That's a huge difference in frequency though, once a week for a daily recharge vs once per decade. For the latter, it can take a few hours of labor and a lift to do the swap-out and it's not a meaningful difference, and ends up being cheaper overall than designing the whole battery system to be modular and easily removable for something that will only ever happen once.
Plus, EV battery thermal management is getting better and better. Most EVs won't ever have their battery pack replaced, just like most ICEs don't ever have their motor/transmission/etc replaced. It doesn't make sense to optimize for ease of replacing those on an ICE and it similarly doesn't make sense to do so for a battery pack on an EV.
> For the latter, it can take a few hours of labor and a lift to do the swap-out
Only if it's a giant monolith. Smaller modules wouldn't have this issue, especially if accessible from, say, removable floor panels or somesuch.
(Hell, you could have both - a giant monolith that you could replace all at once from below, or individual modules you could replace one-at-a-time from above)
> for something that will only ever happen once.
Will it, though? Like, battery technology will (hopefully) continue to improve, in which case there will always be a desire to upgrade to the latest-and-greatest, preferably without tacking on a bunch of labor costs (or else keep said costs to a minimum; user-swappable batteries make things easier for the repair shops, too). And damages could still happen, necessitating replacement (particularly partial replacement; it would suck to have to remove, replace/refurbish, and reinstall the entirety of the car's power storage just to fix one cell).
> just like most ICEs don't ever have their motor/transmission/etc replaced.
Usually because most people write them off and sell 'em to Pick N' Pull when that happens, not because internal combustion engines last forever. Personally, I'd prefer my cars to not be disposable.
People don't make these kinds of upgrades to cars. They just buy new ones. Your suggestions don't jibe with the real world and consumers' revealed behavior.
> People don't make these kinds of upgrades to cars. They just buy new ones.
My point is that's a problem, and that we can and should fix it with electric cars instead of continuing to boneheadedly allow that problem to persist.
There are, on that note, plenty of people who do rebuild or even replace the powertrains on their ICE-powered vehicles. Quite a few people do it out of necessity (a new engine is cheaper than an entirely new car, even with labor factored in, unless the designer has specifically made the car hostile to aftermarket servicing). Quite a few others do it for fun (e.g. hot-rodding, "ricing", etc.). Some people are even converting ICEs to EVs (I'm considering doing this should my car's engine give up the ghost).
> Your suggestions don't jibe with the real world and consumers' revealed behavior.
"consumers' revealed behavior" is a product of what's available on the market, and at what cost. If an electric vehicle with user-replaceable batteries exists, people will absolutely buy it. Upgrading those batteries will almost always be cheaper than buying all those batteries plus an entirely new car around them.
Plus, EV battery thermal management is getting better and better. Most EVs won't ever have their battery pack replaced, just like most ICEs don't ever have their motor/transmission/etc replaced. It doesn't make sense to optimize for ease of replacing those on an ICE and it similarly doesn't make sense to do so for a battery pack on an EV.