Once laughed off as the impractical indulgence of environmentalists, electric vehicles are now seen as a technology whose time has come.
The outgoing year saw auto sector discourses being dominated by talks around electric cars, charging stations and infrastructure. But range anxiety, long charging times and a paucity of accessible and frequent charging stations are still turning many people away from electric vehicles. This final hurdle is now being overcome.
Welcome to battery swapping.
In India's electric vehicle market, which was valued at $5.47 billion in 2020, battery swapping is being touted as the panacea for many fundamental problems. Let's take a deeper look at this latest buzzword:
What's battery swapping?
Battery swapping is a method to replenish the battery charge of an electric vehicle by swapping a discharged battery with one that is already charged. It's considered a more viable option than setting up charging stations. A battery-swapping ecosystem has a station with battery slots that can charge batteries and keep them ready to be picked up.
How does it work?
Any rider/driver whose electric vehicle is running out of charge can spot one of these battery-swapping stations on a mobile phone application and head there. Once at the station, the rider/driver needs to take out the discharged battery and swap it with an already charged battery from one of the battery slots at the swapping station.
Why do we need this technology?
Currently, India has only 934 public charging stations installed under the FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and EV) scheme whereas the number of registered EVs is 7,59,182, as per the data from Vahan, the national vehicle database. One of the biggest bottlenecks in the adoption of EVs has been the unreliability of the charging infrastructure. Since the battery-swapping stations can be installed and accessed by multiple EV users at a single time, they can complement the charging stations in fulfilling the energy needs of the EV industry, so say the proponents.
What about the cost and convenience?
Battery-swapping stations can also help EV makers bring down the cost of the vehicle since a battery accounts for a major portion of the cost. For instance, mobility platform Bounce recently launched India's first electric scooter that comes with batteries that can be swapped at any of its battery-swapping stations. As for the time taken for battery swap, there are claims that it would be less than a minute but the real-world performance still needs to be tested. While battery swaps do potentially eliminate the long charging times, the mass availability of battery-swapping stations still has a long way to go.
How is battery swapping better than charging?
The battery-swapping technology, if implemented effectively and efficiently, seems to have an answer to the major bottlenecks facing the industry. A battery-swapping station would eliminate the fear of long refuelling time in the minds of EV users. And if the swapping stations are installed at strategic locations, it would address the range anxiety issue, too.
Besides, a battery-swapping station resolves the issue of setting up an independent charging station that a lot of EV users face in case they live in a residential complex where setting up independent charging stations is not feasible.
What are the obstacles in scaling up the swappable battery infrastructure?
One of the main obstacles in implementing this technology is missing standardisation across the board in terms of battery design and compatibility. Since the industry is taking baby steps in the country, EV makers are building the infrastructure and scaling up technology in silos leading to a lack of standardisation. In order to make these battery-swapping stations universally accessible to users riding/driving vehicles of all make, automakers will have to work together and come up with standardised battery packs.
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