Upcoming Electric Vehicles with Innovative Battery Swapping Technology

Battery swapping

Systems for exchanging flat batteries

Battery swapping or battery switching is an electric vehicle technology that allows battery electric vehicles to quickly exchange a discharged battery pack for a fully charged new one, as an alternative to recharging the vehicle via a charging station. Battery swapping is common in electric forklift applications.^[1]

Currently, Taiwanese electric scooter manufacturer Gogoro operates the largest battery swap network for electric mopeds, with nearly 11,000 GoStations in Taiwan, and 250 in Mainland China.^[2][3][4] Chinese luxury carmaker Nio is the only major operator of automobile battery swapping stations for the public. The company has built around 2250 battery swap stations around China and Europe, and the process takes three minutes from start to finish.^[5][6] Previously, Renault and Tesla attempted to make their vehicles capable of swapping batteries.

History[edit]

The concept of an exchangeable battery service was proposed as early as 1896. It was first offered between 1910 and 1924, by Hartford Electric Light Company, through the GeVeCo battery service, serving electric trucks. The vehicle owner purchased the vehicle, without a battery, from General Vehicle Company (GeVeCo), part-owned by General Electric.^[7] The power was purchased from Hartford Electric in the form of an exchangeable battery. Both vehicles and batteries were designed to facilitate a fast exchange. The owner paid a variable per-mile charge and a monthly service fee to cover truck maintenance and storage. These vehicles covered more than 6 million miles.

Beginning in 1917 and lasting a few years, a similar service operated in Chicago for owners of Milburn Electric cars.^[8]

In 1993, Suntera developed a two-seat 3-wheel electric vehicle called the SUNRAY, which came with a battery cartridge that swapped out in minutes at a battery-swap station.^[9] In 1995, Suntera added a motor scooter.^[10] The company was later renamed Personal Electric Transports^[11](P.E.T.). After 2000 the company developed an electric bus. In 2004, the company's 3-wheel stand-up EV won 1st place at the 5-day long American Tour de Sol electric vehicle race,^[12] before closing in 2006.

A rapid battery replacement system was implemented to service 50 electric buses at the 2008 Summer Olympics.^[13]

Some smaller schemes have attempted to popularize battery swapping with individual cities. Zotye Auto built a fleet 15 of M300 EV hatchbacks for a taxi fleet in Hangzhou, China. In 2011, one of these vehicles caught on fire after the battery pack in the trunk caught fire. An investigation later found that battery in question, as well as the connecting electronics in the truck, had become worn out form repeated loading and unloading of charged battery packs. The electric scheme was halted following the incident.^[14]

• A Zotye M300 EV having its batteries replaced.

• The batteries of a Zotye M300 EV being charged before being swapped.

• Wear and tear in the battery compartment of a Zotye M300 EV, located in the trunk.

The Better Place network was the first modern attempt at making the battery switching model mainstream. The Renault Fluence Z.E. was the first car enabled to adopt the approach and was offered in several countries, including those where no battery swap stations had been planned.^[15]

Better Place launched its first battery-swapping station in Israel, in Kiryat Ekron, near Rehovot in March 2011. The exchange process took five minutes.^[16][17] Subsequent battery swap stations were built in Denmark. Better Place filed for bankruptcy in Israel in May 2013.^[18][19]

In 2012, Tesla started building a proprietary fast-charging Tesla Supercharger network.^[20] A year later, in June 2013, Tesla announced its plan to offer battery swapping. Tesla showed that a battery swap with the Model S took just over 90 seconds.^[21][22] Elon Musk said the service would be offered at around US$60 to US$80 at June 2013 prices. The vehicle purchase included one battery pack. After a swap, the owner could later return and receive their battery pack fully charged. A second option would be to keep the swapped battery and receive/pay the difference in value between the original and the replacement. Pricing was not announced.^[21] In 2015 the company abandoned its sole swapping station, built at Harris Ranch, for lack of customer interest.^[23]

Other battery swapping service providers include Gogoro, Delta Electronics, BattSwap,^{[citation needed]}, Voltia, and Swap & Go.^[24][25][26] By early 2022, Nio had built more than 850 swap stations in China,^[27] up from 131 in 2020.^[28] A station can cost $772,000 in China. A 90 kWh battery is charged at 60kW and can be swapped in 6 minutes.^[27] China operates cement trucks where the heavy battery is swapped.^[29] A battery swap system with a 2MWh battery in each 20-foot (6.1 m) shipping container powering a converted canal barge began operating in the Netherlands in 2021.^[30][31]

Trial run of EV battery swapping in Singapore[edit]

Singapore started experimenting with EV battery swapping from 2022. In 2022, the country's land transport authority gave Gogoro the go-ahead to conduct a trial run of deploying swappable EV batteries - specifically for food delivery service providers. In 2023, Mo Batteries partnered with SingPost to provide battery replacement support for two electric bikes used by SingPost.^[32]

Gallery[edit]

Criticism[edit]

Battery swapping solutions were criticized as proprietary. By creating a monopoly regarding the ownership of the batteries and the patent-protected technologies the companies split up the market and decrease the chances of wider usage of battery swapping.^[33] BMW termed battery swapping as a waste of time.^[32]

References[edit]

1. ^ "Industrial electrical vehicle stalwarts head out on the road". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
2. ^ "Swappable batteries for electric vans and lorries make sense". The Economist. ISSN0013-0613. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
3. ^ Shu, Catherine (2021-10-11). "Gogoro launches battery swapping stations in China". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
4. ^ Toll, Micah (2021-08-30). "Gogoro named global leader in light electric vehicle battery swapping, passes 200 million swaps". Electrek. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
5. ^ "NIO Power". NIO. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
6. ^ "Nio's battery swapping tech in Norway". Deutsche Welle. 8 June 2022. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
7. ^ Cassidy, William B. (30 September 2013). "Trucking's Eclipsed Electric Age". The Lost Annals of Transport. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
8. ^ Kirsch, David A. (2000). The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History. Rutgers University Press. pp.153162. ISBN0-8135-2809-7.
9. ^ "Technology: Something New Under the Hawaiian Sun: a Solar Car: Japan will import up to 2,000 SunRay zero-emission vehicles. Assembly will take place at a former sugar plantation town". Los Angeles Times. 5 April 1995.
10. ^ "Budd Steinhilber, FIDSA". Industrial Designers Society of America - IDSA. 10 May 2010.
11. ^ "Honolulu Star-Bulletin Features". archives.starbulletin.com.
12. ^ "The Tour de Sol Reports, 2004". autoauditorium.com.
13. ^ "BIT Attends the Delivery Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games -Alternative Fuel Vehicles". Beijing Institute of Technology. 18 July 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
14. ^ "Battery Pack Defects Blamed for Zotye EV Fire". China Auto Web. 2011-06-13. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
15. ^ "Better Place. The Renault Fluence ZE". Better Place. 22 October 2010. Archived from the original on 12 September 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
16. ^ Udasin, Sharon (24 March 2011). "Better Place launches 1st Israeli battery-switching station". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
17. ^ Motavalli, Jim (29 July 2011). "Plug-and-Play Batteries: Trying Out a Quick-Swap Station for E.V.'s". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
18. ^ Kershner, Isabel (26 May 2013). "Israeli Venture Meant to Serve Electric Cars Is Ending Its Run". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
19. ^ Elis, Niv (26 May 2013). "Death of Better Place: Electric car co. to dissolve". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
20. ^ "Tesla Motors Launches Revolutionary Supercharger Enabling Convenient Long Distance Driving | Tesla Investor Relations". ir.tesla.com. Sep 24, 2012. Archived from the original on 2020-11-02. Retrieved 2022-06-17.^{[self-published source]}
21. ^ ^{a b} Rogowsky, Mark (21 June 2013). "Tesla 90-Second Battery Swap Tech Coming This Year". Forbes. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
22. ^ "Tesla Motors demonstrates battery swap in the Model S". Green Car Congress. 21 June 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
23. ^ Sorokanich, Robert (10 June 2015). "Musk: Tesla "unlikely" to pursue battery swapping stations". Road & Track. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
24. ^ Voltia Group (2 December 2015), Companies successfully using the GreenWay Service, archived from the original on 15 December 2021, retrieved 25 April 2017
25. ^ "Electric-Car Battery Swapping, Slovakian Style (Well, Vans, Anyway)". Green Car Reports. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
26. ^ "PTT's head discusses future tactics". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
27. ^ ^{a b} "Could battery swapping replace EV charging?". Autocar. 4 April 2022. Archived from the original on 4 April 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
28. ^ Hanley, Steve (31 May 2020). "NIO Completes More Than 500,000 Battery Swaps". CleanTechnica.
29. ^ Doll, Scooter (15 March 2022). "Geely is rolling out swap stations for heavy duty EVs like cement mixers, housing three-ton battery packs". Electrek.
30. ^ "First emission-free inland shipping vessel on energy containers in service". Port of Rotterdam. 6 September 2021.
31. ^ Berrill, Paul (7 September 2021). "Heineken refreshes the batteries other shippers can't reach". TradeWinds.
32. ^ ^{a b} "Can Swappable Batteries For EVs Work? Singapore's Mo Batteries Is Hopeful". 2023-02-06. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
33. ^ "Tesla battery swap a dead end". 21 June 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2014.

Mitsubishi Fuso and Ample to partner on battery-swapping technology for electric trucks

• Battery swapping technology for trucks expected to dramatically shorten vehicle downtime
• The FUSO eCanter will be used in the first test deployment this winter in Japan, conducted together by US-based startup Ample Inc. and MFTBC

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (Headquarters: Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, President and CEO: Karl Deppen, hereafter MFTBC) announces it has signed an agreement with Ample Inc. (Headquarters: San Francisco, CA, President: John de Souza, CEO: Khaled Hassounah, hereafter: Ample) to begin a collaboration on a pilot project on battery swapping technology for electric trucks in Japan.

In March 2023, MFTBC launched the new model of its electric light-duty truck eCanter, which satisfies customers needs of urban transportation, by providing a range from 99km to 324km*1. Looking into the future, MFTBC is pushing further and aims to investigate possible solutions to expand the scope of eCanter, such as for use cases with longer driving range.*1 Certified driving ranges by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

MFTBC and Ample will collaborate to pair MFTBC e-vehicle solutions with Amples Modular Battery Swapping technology with an initial deployment based on the latest model of the all-electric FUSO eCanter for the Japanese market. The two companies will install an eCanter with modular batteries that can be automatically exchanged at Ample battery swapping stations in a target time of five minutes. The test deployment will serve as an important resource in evaluating customer experience, scalability and potential for commercialization in the domestic market. The vehicles trial on public roads is scheduled for this winter in Japan.

MFTBC has been a frontrunner in e-mobility and related ecosystems, having introduced the eCanter, Japans first series-produced electric light-duty truck, as early as 2017. Sales of the newly remodeled eCanter recently started in March 2023, pushing MFTBC one step closer to its ambition of providing a completely carbon neutral product portfolio in Japan by 2039. With its role in the upcoming trials with Ample, the eCanter is expected to contribute to further advancements in sustainable transport.

Ample has developed an innovative battery swapping solution that is faster and more cost-effective for users than existing charging solutions. Ample provides energy delivery as a service, and has focused on last-mile delivery, ride hailing, and car sharing use cases. With Amples patented technology, the process of exchanging eCanter battery modules inside a battery swapping station could take as little as five minutes, allowing both companies to offer a mobility solution that meets the needs of middle and last-mile delivery use cases.

Image to illustrate swapping technology applied to the eCanter

In response to the Japanese governments target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and its goals of decarbonizing commercial vehicles under the Green Growth Strategy, efforts toward sustainability have accelerated within the transport industry. Although trucks with electric drivetrains are now among the most promising means of achieving carbon neutrality on the road, many challenges remain, including reduced uptime due to charging needs. An electric light-duty truck typically requires around 10 hours with AC charging and a few hours with DC charging in Japan*2. This joint effort by MFTBC and Ample aims to circumvent this issue with exchangeable batteries, supporting vehicle uptime by delivering a full charge within minutes, and by extension, encouraging the transport industrys EV shift.*2 Charging time may differ due to many conditions such as remaining battery capacity and truck type.

In collaboration with partners such as Ample, MFTBC will continue to innovate its products and services towards the vision of developing mobility solutions to embrace a better life for people and the planet.

eCanter at Ample battery swapping station

About AmpleAmple aims to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and sustainable transportation energy on a global scale. The company is pioneering a new method of energy delivery through fast modular battery swapping and can refuel any EV in under 10 minutes. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company has raised $270 million in venture capital.Ample was named one of TIMEs 100 Most Influential Companies of 2023, and was chosen as one of Fast Companys World Changing Ideas, as well as 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2022.

For more information, visit www.ample.com.

MFTBC at a GlanceBased in Kawasaki, Japan, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) is one of Asias leading commercial vehicle manufacturers, with 89.29% of its shares owned by Daimler Truck AG and 10.71% by various Mitsubishi group companies. An icon in the Japanese commercial vehicle industry with a longstanding history of over 90 years with its FUSO brand, MFTBC manufactures a range of commercial vehicles including light, medium, and heavy-duty trucks and buses, and industrial engines for over 170 markets worldwide. In 2017, MFTBC introduced the eCanter, the first all-electric light-duty truck in series-production and in 2019, the Super Great Japans first heavy-duty truck fitted with Level 2 Automated Driving Support Technology, a benchmark in the Japanese commercial vehicle market. MFTBC operates under the umbrella of Daimler Truck Asia, together with its partner organization Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) in India. This strategic unit allows the entities to collaborate on areas such as product development, parts sourcing and production to provide the best value to customers.

About the eCanterThe eCanter is the Japanese markets first series-produced, all-electric truck developed by MFTBC as a solution to urban environmental issues such as noise, exhaust gas, and CO2 emissions. As the eCanter is locally emission-free with its electric motor and produces less noise and vibration compared to conventional diesel-powered vehicles, it is particularly suited to inner-city routes as well as operations during late night and early morning hours. After the launch of the first model in 2017, MFTBC released an improved model with enhanced safety equipment in August 2020. Since its launch, the eCanter has been used by customers in Japan, Europe, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. In March 2023, MFTBC released a fully remodeled new model to cater to a variety of business needs. The new model is scheduled to be rolled out in more overseas markets.