How to make electric vehicle battery swapping work in the UK

Its trump card is that all its battery packs are the same dimensions, no matter the model, so if more miles are needed a more energy-dense long-range alternative – it currently offers 75kWh and 100kWh – can be swapped in instead, via an upgraded subscription.

And this flexibility is what CI wants to see introduced within the automotive sector, with car owners able to pay for the battery they want, upgrade when needed, and not be hindered by the car they own.

However, a major stumbling block is a current lack of battery standardisation, which is key to Nio's approach. The BaaS model would require all electric vehicles to be able to be fitted with one type of battery – something premium manufacturers competing to offer the longest battery ranges may not want to do.

This was a point backed by the Department of Transport, which confirmed to Autocar it was reviewing how the tech could be implemented, and used, in the UK. A spokeswoman said that battery standardisation was one of the issues needed to be addressed.

One suggestion from CI is that budget car makers such as MG, whose new £25,995 MG 4 (below) has a swappable battery as standard, could band together with other manufacturers – most likely as part of joint venture undertaken by its parent company SAIC – to bring the cost of EVs down, and in turn make them more accessible.

Dr Chadwick said: “The biggest challenge to the uptake of BaaS is that every manufacturer obviously wants to design their own battery to go in their own car, and so if that was the case, you’d need a different service station for each manufacturer, and potentially even every make, which is not a working model.”

He added that adapters could also be introduced to allow cars without standardised battery housings to use batteries supplied within the BaaS model.

Where these swapping stations would be placed is another point up for debate. Ian Johnston, CEO of Osprey – one of the UK’s major charging firms – said he could see joint-use charging sites sprouting up across the country: “If you're going to be recharging and swapping batteries, what you need is a high density of power in a convenient location [where people want to spend their time]”.

“So we've always said that whatever the technology, whether it's a 50kW or 500kW charger, a wireless charger, a hologram charger, battery swapping; our job is to develop a network of locations where people want to drive their vehicles to is convenient, and a nice place to spend time, where you then have sufficient electricity to recharge the car, or the battery, or otherwise. 

“So it is definitely going to be a balanced approach with the different technologies, but it's got to be the right technology application for that specific dwell time and use case for the driver.”

However, another issue raised by the DfT was that the model would also require more batteries than vehicles being produced, as some of these batteries would need to be on standby, creating natural resource and greenhouse gas concerns. 

CI also noted that ownership of battery stations was another question that needed ironing out, as this could result in motorists' inability to use certain battery providers due to the ownership rights of the batteries being swapped.

But Jonathan Smart, who heads up Smoosmiths’ mobility arm, said the point of this model is to increase the ease of owning an electric car, and therefore grow ownership. He added that for this to work, the government needs to champion it to allow it to grow.