As the electric vehicle (EV) industry evolves a wildcard is whether swappable batteries go mainstream or become another trial balloon in the effort to lower costs and increase range. Swapping batteries is already a niche industry in China, but if history repeats itself here, they will be sidelined in North America. The issue is to swap or not to swap.
Many people don’t realize that 110 years ago, when electric vehicles (EVS) outnumbered gasoline cars, there were already efforts to swap batteries. These batteries were heavy, composed of lead acid. Commercial fleets in NY, especially livery vehicles, did swaps. There are no remnants of the battery swapping industry period today, except in history books and the occasional picture. Apparently Tesla piloted swapping batteries for the Model S in 2013, and pivoted to a SuperCharger network instead.
Today there is a rethink, as real-life swaps might take place in “electric mobility hubs.” Electric bicycles, scooters, and three wheeled devices are easy candidates for the hub. And specialized applications, like drones and military weapons, also need this technology. The swappable battery is a mission-saver when there is no electrical outlet to connect to. Even if it was feasible to recharge at a plug, the battery swap optimizes time and efficiency. And, the spent batteries can recharge with solar or off-peak electricity.
Reduce Range Anxiety?
For these reasons and more, swappable batteries would, on the surface, seem to have practical application for the automotive industry too. A swappable battery could ease the pain for longer trips, say when a battery pack of 60 or 80 kWh is not sufficient. Swapping batteries would also reduce the 20 to 30 minute wait time at a level-3 charging station. In principle, swapping batteries addresses “range anxiety.”
But the snag is infrastructure. Building a network of stations for the swaps seems almost as complicated as building out a new hydrogen network, or permitting and installing new Level 3 charging stations. The swaps require a physical location with lots of parking space, and then staffing it with people, and possibly robots, to do the swaps. Importantly, these stations need a large and reliable source of continual energy to replenish the battery materials. (editorial note: in the U.S. we have physical locations , namely 145,000 gasoline stations, but they have underground oil tanks, not super-charged electrical feeds).
More Infrastructure:
A close cousin of infrastructure is the vehicle design. To standardize battery swaps, there needs to be relatively industry-wide agreement on the frame and undercarriage. That’s why different Formula 1 race cars are all able to get in and out of the pit stop quickly. But Toyota, GM and the other manufactures sell style and image, as much as mobility. The result is a plethora of different vehicle platforms, as well as annual updates and changes to them. So a battery swap that favors one vehicle design may be impractical for another. Standardization is not the forte of automakers.
There is yet another element of infrastructure that needs to be considered for battery swaps to succeed: testing and reliability. If drivers “ own” the batteries in their vehicle they will be hesitant to swap them for fear of getting a used, unreliable battery pack. Today drivers might occasionally swap their propane tanks at a big box store or service station but car batteries are vastly more valuable. An alternative, which some Asian automakers toy with, is “renting” the battery pack to motorists.
Meet Nio:
To meet these issues head on, a different swapping model has developed in China. Nio, the Chinese car company has built a network of battery swapping stations- somewhere between 1000 and 3000 stations in total. (It is hard to trust which number is real number). A Nio vehicle is designed from the ground-up for these swaps. There are a few Nio sites in Northern Europe as well and possibly a deal with Shell service stations.
Nio seems to be resurrecting a failed Israeli company, called Better Place which introduced the concept back around 2012. Although the Nio is best known for cars, their battery swaps are useful for vehicles that are much smaller (i.e., electric bikes) and much bigger (fleet trucks or buses). When a fleet truck, or even a ridehail (Uber) vehicle, returns to a central hub for parking and maintenance, there’s an opportunity to do fast battery swaps. But that depends upon supplying the site with a gigantism electrical feed and/or continual photovoltaic (solar) and wind power.
Phone Time:
In a world where we are accustomed to finding parallels between the future of mobility and telecommunications, theirs is uncertainty. Currently the batteries in our smartphones, particularly the iPhone, are factory sealed and don’t swap out. But then access to a charging outlet is seldom a problem. When access is limited, say on a travel trip, there is an alternative. Consumers plug in auxiliary batteries, little bullet sized canisters of energy, that provide an boost. These spares can recharged later, when there is a plug.
If telecommunications is the roadmap, swappable batteries may stay dormant in this second round of history, unless a greater need is demonstrated here. But in other parts of the world, where vehicles are more standardized and oil providers are less entrenched, a different infrastructure can emerge.