Battery Swapping Refuses to Die

­One of China’s largest automotive manufacturers is improving battery swap capabilities in the world’s epicenter for batteries and electric vehicles. Battery swapping – the stopgap solution that refuses to go gentle into the night.

We’ve spoken about battery swapping before and its swings of fortune. Here in the U.S., startup Better Place pushed battery swapping, raising about $900 million in venture capital, but after the cost of each station reached $2 million apiece, the firm declared bankruptcy in 2013.

Similarly, Tesla touted battery swapping for awhile, even constructing a facility in Harris Ranch, California towards that purpose, but they eventually decided the idea was impractical, with a spokesperson declaring that “battery swapping is…not suitable for widescale use.”

But all along, Shanghai-based Nio has been operating a respectable battery swapping business, with 1,400 stations up and running.

And the industry, itself, is slowly creeping upwards, with global battery swapping worth about $1.7 billion in 2022, and according to one estimate, poised to reach $11.8 billion by 2027.

Where’s all this growth coming from? Much of it is emanating from China, and more specifically, Nio, which just put forth the first units of its 4th-gen battery exchange station, which is apparently 22% faster than last-gen, able to complete a full swap in 144 seconds.

The ‘Power Swap Stations 4.0’ include six ultrawide FOV LiDARs and four Orin X chips as standard, and “with the compartment enlarged to accommodate 23 batteries,” they can achieve about 480 changes per day.

“NIO, ONVO and all battery swap strategic partners can access the new stations for a comprehensively elevated battery swapping experience,” the company says in its press release.

But it’s not like battery swapping is completely dead in America, notable failures notwithstanding.

San Francisco-based Ample is still touting the idea of full-service battery swaps in < 5 minutes, and in fact, they’re already operating drive-in stations in the Bay Area.

The company is specifically taking aim at its natural rival, fast-charge stations – especially with developments like Purdue’s, which created a charging station cable that allows for a full recharge within the same 5-minute timeframe.

But Ample is undeterred, stating that, “An Ample station is 3-10 times cheaper than a fast-charging station. It’s cheaper to build and cheaper to install.”

So it appears that battery swapping can thrive in the People’s Republic (with about half of all EVs on the road, worldwide, found in China) and the idea keeps popping up in the U.S. and Europe. Though it remains to be seen if fast-charging can take hold quicker and cut the legs out from under a swappable solution that certainly seems stopgap.