This startup has an intriguing concept for EV battery swaps

GoGoGadgetMachE

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https://arstechnica.com/?p=1746803

On Wednesday morning in San Francisco, a startup called Ample launched its new electric vehicle battery-swap technology. The company has designed an extremely small footprint for its swap stations, which only occupy as much ground as a couple standard parking spaces and don't need much in the way of electrical infrastructure. So instead of building one big location able to handle hundreds of cars a day, Ample's plan is to build numerous small stations, which can be deployed quickly. The first five of these are now operational in the Bay Area, servicing a fleet of Uber EVs equipped with Ample's modular battery system.

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JamieGeek

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RyZt

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I expect that you'd be required to lease (not own) the battery in such a scheme.
 

Badger_Prof

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Interesting, will they do better than "Better Place"?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company)
Good question. I took a group of business professors to A Better Place and met with their CEO in Israel back in 2012 and drove one of their cars (shortly before they went under). It was an interesting concept and they had proof of concept but their business plan was horrible. Perhaps with a better business plan, there might be success with a swappable battery model.

Better Place Car - 1.jpeg


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Badger_Prof

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Nio is doing this in China as well.
Kind of reminds me of the system many of us use to swap empty LP gas canisters for full ones. When I swap, I always try to get one that is less rusty than the one I am trading in but that matters a lot less than the state of a swapped out battery. By the way, A Better Place batteries could be swapped or charged from a charger. Their swap stations looked a lot like a single bay quick oil change store. They claimed five minutes for the robotics to swap out the old battery and install the new battery. It was a bit sad to watch a family take delivery of their car from A Better Place just a few days before the company failed.

Ford Mustang Mach-E This startup has an intriguing concept for EV battery swaps A Better Place delivery
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