One of the biggest complaints about electric vehicles (EVs) centres on the relatively long charging periods. Battery swapping side-steps the problem by automatically replacing the vehicle’s depleted battery with a fully charged one, slashing the wait time down to a few minutes. The concept is nothing new: in 1912 General Electric Company introduced battery swapping as a monthly subscription service in the US state of Connecticut, and the following decade saw the offering expand to other states. However, by the mid-1920s, the business had fizzled out due to a lack of widespread standards and poor EV uptake in general.
This century saw Better Place pick up the baton, but its service also failed to take off as expected and the company later filed for bankruptcy. Tesla also dabbled in the technology before walking away, claiming it was “riddled with problems.” Interest has been slowly reviving, particularly in China. Nio, one of the most vocal proponents, already operates about 1,400 swap stations in its home market and plans to add 1,000 more in 2023 alone. It’s also taking the network overseas, with long-term plans for 1,000 such stations in Europe.
Much of the attention to date has been focussed on passenger cars, but the technology is also gaining momentum in the commercial vehicle (CV) segment. With fleets, uptime is king, and anything that keeps the vehicle off the road eats into profitability. If a truck is parked and charging for several hours, it’s not earning money.
