all automatically). Huge amounts of dumped batteries? Not talking about swapping out evereadys in a flashlight. The batteries would have the same lifespan/mileage potential whether they're being cycled from one car to another or if they're sitting in the same vehicle the whole time. This idea doesn't solve this problem of expended batteries, but it doesn't make it any worse either.
Was just reacting to the preceding suggestion, not making a judgment as to its technical practicality.
If batteries were swappable they'd have to be modular since they'd be too big/unwieldy otherwise. so you'd have a bunch of smaller cells instead of one big one.