The Tesla is SLOOOOOWWWWWWWW!

Exactly, that's why it will never happen. The battery is where all the magic is going to happen over the next few years and no BEV maker worth their salt is going to adopt a standard that limits what they can achieve.

Also, no need really. I realized some time ago, the only people complaining about the charging time are those who don't own BEVs. Well, and Ed Lee.

I just need a two pins coaxial plug with constant-on 400V, directly from the battery.

No, Ed Lee never complaint about charging time, just lack of chargers between way-points.

with the 'several weeks' meaning that the megawatt lines deliver up to

However, the 'peak load' can be less than four Tesla superchargers, for the hypothetical 'rural gas station' .

If you really need 20 miles of range, a simple level 2 charger can deliver that in a little over a half hour, only needs a dozen kilowatts (not a megawatt) and that gives you time to enjoy the hot dog (that, hypothetically, is available nearby).

I'm thinking these numbers are workable. Save the fuel-and-storage option for REAL distances in uninhabited areas (Antarctica won't be a good economic prospect for automobile chargers this year).

There are many places in the US where 20 miles wouldn't bring you from one "fill up" to the next. E.g., a trip up the mountain and back would require 60 miles of range -- assuming you could refuel at the base going and coming. Likewise, you'd need several stops on the trip to feenigs.

Kansas? Nebraska? Montana? Idaho? Texas? (i.e., all the "big square states")

I guess there's nobody buying BEVs in Texas. That must be why Tesla moved headquarters there, to promote sales even if they can't have sales centers.

more likely they got a tax break for doing it ....

If batteries were standardised (not gonna happen as Ricky points out) then you don't need to own one, and you definitely don't need two for each car - just a swap&go rental system like BBQ gas cylinder exchange.

But since cars are a vanity item (like clothes and accessories) there's no way to standardise a format that imposes strict dimensional and structural requirements on the chassis.

Clifford Heath

Based on years of experience standard sizes are anathema to the automotive industry. For a brief period DIN radios almost succeeded even if the harness connections were idiosyncratic but I think the infotainment devices took care of that.

The fixed one can never be standardized, but the removable one can. All we need is a common connector. All other features (charging, moving) are still tie to the fixed one.

For my money some of the 'aggressive' front end treatments look like the car was pre-wrecked.

Probably not a lot of sales out around Marfa either.

Yeah, they tried making the minivan cool by giving them an "aggressive" front end, four doors and a slight lift (not nearly enough for real offroading, though) and calling them a "crossover activity vehicle" or "outdoor lifestyle vehicle" or something.

It's a minivan I'm sorry

Nio operates more than 1,400 battery swapping stations in China. A battery change takes about three minutes.

Tesla did promote battery swapping early on but they didn't get a positive response from customers.

kw

Vehicles are for transportation, not fashion statements. Lots of panel trucks on the road, should they be "beautified"? Pickups? Motorcycles (c'mon, can't you do something more than just those two/three wheels??)

It's actually a station wagon. How many people do you think buy station wagons for their aesthetic value? They are "enclosed pickup trucks"; the only difference being that, unlike pickup owners, SUV drivers actually

When someone has the money to select a car as a fashion statement they often tend to become fashion statements. Not everyone has the money to do that, but BMW and Mercedes et al don't sell entirely on their driving quality and the quality of their German engineering alone. Or Teslas for that matter.

I was thinking more like a minivan but station wagon works.

People think of eyeglasses as fashion statements. Q: Do you want to "look good"? Or, "see well"?

People buy overpriced items as a show of affluence, not as "value statements". I.e., "I can afford to have this car perpetually in need of repair..."

A friend is thinking of selling/trading his Huracan -- it's got almost 1000 miles on it (OhMiGosh! Despair!!).

Would I like to drive it? No, thank you (the idea of someone hitting me while behind the wheel and the hassles that would entail isn't worth it!)

Would you like to go for a ride? No, thank you (I'd have to sit on the ground and LIFT myself into it!)

But, gee, isn't it pretty?? <rolls eyes>

Folks who buy minivans are looking for a different sort of vehicle.

A friend ribs me as SWMBO's vehicle has "too many doors". OTOH, he'd be hard-pressed to transport anything larger than a breadbox in his vehicle!

I really need to start using sarcasm flags or something.

Tesla sells very well in Texas. Larkin is being his silly self. I don't know why he has such a hard on about Tesla. He has been dead set against them since day one. It can't have anything to do with the facts, because he literally is in total ignorance of them. He has said things before about how he doesn't like Musk. I really think he is jealous of him and so he has to denigrate everything Musk does that is successful... which is pretty much everything he does.

Ed, only you would not even understand the concept of a swappable battery, thinking there was some utility to only swapping half of your charging capacity, meaning you have to stop twice as often. But for you, that would be a 400% improvement over what you are doing now.

Nio has proven that battery swapping could work, except for all the reasons why it doesn't. Yes, you can't own your battery with battery swapping. But you still have to buy it when you buy the car. Battery swapping has many issues. It's not all about the rapid swap. It's anathema to night charging because the batteries have to be charged as soon as they are taken out of a car, so they can be ready for their next use. I'm sure Nio isn't going to stock a bazillion batteries, so they can sit around waiting for night utility rates.

This has all been discussed before. What Nio is doing is very much like having gas stations for just one make of autos. The financials just aren't there. But we will see. I believe Nio makes cars that do not swap as well, no?