The battery swap is a curious step with lots of questions.
Do I buy a new car with a new battery and then swap it out for a used battery? To me, that seems crazy.
or
Since the battery is such an expensive part of the car and you are swapping them out, shouldn't the car be much cheaper?
Obviously there are swapping stations in other countries, but in the US they have not happened - why is that? possible answer - too expensive.
The article mentions power is cheaper at night, but with solar and wind as major sources of power, that might not be true anymore.
In the US, the battery packs are part of the support structure of the car and sometimes have liquid cooling making them difficult or impossible to swap in a refuel time frame. They are also low in the car for handling purposes but also subject to abuse/damage that might make a normal swap even more difficult. Musk/Tesla faked a battery swap about 10 years ago and Tesla has completely abandoned the battery swap.
Despite what the article says, the swapping stations will cost a fortune:
1. Expensive electrical supply depending on how many batteries are stored
2. Expensive equipment handling for heavy battery packs and storage
3. Expensive fireproof storage buildings with big time fire control systems in case of battery fires (who wants to live near a swapping station - not me)
4. Need excess inventory of batteries beyond the supply of cars to support the battery swap. Since batteries are so expensive, what company wants to inventory batteries?
Without the Chinese govt 'financing', I doubt many companies would want to finance and store/charge expensive batteries.
