The EV Battery Swapping Motion Has Legs

Final Up to date on: third July 2025, 11:53 am

The concept of EV battery swapping got here and went right here within the US, after a short-lived trial by Tesla fizzled out through the Obama administration. The remainder of the world is one other story. Swapping is starting to catch on in a number of key markets, and the trade has expanded to cowl each class of EV from scooters on as much as heavy responsibility vans.

EV Battery Swapping, From Two Wheels To 4

Scooters and different light-weight two-wheelers have been the primary to embrace battery swapping in quantity, and it’s virtually a no brainer. For lighter autos the battery packs are sufficiently small to be swapped out manually inside a minute or two, skipping proper over the wait occasions for charging. The small measurement of the battery additionally allows swapping stations to arrange store in tight city places. Automated swapping choices can be found within the two-wheeled area, too.

The four-wheeled market is extra sophisticated. It essentially requires automation, more room, and a bigger capital outlay. Preliminary makes an attempt — like Tesla’s — did not catch maintain within the early 2000s (one other instance of flameout is the US swapping startup Higher Place).

A lot for the unhealthy information. The main Chinese language automaker Nio is amongst these to crack the swapping code. A part of the corporate’s advertising and marketing plan is a battery subscription service, which relieves EV homeowners from the up-front price of shopping for their very own battery together with the automotive.

Swapping corporations even have the chance to earn further income by deploying their stations as nimble vitality storage amenities. They’ll recharge spent batteries at a leisurely tempo throughout low-demand intervals to assist ease periodic strains on the grid, and so they can probably ship kilowatts again to the grid as wanted.

Benefits For Fleet EVs

The swapping marketplace for private-use EVs could or is probably not restricted to specific areas, however that continues to be to be seen. Gig staff and different drivers who use their very own autos commercially comprise a extra receptive market, relying on their wants. Swapping stations clearly fulfill the necessity for velocity, and so they additionally make EV possession extra accessible to the numerous drivers who don’t have the chance to cost up at house.

The swapping station mannequin additionally ensures that every battery is assessed and recharged for optimum use, decreasing the chance of a mishap whereas in service.

Considerably miraculously, the US agency Ample is without doubt one of the startups to outlive the sooner challenges of the EV battery swapping area. A part of the technique concerned laying low in stealth mode for seven years main as much as 2021 (see our Ample swapping archive right here).

Ample’s acknowledged mission is to satisfy, if not beat, EV fast-charging on velocity with a totally automated swap of 5 minutes or much less. The agency has been very busy over the previous a number of years main as much as final December, when it introduced a strategic partnership with Mitsubishi, which had already engaged with Bosch and the Chinese language swapping agency BPSE to hold the torch for battery swapping. Final 12 months Ample trialed its swapping station in Kyoto, in collaboration with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Company together with the Japanese agency ENEOS Holdings.

The Japanese connection expanded earlier this 12 months, when Ample introduced that it has been chosen for a brand new EV battery swapping initiative in Tokyo involving multiples of its transportable, modular, space-saving stations, aimed toward offering busy city industrial EV drivers with a fast change.

“Nowhere is that this extra important than in Tokyo, a metropolis that strikes tens of millions of individuals and items day by day by its dense community of supply vans, light-duty vans, and taxis.  For electrification to work at scale, vitality options should be quick, dependable, and space-efficient,” Ample emphasised in a press assertion.

EV Battery Swapping, Each Methods

One other instance of curiosity is the Chinese language startup U Energy. The corporate crossed the CleanTechnica radar final 12 months when it launched a modular battery that permits its robotic “UOTTA” swapping system to service each two-wheelers and four-wheelers, probably enabling it to problem NIO for market share.

The corporate has leveled up its technique since then. On July 2, U Energy introduced a Memorandum of Understanding with the main Chinese language agency Beijing Foton. Beijing Foton is the export department of Foton Motor, which comes beneath the umbrella of Beijing Automotive Group. “In 2024, FOTON exported a complete of 153,000 new vitality autos, sustaining its main place in China’s industrial automobile exports for the 14th consecutive 12 months,” Beijing Foton stated of itself, in a press assertion issued by U Energy earlier this 12 months.

“As a part of Beijing Automotive Group, Foton Motors focuses on the analysis and growth, manufacturing, gross sales and repair of economic autos, and has a complete product portfolio together with heavy vans, medium vans, gentle vans, buses, pickup vans and new vitality autos,” Foton Motors elaborates, paying attention to its R&D investments in EV batteries amongst different components of car electrification.

Vans, Buses, & Microgrids Take Heart Stage In EV Battery Swapping Plan

As implied by Foton, U Energy intends to increase its modular battery system all the best way up the truck ladder. Huge autos with greater battery packs complement U Energy’s deal with offering microgrid providers by its swapping stations. The corporate describes itself as “a supplier of complete electrical automobile (“EV”) battery-swapping options with a imaginative and prescient of turning into a sensible vitality grid options supplier.”

As referred to as for by the MOU, the 2 corporations will focus their EV battery swapping plan on South America and Southeast Asia, together with Hong Kong and Macau. U Energy will present technical assist for swapping compatibility with Beijing Foton autos and supply swapping station providers, with an emphasis on connecting EVs to its “battery-bank ecosystem.”

“Via investments in next-generation applied sciences, U Energy’s imaginative and prescient is to grow to be a complete options supplier for sensible vitality grids,” U Energy emphasizes.

“Increasing on its UOTTA expertise platform, the Firm is investing in constructing clever ecosystems that combine resilient AI pushed options in a position to rework electrical autos (EVs) into dynamic vitality property,” they add for good measure.

Sure, Battery Swapping For Massive Vans Is A Factor

Whereas battery swapping for giant vans and buses could appear too cumbersome and dear to attain mass deployment, the benefits of velocity, grid providers, and battery well being multiply with the scale of the battery pack.

That has caught the eye of heavier-duty electrification stakeholders together with the mining big Rio Tinto, which is trialing a robotic swapping station at a website in Mongolia.

One other truck battery stakeholder to observe is Australia’s Janus Electrical. The corporate has additionally launched solar-enabled swapping stations and diesel-to-electric conversions into the swapping area.

Picture (cropped): The worldwide EV battery swapping station trade is branching out in all instructions, with the Chinese language agency U Energy amongst these specializing in microgrid providers in addition to charging providers (courtesy of U Energy).