E bike manufacturers get together on swappable batteries.

[motogrady]

 https://electrek.co/2020/09/04/honda-yamaha-kawasaki-suzuki-test-swappable-electric-motorcycle-batteries/ 

[Fatfatboy]

Smart move. Having interchangeable batteries is a step in the right direction to electric vehicles.

Ride 100-150 miles. Pull into a station and swap your battery for a freshly charged battery. Leaving your battery behind to get charged for the next guy.

[oldironnow]

Won't this also make it easier for smaller companies to enter the field?

[Mad4TheCrest]

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[oldironnow]

Mad4TheCrest wrote

oldironnow wrote

Won't this also make it easier for smaller companies to enter the field?

Theoretically, it should.  They'd still need to license or develop the electric drive, but the battery being off-the-shelf would be a huge gain.  

Of course, there is one downside I can see, and that's what will this do to battery tech development?  If there is a standard battery tech that multiple companies must adhere to, then how easy will innovation in battery tech be?

I see that point.
At first I had qualms about the consortium forming a quasi-monopoly. But then it seemed to offer room for other large and small outfits to leverage into the marketplace. Now you raise a similar concern about battery development that resembles the stagnation of a monopoly situation.
Hmmm...