These days if you've got even the vaguest interest in the automotive world it's impossible to ignore
the fact that the pace of electric vehicle integration is accelerating rapidly. And
it's not just Tesla either. Just about all the major car manufacturers, plus several independent
companies now have one or more electric vehicle options either already on the road or in the final
stages of development. Not everyone has a driveway to park the car and plug in overnight though,
and even the fastest public charges take around 20 minutes to fully charge an EV battery,
which still seems to be something that puts many people off taking the plunge.
Now though, there's an alternative way to get a fully charged battery in about the same time
as it takes to fill up your tank with fossil fuel. It's an idea that only a few years ago seemed like
a fanciful piece of science fiction but which has now actually become a reality. And because you've
read the title of this video you'll know that I'm talking about the concept of battery swapping.
So will this be the catalyst the industry needs to accelerate the revolution to clean
green energy transport for everyone, or will our cautiously conservative car companies
ensure it remains just another pipe dream that falls by the wayside?
Hello and welcome to Just Have a Think. The basic idea behind battery swapping is really very
straightforward indeed. You take your vehicle to a swap station, hand in your discharged battery, get
a fully charged replacement and drive off into the sunset. Sounds a bit too good to be true doesn't
it? Which probably means there's some pros and cons that we need to delve a bit more deeply into.
So let's do that. First of all, it's worth splitting the electric vehicle industry into
these four distinct categories. In the light EV category battery swapping appears to have scored
a bullseye, gaining acceptance and rapid adoption, especially in urban environments
where space is tight and most folks live in apartments with no outside charge in space.
The world's largest battery swapping network is run by a Taiwanese scooter maker called Gogoro.
They've just announced a major partnership with two of China's biggest motorbike manufacturers DCJ
and Yadea, who've agreed to make scooters and bikes using Gogoro's interchangeable battery
system and drivetrain. It's not hard to see why it's popular for two wheel riders either. It
really couldn't be simpler. You just park up next to a battery wall, pull out your discharged unit,
log into the system, push your old battery in, pull out a fresh one and off you go. It's even
quicker than filling up the tank with fossil fuel. The swap stations allow Gogoro to reduce
the initial purchase price of their scooters, with Gogoro maintaining ownership of the batteries.
It's a business model known as Battery as a Service, or BAAS and it effectively
lowers the price barrier to entry for riders switching to electric scooters and motorbikes.
Gogoro's next target is the vast market of India, where they've partnered with that country's
biggest bike maker Hero Motor Corp. That gives them exposure to two countries with a combined
population of nearly 2.8 billion people, many of whom ride motorcycles, as you'll know very
well if you've ever tried to cross a road there. Gogoro does have a rival though in
the form of the very well-established Taiwanese motorbike manufacturer Kymco. They've developed
their own swapping system called Ionex and they already have over 2000 swap stations in Taiwan.
Things get a lot more complicated though as we move up a category. Billions of dollars have been
spent by all the major auto companies perfecting electric drive trains and bespoke battery packs
that integrate seamlessly into their vehicle's bodywork, often acting as a structural element
providing crucial rigidity to the chassis. So the idea that they might all ditch their designs and
move to some sort of standardized battery size and shape so that any EV owner could simply take their
car to any swap station safe in the knowledge that a compatible battery would be available
seems a little fanciful at this stage. I mean, God forbid that the automakers should
ever do anything with the end consumer's best interest at heart. Whatever next!?
Despite that apparently insurmountable obstacle several brave pioneers have dipped a tentative
toe into the hazardous lagoon that is the electric car battery swapping market. The largest of them
so far is NIO - another name you've probably never heard of. I'm sure it won't come as a huge shock
to you if I tell you that they are a Chinese company. The Chinese car market is by far the
largest in the world and electric vehicles now make up almost 10 percent of annual sales there.
NIO is China's top EV manufacturer and buoyed by a decision from the Chinese government to approve
a national EV battery swapping standard it's now partnered with one of the world's largest battery
makers, CATL, to create the Weineng Battery Asset Company offering a battery as a service model for
the NIO EV range. It's a very attractive package for the car owner too. If you sign up for the
battery swap scheme you get around twelve thousand dollars off the purchase price of your new car and
then pay a monthly subscription of about a hundred and fifty dollars for the battery service pack,
which includes unlimited free swaps plus any battery upgrades. Whenever the vehicle battery
is running low the driver checks an app to find the nearest swap station with available batteries.
Then they drive up to something that looks a bit like a glorified car wash
where, in less time than it takes to get a soap, rinse and wax, computer controlled robots drop
out your discharge battery pack and replace it with a fully charged one. And that's it.
You get the green light and drive off. NIO reckon the whole thing takes about three minutes.
You pay nothing at all at the swap station because it's all covered by the monthly lease plan.
And if you buy a second-hand NIO then you can still use the service by paying about 12 pence per
kilowatt hour, which is about £8.00 for a fully charged battery. You don't have to rely solely on
the swap stations either. If need be, the driver still has the option of charging the batteries
in the normal way using the socket on the side of the car. One of the big plus points for the
swap system is that the discharge batteries can then be charged slowly which helps to minimize
battery degradation and maximize operational lifespan, and the operator can choose when to
charge the batteries up which allows them to aim for off-peak times to keep the cost to a minimum.
It also means they can opt to take power from 100 percent renewable sources because they've
got the luxury of waiting until the times of day when those resources are available, and on top of
that creating modular batteries that can easily be swapped out makes it a whole lot easier to
repurpose them as stationary energy storage when they reach the end of their useful life in EVs.
At the start of 2021 NIO had swap stations in 64 Chinese cities and claimed to have completed more
than 800 000 battery swaps. They're building a new station every single week this year with
plans to build another 300 in 2022. They've got some competition though in the form of the Chinese
multinational automotive company Geely technology group. They've got a thousand swap stations in
China. The stations themselves are pretty funky looking and Geely claims to have got their swap
over time down to only 60 seconds, which includes a check on the state of charge of the old battery.
The driver then pays the difference between that and a fully charged replacement.
A typical swap over costs about seven pounds, which is a little under ten dollars. Over in
the United States, Tesla saw the technical advantages of battery swapping systems
very early on, and in 2013 Elon Musk introduced the service for the Model S.
What he found though, was that most folks who can afford a Tesla can also afford their own home with
a nice big driveway or garage where they can charge their vehicles overnight. So unless they
were on a very long journey they really didn't need to use public charges or battery swaps.
Tesla only built one swap station in the end, and that was in a fairly remote location. As a result,
virtually no one used it during the 12 months it was in operation. Tesla ditched the idea
and concentrated on building out their now very impressive network of superchargers instead. Those
superchargers are extremely expensive though, and the infrastructure required to support them is
enormous. By contrast, battery swapping stations are relatively easy units to drop in place,
plug in and get started. So it still does remain a tantalizing proposition if only an operator
could find the right gap in the market. And that's where a U.S startup company called Ample comes in.
Unlike the Chinese business model, Ample are not aiming at private vehicle owners. They're going
after the commercial light duty EV sector. In other words, commercial fleets and taxis.
The big advantage of fleet cars is that they drive pretty much the same predictable amount
of time each day. They may not have enough range to last the whole day, and any downtime is lost
income. Ultra fast charging in 5-10 minutes is not yet available at any practical scale
and in any case it brings in that potential problem of accelerated battery degradation,
so battery swapping looks like an attractive option for fleet owners.
Ample currently operates five swap stations in the Bay Area of San Francisco.
The setup is very similar to the Chinese model but Ample have developed their own 2.5 kilowatt
hour battery modules which they say one day could be used by all vehicle manufacturers.
For now though they claim to have struck deals with five separate car makers covering nine
different electric vehicle models. They haven't confirmed exactly who those manufacturers are, but
Nissan, Kia and Mercedes look likely to be three of them. Those nine vehicle models will either
use Ample's battery packs in their construction or alternatively Ample have developed adapter plates
that perfectly match the car's architecture making their batteries fully compatible with each vehicle
model. Just like in China, the driver has an app to get them to the nearest station, and a swap
costs the equivalent of about 10 cents per mile - cheaper than gasoline, but slightly more expensive
than a standard EV charger. Apple have also now partnered with Uber to provide the swap service to
all their drivers. That's a deal that could well take the service all over the US just on its own,
so there's a good chance that Ample could succeed where others have previously failed,
and if they can break the commercial light duty sector then there's an equally attractive price
awaiting in the heavy duty sector too. Whether battery swapping ever becomes a reality for the
average private vehicle owner here in the West is a matter of some debate. Issues like resale value
and insurance premiums will no doubt play a big part in the decision-making process. We don't tend
to have autocratic governments that can impose new systems on consumers either, in the way that
China can, and convincing fiercely competitive rivals to all fall in line and standardize their
vehicle's battery architecture seems like a heck of a long shot. But if the technology continues
to grow into the Chinese and Asian markets, and companies like Ample can make a success in the
fleet market in the US then we could be looking at yet another turbo boost to the EV revolution.
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