Will Slate Make Their Battery ‘Easily’ Replacable?

[The Weatherman]

I sure hope so based on the speed of change occurring in the battery industry.

The Electric Viking, a highly followed EV industry influencer has just released this piece discussing a new announcement surrounding Solid State Battery technology.

I have found him to be very well informed.

 

[AZFox]

The video is encouraging.

Here's hoping a replacement battery nine years from now doubles range compared to the current battery.

As far as ease of replacement goes, I have no idea. It's hard to imagine how the Battery Management System would work as intended if the battery has completely different characteristics.

 

[The Weatherman]

@AZFox

Not sure how much effort it might take to swap a battery industry the Slate, but we have a Lightning forum member that did his own SR to ER battery swap in a Lightning and found that it required ZERO hardware or software changes.

Im hopeful something like would be possible with the Slate.

 

[KevinRS]

EV battery changes aren't likely to be a DIY job. To start with there is the physical need of a lift designed for it. The safety aspects you could learn, but you would have to invest in equipment.

An EV shop should be able to do it though, as long as the battery is physically and electrically compatible.

 

[Letas]

The video is encouraging.

Here's hoping a replacement battery nine years from now doubles range compared to the current battery.

As far as ease of replacement goes, I have no idea. It's hard to imagine how the Battery Management System would work as intended if the battery has completely different characteristics.

BMS is generally integrated into the pack or directly on top of it, so if the pack changed so would the BMS. Likely would be pretty from a software standpoint to do a swap, especially if OEM supported.

Physically it’s a a pain in the ass. Not a driveway job. But if you have the capabilities to drop a tranny, you’re pretty close to being able to drop a pack.

 

[KevinRS]

BMS is generally integrated into the pack or directly on top of it, so if the pack changed so would the BMS. Likely would be pretty from a software standpoint to do a swap, especially if OEM supported.

Physically it’s a a pain in the ass. Not a driveway job. But if you have the capabilities to drop a tranny, you’re pretty close to being able to drop a pack.

I don't know if a transmission is that close, we did a driveway transmission swap twice I think on my father's cars.
Some quick rough searching is finding that batteries in the capacity range of the Slate standard battery weigh 700-1000 lbs, and that's not a weight you can balance on a jack, it's wide, long and flat. You likely do need a special battery lift.

 

[AZFox]

Not sure how much effort it might take to swap a battery industry the Slate, but we have a Lightning forum member that did his own SR to ER battery swap in a Lightning and found that it required ZERO hardware or software changes.

That makes sense if the new battery has the same battery chemistry, so the characteristics of the cells are the same aside from capacity.

What would be tricky, I think, would be changing to a battery with cells that have different characteristics.

Maybe a cell-of-the-future pack can have a layer of electronics that cause it to emulate legacy cells' characteristics for compatibility?

 

[ScooterAsheville]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

You can bet every lab and every OEM and hopefully Sandy Munro are about to jump all over the Donut Labs battery and motor announcement. I'd expect Sandy to be disassembling a Verge motorcycle ASAP. If this is a scam, it won't remain a scam for long.

 

[sidneyhornblower]

EV battery changes aren't likely to be a DIY job.

There's also the issue of the high voltage portion of the system, not something to be too casual about. It's likely possible but not everyone has the knowledge to do it safely.

 

[1yeliab_sufur1]

Wasn’t slate also looking for new/different battery’s I thought I heard a thing about that because do we know which battery type is which I know they said ncm but does that apply for both standard and extended I’d assume so but with out a direct response it’s hard to say

 

[Letas]

I don't know if a transmission is that close, we did a driveway transmission swap twice I think on my father's cars.
Some quick rough searching is finding that batteries in the capacity range of the Slate standard battery weigh 700-1000 lbs, and that's not a weight you can balance on a jack, it's wide, long and flat. You likely do need a special battery lift.

I didn't realize how light transmissions are compared to batteries.
1000lbs is a safe estimate for a pack. Probably more like 850 but I haven't been bothered to research super close. Would be easiest with a lift for the car. Raise the car up, use two floor jacks with 2x4s+plywood, drop pack, slide away.

Again, not easy but not out of the realm of possibility.

 

[Sojourner]

@AZFox

Not sure how much effort it might take to swap a battery industry the Slate, but we have a Lightning forum member that did his own SR to ER battery swap in a Lightning and found that it required ZERO hardware or software changes.

Im hopeful something like would be possible with the Slate.

Would be interested to read that thread. If it's easy for you, would you be able to find and post? TIA. Otherwise I'll internet search for it.

 

[The Weatherman]

Would be interested to read that thread. If it's easy for you, would you be able to find and post? TIA. Otherwise I'll internet search for it.

Here you go.

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/sr-to-er-battery-swap-diy-project.31656/

 

[Sojourner]

Thank you!

 

[clofan]

Hard not to jump on the hype train after watching that video. Thanks for sharing