But why can’t you have “battery stations” similar to gas stations where you pull up, some sort of machine hooks up to your car, pulls your battery out, puts a new one in

It took us literal decades to get phones to use the same charging port, and even then Apple is still trying not to do it.

Even electric RC vehicles have this issue. For the most part batteries are interchangeable, but you might have to change connectors. But then you have companies like DJI which have proprietary batteries of different sizes, shapes, and connectors (and the connectors can't be changed.) And whenever they have a new model, there's a new battery.

So you'd be expecting every manufacturer to be on the same page. Same sized batteries, same connectors, same output, etc. That's not going to happen, even if you only consider different vehicle types. Trucks and SUVs will have bigger/more batteries than a compact car or motorcycle.

And then there's the trade in part. Those batteries can cost $20,000 so what happens if I have a damaged battery pack and trade it in for a new one for little cost? The station is now out $20,000? Or what happens when I get a bad battery pack that doesn't perform well? And who's responsible when you give the station a bad battery, they charge it and I get it, and it catches fire and burns down my car and house? Is it me for taking the bad battery? Or is it the station for selling me a bad battery? Or is it the person they got the battery from? And if so, how do they prove it was this persons fault? They might not have known, or the battery might have been bad three months, 8 stations and 9 drivers ago but didn't fail until now.

And of course there's cost. Charging a car at a charging station costs money, but it's still cheaper than fuel. Let's just say it costs $25. And charging at home is even cheaper, we'll say $15. You really think these stations are only going to charge you $25 to swap out the battery? They have to safely charge and store them, and have space for them, and there's the labor to swap batteries. Even if they're making little profit, it's still going to be two or three times the cost of charging at home. In reality, it'll probably cost close to what it costs to fill a car up with gas.