Battery BUNKS

[sureshpoddar]

I am an entrepreneur From Bangalore , India. There was a statement by the Indian Transport Ministry recently where in it is proposed to make electric cars compulsory in India by 2030 and phasing out current Petrol/Diesel Vehicles. As a total layman, it got me thinking that this was a very difficult proposal to implement and will definitely be postponed a number of times but will have to be implemented sooner or later. When ever it does happen with, India's huge population the demand for such cars will be huge but will also bring up numerous challenges along with it.

In order to make such a proposal feasible in a cost concise Country like India , the high prices of the batteries is going to be a problem. Added to that the availability of charging slot at public places as well as at our own private parking is going to be difficult as 50% of the cars are parked on the roads .
The only solution to this complex problem will be that the manufacturing company sells cars without the battery unit thus reducing the cost of the car considerably. Instead they should provide battery slots which are very convenient to remove and install.

Now the battery manufacturing companies come into the picture. They can appoint Dealers/ service points / rental outlets just like current Petrol/ Diesel/ Gas pumps who will have a customer base by collecting a certain amount as annual subscription and a one time deposit for the battery unit and give them a subscription where in they can go to any such service point and give the old battery whose charge is about to expire and take a new unit instead. If the current cost of fully charging one battery unit is say about 1 USD the service point can charge them that 1 USD plus an additional 1 USD or what ever is a commercially viable amount considering the Cost of battery/ life of battery and profit of the service point.
Perhaps a similar model is feasible for the other countries also.

 

[wycolo]

In dense urban areas the use of easily removable EV batteries is an excellent design. If e.g.Tata Inc would produce an EV with a 5 module battery, each module weighing 60 pounds (~25 kilos) then user could charge at home overnight and carry outside to the EV the number of fully charged modules that would be needed for the day's travel. 25 kilos is small enough for any person to easily carry. The slots could be accessible from the hatchback and be spring-balanced requiring very little insertion/removal force. Thus the battery could still be housed below the floor line as is typical of most EVs and even a small person could easily handle the chore since little lifting force would be required to raise it from below floor level.

Ideally the EV industry would adopt a standard which would specify this 25kg battery module size, voltage, and charging parameters so as many different EVs would employ identical battery units. Cars, tractors, household 'PowerChunks', even lawnmowers could all use the same modules. Cooling probably would have to be done by air circulation rather than liquid.
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