Re:Volkswagen, Porsche, and Audi finally say they will use T...
by fexatious on Wednesday December 20, 2023 @04:57PM
(#38714183)
I think scooters are about where it stops working well at a consumer level.
Battery swapping exists in the forklift industry but it is complicated and dangerous. Forklift batteries are about a thousand pounds (less than car batteries) and often open cell lead acid (which has additional challenges that lithium doesn't like spills, watering, and gas discharge). In the type of forklifts I occasionally see, the batteries sit on rollers with a side access door and lockout. the tunnel the battery lives in is a little wider than the battery, has a gate that must be reinstalled, and the battery slides around a little during operation. Battery is connected to the system with a flexible connector.
Despite the electric forklift battery swapping industry being a lot smaller than the car charging industry it seems to be a reasonably dangerous affair. there are significant OSHA regulations, and a nonzero number of yearly injuries.
If you were going to operate a car battery swapping lot, you would probably need: powered battery swapping trucks manned by professional operators, a very flat well maintained driving surface, an indoor charging room, a standardized car battery placement, access system, tie down system, and battery size. you would need to worry about things getting caught in the battery doors, the battery - car cable getting severed, making sure you were perfectly lined up with the access door, and about doing some sort of tie down routine.
It's doable but it would be a LOT of work to get right. Batteries aren't as fungible as tanks of gas so you'd probably only use such a system for corporate vehicle fleets or special lease pools.
Second link isn't great and is selling batteries but it seems to cite useful figures
Battery swapping exists in the forklift industry but it is complicated and dangerous. Forklift batteries are about a thousand pounds (less than car batteries) and often open cell lead acid (which has additional challenges that lithium doesn't like spills, watering, and gas discharge). In the type of forklifts I occasionally see, the batteries sit on rollers with a side access door and lockout. the tunnel the battery lives in is a little wider than the battery, has a gate that must be reinstalled, and the battery slides around a little during operation. Battery is connected to the system with a flexible connector.
Despite the electric forklift battery swapping industry being a lot smaller than the car charging industry it seems to be a reasonably dangerous affair. there are significant OSHA regulations, and a nonzero number of yearly injuries.
If you were going to operate a car battery swapping lot, you would probably need: powered battery swapping trucks manned by professional operators, a very flat well maintained driving surface, an indoor charging room, a standardized car battery placement, access system, tie down system, and battery size. you would need to worry about things getting caught in the battery doors, the battery - car cable getting severed, making sure you were perfectly lined up with the access door, and about doing some sort of tie down routine.
It's doable but it would be a LOT of work to get right. Batteries aren't as fungible as tanks of gas so you'd probably only use such a system for corporate vehicle fleets or special lease pools.
Second link isn't great and is selling batteries but it seems to cite useful figures
https://www.osha.gov/etools/powered-industrial-trucks/types-...
https://www.onecharge.biz/blog/lithium-batteries-get-the-top...!