First, it's a logistics problem. Tesla has like 20,000 SuperChargers. If I'm driving on a road trip, I need to stop at a SuperCharger and there's let's say a dozen spots. In some locations those spots are full, others might be half empty and so forth. How will NIO supply the hardware to do these battery swaps? Will there be a dozen battery swap stations spread out similar to the SuperCharger network? Who will deliver the batteries? How many do you need? What happens if you show up and NIO ran out of batteries to swap? Will this actually be cheaper than the SuperCharger network for me?
I think it makes more sense to swap the batteries out from a manufacturing standpoint, but much less so for road trips. You can see NIO already shifting away from this with increased range.
If you could just swap out the batteries why even bother working on range (NIO touting 600km+ cars IIRC)? I guess that could further limit how many swap stations you need (they could be more spread out), but the problem is you end up spreading them just a long main routes. I need a SuperCharger/battery swap location in places like Marquette, Michigan or Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
And as a Tesla owner and road trip driver... I really don't mind waiting like 20 minutes for the battery to charge. It encourages me to take breaks I otherwise wouldn't have taken which are probably more healthy. Destination charging or a SuperCharger within a 20 minute drive of my destination are more of concerns for me now that I own an EV, but it just means the trip has to be planned out a little more.
I like NIO's ambitions and like the battery as a service prospect, but much more for hey I want to swap out my old battery for a new one to extend the life of my car.
They even have a charging van you can order to your location if there isn't a charger nearby. It's just a van with a huge battery in the back :D
A company named Better Place got a ton of VC funding to set up a battery swapping service for electric cars, and flamed out spectacularly.
Perhaps NIO can succeed where Tesla and Better Place failed, but I'm doubtful. OTOH, Shanghai is probably a great place to start.
A car battery can definitely carry its own anti tamper mechanism and an LTE modem to report issues. Besides... a car battery isn't actually worth 15k$ to a thief. Not much to part out (PCBs are custom, casing ain't gonna fetch much in terms of scrap metal, and there's not much of a market for used li-ion 18650's with the exception of ecig hobbyists so swapping them out for lower quality isn't worth the effort), if it's an exclusively rent model there is no market for a stolen pack.
Wear and tear also isn't that much of an issue as Tesla proved.
Who? Why?
They usually weigh your truck, unload it, weigh it again and pay you the difference. They often won't see what they're buying, as long as it's magnetic.
[1] https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a33670482/nio-swappable-ba...
Edit, added link: [2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enthusiasts/it-costs-nearly-...