Lot's of EV's (including mine) can charge from 20% - 80% in 20 minutes. I would not pay extra for any faster. It takes 20 minutes to shuffle the entire family through the bathroom and buy a coffee so faster charging wouldn't save us any time.

Some EV's take an hour to go from 20-80%. That's unacceptable. But below 20 minutes is very much diminishing returns.

And 99% of our charging is done at home, where DC fast charging time is completely irrelevant.

NIO went this way. [1] I suggested it at the start of EV's becoming popular and HN was not a fan. My childhood toys were my inspiration. I could put them on the charger and wait forever or swap to a recently charged set and have instant gratification. Now if they could just build cars to be as durable and safe as my childhood toys most accidents would just be a fun way to meet people.

One of the reasons I like the idea is that instead of being on the hook for a crazy expensive battery pack I just swap it for one that in theory has been tested and when it falls below some standard it gets refurbished by someone else and I would never have to deal with it. This also opens up the options for swapping to newer generations of batteries such as 3D printed solid state for more than double the range, or same range with half the weight possibly useful for short-haul heavy duty trucks.

[1] - https://www.nio.com/nio-power

Battery replacement is never going to happen, save for an absolutely remarkable new battery technology. They’re too big and too integrated into the vehicles.

Most people want to charge at home as it’s significantly cheaper. More range makes sense.

Both are really needed. People that lived in the city always forget just how spread out most of America is.