<story><title>Ford&apos;s answer to EV supply chain hell: Cheaper batteries</title><url>https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/ford-lithium-iron-phosphate-batteries</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tokamak-teapot</author><text>I’d love a car with a tiny battery for 99% of the time when I’m just driving locally and the ability to have an extra, large battery that can be slotted in when I want to make a longer trip. With only the short range battery most of the time, my car’s weight is low and efficiency high.&lt;p&gt;Maybe I could keep that battery in my house and use it to store solar electricity most of the time. It seems like it should be possible to design a system for slotting it in that doesn’t require me to physically lift its weight.&lt;p&gt;I’d also be happy to drive into somewhere local that rents me that long range battery and slots it in with machinery designed for the purpose.</text></item><item><author>cjdell</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure why we aren&amp;#x27;t making EVs with small but &lt;i&gt;upgradeable&lt;/i&gt; batteries.&lt;p&gt;Like for example a $20k car with a 10kWh &amp;quot;good enough for now&amp;quot; starter battery that can be bought today. Still good enough for 90% of trips and upgradable to 50kWh with additional after market battery modules should the user decide. As simple as upgrading the RAM on an (old) laptop.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rvdginste</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t know if any company is exploring what you are mentioning, but battery swapping for electrical scooters (Gogoro) is in common use in Taiwan.  Instead of you charge your scooter, you drive to a battery swap station and exchange your empty battery for a full one. see [1].&lt;p&gt;But some companies are also investigating battery swap stations for cars.  So, you might not be able to swap a short-range battery with a long-range battery yourself, but I imagine that would be possible with those battery swap stations.  See [2].  Battery swap stations means that you have full range again for the same time it takes to fill a car with gas.  But obviously, you need to have enough of those stations to make it usable.  And if every car brand is gonna create its own mechanism for battery swapping, then that would probably only be interesting in city areas where it&amp;#x27;s worthwhile for the manufacturer to run those stations.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.electrive.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;battery-swapping-stations-to-overtake-petrol-pumps-for-taiwan&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.electrive.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;battery-swapping-statio...&lt;/a&gt;
[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;business-61310513&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;business-61310513&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Edit: typo.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ford&apos;s answer to EV supply chain hell: Cheaper batteries</title><url>https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/ford-lithium-iron-phosphate-batteries</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tokamak-teapot</author><text>I’d love a car with a tiny battery for 99% of the time when I’m just driving locally and the ability to have an extra, large battery that can be slotted in when I want to make a longer trip. With only the short range battery most of the time, my car’s weight is low and efficiency high.&lt;p&gt;Maybe I could keep that battery in my house and use it to store solar electricity most of the time. It seems like it should be possible to design a system for slotting it in that doesn’t require me to physically lift its weight.&lt;p&gt;I’d also be happy to drive into somewhere local that rents me that long range battery and slots it in with machinery designed for the purpose.</text></item><item><author>cjdell</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure why we aren&amp;#x27;t making EVs with small but &lt;i&gt;upgradeable&lt;/i&gt; batteries.&lt;p&gt;Like for example a $20k car with a 10kWh &amp;quot;good enough for now&amp;quot; starter battery that can be bought today. Still good enough for 90% of trips and upgradable to 50kWh with additional after market battery modules should the user decide. As simple as upgrading the RAM on an (old) laptop.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>squarefoot</author><text>&amp;gt; With only the short range battery most of the time, my car’s weight is low and efficiency high.&lt;p&gt;That would however subject the smaller battery to more charge&amp;#x2F;discharge cycles for obtaining the same mileage. Wouldn&amp;#x27;t that shorten its life?</text></comment>