Electric Car Battery Swap Stations

8/3/2014

Electric Cars can be designed to allow a fast battery swap, exchanging your battery for a fully charged battery in less than half the time it takes to refill a gas tank. This offers Tesla Model S drivers an even faster option when recharging while driving long distances.

FULL CHARGE IN 90 SECONDS half the time for a petrol car with big fuel tank.

This is an awesome feature and even beats the lack of charging infrastructure and long charging time. The main thing to note here is that the company must design the battery bays in such a way that it can be easily slid out and slid in by mechanical trolleys.

Swapping battery using Mechanical Trolley

Battery Swap Stations can be included in any existing petrol pumps also. since most of them have a huge roof... Solar Panels can be installed there to charge the huge number of batteries that might pile and need to be charged.

Storing Batteries at Battery Swapping stations

There is only one problem with this idea. The guy with a 5 yr/50,000km old battery might try to get a new battery in the swap process.

E2O electric car for Rs 300,000

The above old battery/new battery problem can be easily circumvented by selling the car for only 300,000 and registering for the Battery Swap system and being charged for only the expense of charging which would be (cost of charging + 10% Profit) probably Rs 10 for every 100 Km!

So people will have to pay just like they pay for the petrol but only at dirt cheap price of Rs 10 for every 100 km and still have the option of charging it at home whenever we are able to.

That I say is the way forward!

Better Place battery swap facility at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

molex style power connector for PCs

Another excellent issue raised in the comments by "Tonami" is the Battery design which need not be alike. They can set an industry standard for the molex-style-power-connector like they have it in Computers eg: see in below pic.

The car companies can also use the same format as the Lead Acid Batteries.

Even with different manufacturers... Its not a big deal as only these connectors have to be connected to the car power line... so only this connector has to be similar to the power supply connector inside the Computer connecting different devices like CD-Drive, HDD, Floppy Drive, etc.

So when replacing the battery they just have to slid in the new battery mechanically and then join the connectors manually.

9 Comments

Tonami

10/3/2014 05:08:31 pm

The battery swapping solution has already been proven to be not viable. Better place learned that the hard way to the tune of $850million. Even Tesla has not made any commitment since their show and tell.

The major reason for this is the huge capital investment to have duplicate batteries in stock which is already the most expensive part of an ev. Then you have to worry about standards as EVs from different manufacturers have incompatible battery packs. Automakers can't agree on a simple plug standard, so one can forget about pack standards.

The other one is as you mentioned, in order to reduce the liability,battery leasing must be implemented. The problem is even if it costs less, people like to own their purchases. Renault is taking this approach as the only option with the Zoe, but its being outsold by the Nissan leaf in europe despite the fact that the Zoe is a much better car and the pricing will be similar once the complex lease math is taken out.

For extended range fast charging is a much better option, hence teslas agressive push and other charging stations following suit. Yes its 30mins instead of 90sec, but it easily circumvents the cons listed above.

Kamlesh

11/3/2014 04:09:37 am

I agree with you. The sheer capital investment will make it a non starter, although its an attractive option for lots of people who are addicted to petrol and cant wait 30 mins.

Better Place was an interesting Israeli startup and i really did admire their then CEO - Shai Agassi. Ultimately losses to the tune of posted $490 million ensured the company collapsed.

I too feel DC fast charging is the way to go and am happy to see Mahindra demonstrate their DC quick charge station

Johnson

11/3/2014 05:47:50 am

Excellent points raised.

It might not be viable for any random company to do a battery swap station. But companies like Mahindra and Reva can do it for their existing customers. They just have to manufacture or order double the number of batteries.

Right now they have sold just 500 cars so its not difficult for them to have 500 extra batteries in swap stations on hold at any given time. They must already have these battery in their warehouses waiting for orders to pick... so this is good way of using existing and old stock of batteries lying around all of which they have to routinely charge anyway.

Even if the swapping process takes 5 to 10 minutes its ok and much more feasible than waiting 30min to 1 hr to fast charge.

I am also assuming here that the majority of the car owners will want to charge at home or office due to convenience.

The price for swap should be kept a little premium say Rs 25 (while charging at home will cost Rs 5) so that only those people travelling long distances would want to take it up.

Another issue here is the Battery design which need not be alike. They just have to set an industry standard for the molex-style-power-connector like they have it in Computers.

eg:
http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/attachments/238178d1276486656-lueftersteuerung-molex-style-power-connector.jpg

The car companies can also use the same format as the Lead Acid Batteries.

Even with different manufacturers... Its not a big deal as only these connectors have to be connected to the car power line... so only this connector has to be similar to the power supply connector inside the Computer connecting different devices like CD-Drive, HDD, Floppy Drive, etc.

Eddy link

19/10/2015 10:31:13 pm

Most people think that battery swapping needs to double the number of batteries. This is absolutely wrong. Only 5 to 10 % more is the correct number because you can charge the batteries with high power inside the station without any down time. So each batterie pack will be recharched every 2 or 3 hours and will be swapped into another vehicle.
DC-charging is very expensiv, too. 30 min sounds not very bad, but it stresses the battery. Moreover: What if two or three cars want to load in one Station at the same half hour? Then you have to wait up to 90 min. Desperate e-car drivers will be seen.
The cheapest and most rational way is battery swapping using standardized battery moduls (about 8-12 kWh each. 1 to 4 modules per vehicle, depending on its size, are swapped together for maximum flexibility.

ASEEM GOYAL

13/7/2017 02:29:51 pm

I believe one has to carefully look at "Battery to Vehicle Ratio" to control and optimize the inventory of batteries at swapping stations .
Secondly I think in global industry leapfrogs to Ultra DC fast charging benchmarking gasoline re-fuelling time and there are ways and means to manage the stress in the battery packs since some of know auto oems also using water cooled battery packs etc etc ..... and even since swap stations are also supposed to provide grid related services to maximize the RoI on Investments, I believe there are studies which shows some battery stress because of these multi use scenarios for the same batteries

Johnson

20/10/2015 11:52:04 am

True Eddy...

Also there is a possibility that these charging stations would be used only in emergency or on rare long-drive situations... as most people would find it convenient to charge at home or office for daily routine drive.

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richard hudson

14/1/2021 07:34:42 am

Household batteries are made in 4 or 5 different sizes: AAA cells, AA cells, C cells and D cells (all 1.5 Volt) and also 9V PP9 cells. Both disposable and rechargeable batteries have always used the same standard. When my bicycle AAA batteries run out of power, I can recharge them, buy new batteries or even swap dead AAA batteries with good AAA batteries from a television remote control. Similarly, if car manufacturers can not agree on industry standard cases, fittings and electrical properties we will have chaos and any battery swapping or sharing system will be impossible.
However if people demand battery swapping stations, few people will want to buy cars made with non -standard batteries.

Ryszard Delong-Kownacki

31/12/2022 09:25:37 pm

simpler , cheaper ad fastes system of swapping . Battery under seat moved transversely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8WCrZj34Vc

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Electric Car Battery Swap Stations

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