What would it take to convince Nissan to make the Leaf's battery easily accessible so that batteries can be replaced with a fully charged battery instead of recharging? Turning dealerships into battery changing stations should be enough to solve the 1st step of the distance problem?

The battery switch concept is a good one. In fact it is planned in other countries including Israel. A video showing one method of doing this is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKA4GhVn0a4 . Of course to accomplish a battery switch station like this that can handle large volumes and multiple vehicles at once would be quite difficult.

Unfortunately, from what I understand of the Leaf design, this battery switch concept is not supported.

I think the more likely solution to quick turnaround is advancements in battery technology that will allow faster charging.

The Think has already devised a system that will charge from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes. What if new technology would allow this to be done in 1/4th the time? Now you're in the same time range as a gasoline fill-up and complicated battery swap systems aren't needed.

A couple of technologies for speeding up charges that show promise include:

- http://www.physorg.com/news187554124.html- http://www.physorg.com/news156097422.html

i think they really have to gather efforts so that the stations can recharge batteries faster...but a change of batteries isn't a bad idea...

But probably they want to earn more money with future upgrades of the batteries. People to have bigger range will be buying a new battery...

Just read that the Renault Fuence Z.E will aready be featuring the changing battery technology. They are already thinking about different options and a city in Japan will have a swapping station active in June...so they are thinking in every option