The typical image of electric vehicle (EV) charging is conductive charging, which is at the forefront of the EV industry. The conductive charging method involves plugging EVs into stations with cables. While the conductive charging method is prospering, an alternative technology still stands: battery swap stations. Its notion has long piqued interest, but its pitfalls show why it has not beaten conductive charging.
What are Battery Swap Stations?
The idea is that BSSs replace a depleted battery pack with a fully charged one. This specialized mechanism takes three steps:
Vehicle positioning and identification: The vehicle docks, and the station's system identifies the model and its battery pack to locate compatible stock.
Battery removal: The used battery is automatically removed and taken away for recycling or reuse to serve other vehicles or purposes, being charged at off-peak times.
Battery installation: The battery is installed and ready to power the vehicle in a matter of minutes.
EVs come and leave with fresh batteries within minutes, showing the upper hand in speed against many public conductive EV chargers. The speed gap is especially evident in areas with less developed infrastructure.
Pros and Cons
At first glance, BSSs may seem more effective than conductive charging stations because of their fast turnover rates. The grid is safer from spikes because BSS can regulate charging schedules with fleets and charge batteries during off-peak hours. The flow even goes backward, becoming a power source like B2G (Batteries-to-Grid) for peak demand durations. A futuristic advantage is the ability to insert newer batteries with resolved issues in earlier models. BSS may allow EVs to keep up with the continually evolving battery technology. However, there are key issues that impede BSS’s implementation:
Infeasibility of cost: BSS costs more than traditional charging because the owner has higher expenditures from the EV battery lease fees, as each BSS requires a large acquisition of batteries to operate.
No battery standardization: The sheer variety of EV models complicates BSS operation. Transitioning charging ports to the NACS (North American Charging Standard) took years, so standardizing the battery position, compartment size, and connection method is almost infeasible.
Quality and ownership issues: Vehicle owners face risks of a lower-quality battery. Car manufacturer business models that rent batteries have increased financial risk due to the management of a vast number of batteries.
Where BSS Stands Today
While conductive charging methods are dominating passenger EV charging globally, BSS is keeping ground in China, an EV-forward country. BSS and conductive charging are head-to-head in China, with the main issue in BSS being compatibility. Battery swaps are most widely used in taxis and logistics vehicles, but not in passenger cars. Chinese experts state that this specific application is due to the BSS’s limitations when vehicles come unpredictably.
Adapting to the Improvements in Conductive Charging
The comparative advantage of battery swapping’s speed meant that adopting conductive charging stations had the trade-off of speed. This slowness in conductive charging is of the past, as advancements in DC Fast Charging (DCFC) have taken conductive charging to another level. In the specially engineered 600kW Tron, plugging in protects the grid, saves time, but functions reliably with dynamic load charging. DCFCs address range anxiety, which once favored BSS. While BSSs present an interesting alternative, EV charging station providers like viveEV are solidifying DCFCs as the solution for powering our transportation.
At viveEV, we’re committed to supporting the future of electric mobility with reliable charging infrastructure paired with after-sales service. Explore our vision for a more sustainable tomorrow at viveEV.com.