Stellantis makes a big bet on EV battery swapping in new deal with Ample
Stellantis makes a big bet on EV battery swapping in new deal with Ample
EV battery swapping hasn’t caught on in the US.
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I don't see how battery swapping is a good bet. We've already got extremely fast charging, and the maintenance and capital investment for swapping stations would be enormous.
It has some benefits to both consumers and automotive industry.
I live in an apartament block, as do many people. Can't really charge when parking by the street. If I could go into subscription like service with a charging network where I don't own the battery outright and just swap it at gas stations that solves a lot of issues. It's faster than charging and I don't have to own a battery outright which lowers initial investment. That battery doesn't even have to have that great of a range either. Car company / charging network or whoever does the battery leasing benefits long term because they can charge more overall.
Why can't you charge on the street? You could have parking meter type slow chargers.
I've had an EV for three years now without my own charging station. It's sometimes inconvenient but not a big issue.
There was a guy who lived near me who plugged his Tesla in on the street. Unfortunately for him, the charging port is on the driver side which meant it dangled out into the road.
One day I drove by and his charger had gotten knocked off by another car. I bet that was a pretty penny to fix.
Those need to get electricity from somewhere and in many countries overall infrastructure is woefully unprepared for large scale deployment of this type, not to mention being unprepared for how renewable energy is produced and stored. It's also quite vulnerable to vandalism.
This is literally a huge pile of batteries that can charge at any rate at any time. It can soak the noon peak of solar, it can sip late night wind.
I've been saying this for years. It just seems to make so much sense.
Hope it works out.
I’m looking forward to someone creating a Mobil charging service, a megacharger on a Cybertruck, that just rolls around city streets topping off its customers