Battery-Swapping Revival Could Threaten Electric Car Charging Networks

The $1billion bankruptcy of Better Place seemed to have ended battery swapping as the way to recharge electric cars. But Chinese players are having second thoughts, and their ambitious plans for Europe and the U.S. must be spooking the nascent charging networks.

Despite billions of dollars spent on speeding up battery electric vehicle (BEV) recharging technology, the process is still hopelessly slow compared with refuelling an internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicle. That’s the key criteria. If electric cars can’t recharge as fast as ICE ones, the revolution will stall.

Currently, you can drive your ICE car into a gas station and take a full 400-mile plus load on board and be gone in 5 minutes. Electric cars need at least 3 times that on a good day to restore maybe 200 miles of range with recharging. Battery swapping is said to match ICE refueling speeds.

European automakers are not impressed by the idea of battery swapping and that’s a mistake, according to Professor Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

“So far, all German car manufacturers say they see no market for battery swapping in Europe. I believe that is not correct. Swapping will bring great benefits in the big cities like London, Paris, and Berlin in taxi operations, so it’s coming. China is defining the rules,” Dudenhoeffer said.

Better Place’s economics crashed its business with Renault of France, which started in Israel and Denmark in 2012 and was forced into bankruptcy. The huge cost of storing batteries doomed the concept. The cost of batteries of $30,000 or more meant it was uneconomic to keep enough stock readily available to swap. Car owners would worry that when their €30,000+ battery was swapped for another one, it might well be faulty. And the recharging infrastructure would soon be ubiquitous enough for EV drivers to set off on long journeys with no range anxiety, but that remains a pipedream.

Plans are already underway in China from the likes of electric vehicle startup NIO Inc to build a battery swapping network. Renault has said it is thinking of trying again. The problem that brought down “Better Place” – the huge cost of financing a stock of very expensive batteries – has apparently been overcome. Battery costs have been cut by standardization. Critics say the financing has been helped by big Chinese government subsidies to support the key leasing concept. NIO says it has completed more than 2 million battery swaps in China and is preparing to open for swapping in Europe and the U.S. It plans to open 5,000 stations globally by 2025, up from 800 now.

Chinese automakers NIO and Geely, battery swap developer Aulton and state-owned oil company Sinopec, plan to establish 24,000 swapping stations across the country by 2025, compared with about 1,400 now.

By leasing batteries, a huge initial outlay is avoided for EV buyers, while the vexed problem of residual values, bedevilled by a big question mark over battery life, is eliminated. And when this problem goes, the advantages look formidable. Swapping means you will always have the latest technology and concerns about battery degradation and warranties are eliminated. It takes less than 5 minutes to swap.

Nio

You can also swap a small battery if your journey is local and rent a large one if a transcontinental excursion is planned. Battery swapping would be ideal for EV owners who live in big, high-rise cities where access to home charging is a problem. Charging of the battery stock can be done overnight, taking a big strain off the electricity supply chain. The stack of batteries can act as a reserve for the system in times of stress. What’s not to like?

NIO is now launching in Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. It aims to attack the U.S. market in 2025, despite doubts of the likes of Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen who fear batteries would become a commodity, as they prepare to use their battery technology as a brand value.

CAR’s Dudenhoeffer reckons the swapping case is strong.

“In China, all Chinese car manufacturers are currently using battery swapping. Even big battery manufacturers like CATL now have swapping solutions. And they are currently being tested in the commercial vehicle sector. It could be interesting there too,” Dudenhoeffer said.

“The swapping solution has advantages. The swapped battery is significantly cheaper than the normal battery and the service life is longer because it is always charged under ideal conditions, i.e. no quick charging. And it can be made smaller. I don’t need (500 miles), but (250 miles) or (300 miles) are enough. And don’t forget, it can be charged with inexpensive electricity – for example at night – and then used as smart metering, i.e. an energy buffer that also feeds electricity into the grid in the event of bottlenecks. So there are more advantages than you might think at first glance,” Dudenhoeffer said.

Prayjot Sathe, and Ming Lih Chan, analysts from Frost & Sullivan, said the Chinese version of battery swapping is different from Better Place’s plan. It only had a handful of models, a limited number of outlets, and a confusing range of different connector standards and battery technologies.

In a joint e-mail, they said the current battery swapping system in China is strongly backed by the government and an array of partnerships with battery swap service operators and battery asset management stakeholders while EV manufacturers focused on battery leasing, battery maintenance, and battery management. This allowed price cuts of up to $10,500 for EVs without batteries, while battery leasing was available for less than $150 a month

They said NIO sells EVs as well as services like battery swap and aftermarket services, and this represents a one-stop solution for customers.

“Therefore, it automatically eliminates the challenge of retaining a stock of expensive batteries and customers having to replace batteries. The key factors that are driving the market are strategic partnerships between (manufacturers) and battery swap service operators, advanced business models that eliminate the cost and ownership of the battery, along with government support,” the analysts said.

If battery swapping does rise like a phoenix it could undermine the business models of leading EV makers like Tesla
TSLA
(which briefly flirted with swapping), Volkswagen, and General Motors
GM
, which have their own battery designs. It remains to be seen if they would be prepared to abandon their own designs and go for standardized ones.

Former Aston Martin CEO and current leader of EV maker Switch Mobility Andy Palmer doesn’t think swapping will work.

“You’ll never get carmakers to agree to swappable batteries,” he told Reuters earlier this year.

A breakthrough in fast charging and battery range would also undermine the case for swapping.

Pedro Palandrani, research director at Global X ETF, thinks there’s probably room for both.

“We believe battery swapping can be complementary to charging, especially in the short term, but it’s not going to threaten the dominant position of technologies such as fast charging. For example, Tesla started a battery swapping service in 2014 but exited the market as they developed the Supercharger network,” Palandrani said.

“As any technology, battery swapping has its pros and cons. On the pros side, battery swapping has less impact on the grid because you can manage the charging speed at the stations. It also reduces significantly the price of purchasing and leasing on an EV because the vehicle value without a battery pack is much more stable.

“On the cons side, the battery pack specs are often not compatible, making it challenging for customers and OEMs. This is forcing large OEMs to establish alliances but might not prove to be a successful approach. Battery tech is part of an OEMs competitive edge, which they might lose if they enter into standardization programs. Also, given that battery swapping is capital intensive, setting up stations and stocking extra batteries, government subsidies are crucial. Unlike China, the government funds for battery swapping in Europe and North America currently lack, with much focus on EV charging infrastructure expansions,” Palandrani said.

ChargePoint, which says it is the world’s largest network of electric vehicle charging stations in North America and Europe, was asked to comment on the battery-swapping issue, but declined the request.