Battery replacement Nissan vs. Tesla?

[Razorbil]

"Tesla Motors introduces robot mechanics to replace batteries in electric cars..."

I saw this article yesterday: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...echanics-replace-batteries-electric-cars.html

What's the chance that Nissan will follow suit?

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

"Tesla Motors introduces robot mechanics to replace batteries in electric cars..."

I saw this article yesterday: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...echanics-replace-batteries-electric-cars.html

What's the chance that Nissan will follow suit?

although not difficult to remove, I think I am pretty sure I read that the LEAF battery was not made to be removed by standard robotics so not possible with the current configuration.

 

[Deleted member 9549]

Tesla makes it look easy, but it is far from it.

Tesla can do it because they thought it important and designed the capability into the Model S from the start. Nissan and especially GM went the other way. Neither has an easily removable electrical connection. In addition the Volt has liquid cooling lines that are not meant to be easily removable. There are other connections as well for battery monitoring and load management.

Apparently, no one else considered the importance and implication of having an easily removable battery. Chalk up another engineering win for Tesla, one of a string of innovations. They'll likely come up with more.

 

[Levenkay]

"Tesla Motors introduces robot mechanics to replace batteries in electric cars..."

I saw this article yesterday: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...echanics-replace-batteries-electric-cars.html

What's the chance that Nissan will follow suit?

I don't care. The only way for battery-swapping to work is if the driver either doesn't own the battery at all, or trades hers for a rental at the first exchange station she hits on a long journey, and to which she'll have to return later. Not owning the battery is unappealing to me, and I would be skeptical of the bookkeeping and logistics of the second approach.

If you're looking for some aspect of battery technology that Nissan SHOULD copy, it's active thermal control for the battery pack they already have. This is a feature I'd go to a 3rd party custom fabricator to get, if one could be certified somehow. Not having active cooling cuts the car's range down to maybe 150 miles per day, even with ubiquitous DCQC stations, whereas you could double that if the battery could be kept from roasting. I'm a little mistrustful of my envelope-scratching math, but while pondering the sacrifice of LEAF batteries on the upcoming BC2BC rally, I worked out that a crude arrangement for allowing a ten-pound CO2 fire extinguisher's contents to be hissed out through some copper tubing adroitly glommed onto the pack's cell cases could probably get you through a pretty good day's DCQC-ing. And for the rare long-haul trip, I might be willing to pick up a refill of liquid CO2.