Anyone can make big claims but so far NIO seems like a competent manufacturer too. Their first production vehicle was only 2018 but they seem to be proving themselves as a competent manufacturer. One trend I don't really understand is why does an automobile need 28 speakers? And if you are going to put in 28 speakers why the hell isn't one of them a half decent subwoofer? They use a 20 channel amplifier which seems beyond silly.

The battery-swap gizmo sounds like something that will work well only when everything is clean. Good luck with that, unless it also include an undercarriage carwash.

Rather surprised no other BEV manufacturer has developed a battery swap system. With it, the upfront purchase price could be far lower, recharge time on trips reduced, personal garage necessity for charging eliminated, and dealerships would be given profit motive to push BEVs for their battery swap stations.

Swap-able battery packs is the way to go. That reduces the time it takes to get a new full charge and to me eliminates the need to buy a replacement every few years. The cost could be covered by a small fee added to each refill.
As for dropping the battery, I don't think it is a great idea for places where ice, snow and the accompanying slush and dirt would be an issue. A better option would be a compartment under the car that can be opened from both sides and the new battery inserted as the old one is pushed out. In winter a deicing spray could be used to ensure it all works well.

The battery swap concept if the only thing that will make electric cars affordable and attractive for the average consumer to buy. They have been using swappable batteries in warehouses for forklifts and other equipment for years. BTW the only parts of the battery that needs to be squeaky clean are the terminals.

Sounds good, but I'm not convinced there is a huge market for a Chinese car in the US or Europe? Only time will tell...

The problem with the swapping is the additional capital investment. There are currently about 100K gas stations in the US. Let's be optimistic and say a swapping station costs $100K to install and supply with its initial set of battery packs. That would be $10 billion. Maybe scale down because initially fewer cars needing a swap (and of course we're assuming a standard so that you don't need 5 or 10 different swapping stations to cover all the different brands), and it's still a big honking pile of money that the manufacturer has to lay out in advance.

Battery swapping is refuelling mechanically rather than electrically. But it would solve the problem of charging for all those without their own socket, or when every public charging point is occupied. It also avoids the future large one-off cost of a replacement permanent battery as the range decreases.

"Cars with NADs will gradually gain a sackful of abilities" - haha, I love that you can always find a bit of humour in technology, it makes your posts so much more interesting to read, particularly when the car itself is just a bit 'meh, whatever'.

Just come up with the "Mr Fusion" reactor, and be done with it. LOL
The problem I have with EV's is the battery "range" and the fact that juice to power it
up has to come from somewhere. Currently (sorry, no pun intended) in the USA anyway,
the electrical grid cannot handle the MASSIVE jump in load on the system. Solar/wind cannot
"juice up" that much power when needed. Either you build more coal powered plants, or
you build more nuclear plants.