[RahulNagaraj]

Ample - a US-based startup, recently revealed its latest second-generation battery-swapping station for electric vehicles.



According to reports, these battery-swapping stations can replace a depleted EV battery with a fully-charged one in just 5 minutes. The battery-swapping is done in a modular drive-through station, allowing EV owners to drive in, exit the booth and enter back again and drive off once the battery has been swapped. The station also supports modular battery technology, which means it can replace the batteries of multiple EVs, ranging from small passenger cars to large delivery trucks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QeQ3VM4A4w

Also, Ample states that the swapping stations can be installed at designated places within 3 days. The company will deliver pre-built sections to the installation site, simplifying the process. The swapping stations can also be stacked at larger areas, allowing for multiple vehicles to swap batteries simultaneously.

The startup states that the battery-swapping technology is intended to work with any electric vehicle and is "as cheap as petrol". The stations have also been tested to withstand extreme temperatures and weather conditions.

Source: Electrive

Link to Team-BHP news

[kkunal.shah]

Good concept, only wonder what “as cheap as petrol” mean ?

[saisree]

Helps to reduce the range anxiety and charging complexities. For this to happen the type, connectors and capacity of the battery are to be same across the products. Hope inventory maintenance is taken care of

Originally Posted by kkunal.shah

Good concept, only wonder what “as cheap as petrol” mean ?

I guess, it meant setting up these stations are comparable to setting up a petrol station.

[npawan29]

They should try get that first on their mobile devices

[07CR]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

The startup states that the battery-swapping technology is intended to work with any electric vehicle and is "as cheap as petrol".

Great concept. Charging times is one of the biggest deterrents for me to buy an EV. This should solve it, but two questions-

1) What does "as cheap as petrol" mean? If it is cost of swapping the batteries, than it beats the purpose of having an EV.

2) Wonder how the 6-7 year old batteries would be swapped?

[frewper]

Hasn't Tesla already failed at Battery Swapping. Then what is the point of this?

The main problem that arises with battery swapping is, what about your own battery that has been swapped? What happens to the warranty if your battery is new and you get an old battery ?

Battery Swapping creates certain scenarios which are always un-answered and if you think about those anomalies are always expensive to solve.

So technically speaking, Battery swapping is e-a-s-y. The real questions to be answered here are

1. If I have paid for a brand new car and battery and I do a battery swap on a one way road trip, how do I get my new battery back. If there is way to get it back, who is gonna pay for logistics. Batteries are heavy and transportation will be expensive.

2. If I get a new car without a battery and I get a leased one so that I can swap anytime and not worry about it, Does it still mean I have to pay full price of the battery ?
Damn, if I am paying for a new battery then I want a brand new battery in my car for at least three year before degradation becomes visible.

3. OEMs are definitely not interested in setting up their battery swap stations. Hell they are not even interested in setting up their own charging stations. So how does the company which does battery swaps deal with multiple batteries from multiple OEMs. And if this company is a third party how do I rely on them.

4. Will it void my warranty? Damn, I think it will.


So given these complications, how is it that taking a charging break for 20 mins after a 4 hr drive to top up my battery difficult than dealing with situations like these.

Battery swap works for scooters because they are light and low ticket items comparatively. And scooters don't leave the city. Battery Swap for cars is clearly for the highways and the driver will have no control on things when some anomalies were to occur.

[PazhazziRaja]

I had a very basic query regarding the battery swapping viability for mass market. Where do they store these batteries? Since they are much less energy dense than conventional fuels and can't be transported in pipelines, you would require pretty large real estate area even if considering underground storage. The maintenance and safety requirements associated with that are the second concern.
Real estate is a problem in cities and hence such a solution could possibly be viable in highways.

[srini1785]

Its a nice thing to bring in automation for such tasks. Some points that you need to keep in mind while taking this approach.

1. For such a system to work, you will need to separate the car from the battery. So you buy a XY model car from Honda, they will specify which type of battery would fit it and the user can choose from a multitude of vendors who offer similar type batteries. Its very similar to your domestic devices which operate on say AA or AAA batteries. This requires a lot of standardization of batteries and i think its not impossible to get there if all manufacturers agree.

2. The car and Battery will have to be insured separately. So if you crash then the claim will have to be taken up, depending on case, at one or two companies.

3. The way such automation would work is that you pull into a booth, select your car model and it shows you the list of batteries which are in stock and their usage. So you make your selection and go forward. While the booth takes care of the charging of the old battery and is put back into circulation once fully charged and inspected. Easier said than done. This would lead to a lot of issues like some members have pointed out. So you pull into a booth and want to exchange a battery which is sparingly used and the screen shows you a menu with no such comparable batteries then you are in trouble.

4. This model would necessitate that the battery guys will have to court the booth guys to stock up on their brand or better still open booths of their own. More the booth, more of your batteries in circulation. So this model is skewed in favor of the big battery guys. A game that FMCG sales people know to play very well.

Overall it looks promising only that you need to make a lot of big guys agree on certain common points which is more easy than done.