Nio has confirmed it will bring its innovative battery swap stations to Europe
The new Autocar Business Trends report is a quarterly analysis of the principal ways in which the automotive industry is changing.
In the latest instalment, we look at the emergence of battery-swap technology, and consider whether its roll-out into Europe could reshape the way fleets operate. And what are the implications for the private driver?
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Does it though? Instead of range anxiety (which really doesn't last more than a month into your first EV), you now have battery anxiety: will there be a battery ready at the swap station? Will one be charged? Will the swap station have a queue?
All potentially at least as bad as charging stations but yet a lot more expensive to build.
That's before we firstly consider the fact that now we need a lot more batteries for every car fleet than just one battery per car (at a time when we are battery material limited for EV rollout)
And secondly, we also would then need to start standardising on battery shape and fitment as otherwise we would have to have manufacturer specific swap stations and the whole situation becomes greatly more confusing than just AC or DC, ChaDeMo or CCS?
Interesting times ! What with BetterPlace all those years ago, not so new either!
Does it though? Instead of range anxiety (which really doesn't last more than a month into your first EV), you now have battery anxiety: will there be a battery ready at the swap station? Will one be charged? Will the swap station have a queue?
All potentially at least as bad as charging stations but yet a lot more expensive to build.
That's before we firstly consider the fact that now we need a lot more batteries for every car fleet than just one battery per car (at a time when we are battery material limited for EV rollout)
And secondly, we also would then need to start standardising on battery shape and fitment as otherwise we would have to have manufacturer specific swap stations and the whole situation becomes greatly more confusing than just AC or DC, ChaDeMo or CCS?
Interesting times ! What with BetterPlace all those years ago, not so new either!