Could Ample’s EV Battery Swapping Offer Benefits Despite Ample Challenges?

The one problem most people who own EVs face is charging their vehicles. Sure, EVs are beneficial for the environment in many ways but the time taken for a full charge is significantly longer than filling up a car with gasoline.

While this works fine for people who charge their vehicles overnight at home, people living in apartments and drivers who use their vehicles for work all day, like cab services, face issues with time delays and charging ports even with fast chargers.

Well, up steps San Francisco-based startup Ample Inc. to revolutionize the process, with their super-cool battery-swapping stations!


How this works is, you pull into one of their stations, step out of your vehicle, a robotic arm removes your depleted battery and replaces it with a fully-charged one – all within 10 minutes!

According to Ample’s Co-founder and President, John de Souza, battery swapping could overcome past charging issues and the excessive heat and expenses of fast charging stations, which can cost up to 10 times more and could offer 10-20% energy savings against gas.

The company says its batteries could be integrated into any modern EV, which could make swapping across different vehicle manufacturers possible. Furthermore, Ample recently received a $15 million grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to install more stations in the state.

In a blog post, Ample wrote, “We’re incredibly excited about this new chapter in our mission to make EVs accessible to all and we invite more car makers, fleets, and cities to join us in the quest to electrify.”


However, there are a few setbacks and challenges that could create problems.

First off, technical and safety requirements would need precise engineering to ensure the high-voltage batteries are handled correctly, without damaging the car or the battery.

Secondly, the technique’s high costs for building, maintenance, operations and locations raise questions, as EV owners already face challenges in finding chargers, which could lead to hesitant consumers if the technology isn’t readily or conveniently available.

Another major concern is compatibility. Since battery designs aren’t standardized, most car manufacturers have unique ones, which are proprietary and involve extensive R&D, leading to further variants. Standardizing them could reduce the competition and progress of R&D.

Reportedly, Ample currently offers compatibility with two vehicle models (Nissan Leaf and the Kia Niro), it’s believed the technique could work with 13 vehicle models and that the company has partnered with 7 major automakers, although none have been named.

Even some experts aren’t convinced by this practice of battery swapping.

Jeremy Michalek, a professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, said, “I think battery swapping is unlikely to be the primary way that we manage batteries for the general vehicle fleet.” Especially considering the unique designs, to which Michalek said, “Putting the same size modules into different vehicles is very limiting.”

 
Interestingly, battery swapping isn’t novel. Previous companies that explored the technology soon scrapped the idea. Hopefully, Ample could be the exception.

What do you think of battery swapping? Would you consider using this technique over EV charging? Let us know in the comments below!