Battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) has rolled out a “one minute” battery swap initiative it hopes will solve electric vehicle drivers’ range anxiety, refueling times, and high total cost of ownership concerns.
CATL’s EVOGO project, which features modular battery swapping using CTP (cell to pack) technology, will be delivered through its wholly-owned subsidiary Contemporary Amperex Energy Service Technology (CAES).
The swappable batteries have a gravimetric density of more than 160Wh/kg and a volumetric density of 325 Wh/L, enabling a single pack to provide a driving range of around 200km.
Comprised of battery blocks, fast battery swap stations and an app, EVOGO will be launched in ten Chinese cities.
CAES considers the battery as a shared product, with the “Choco-SEB” (swapping electric block) compatible with 80% of BEV platform-based vehicle models, and all BEV platform-based models to be released in the next three years.
Customers are free to take one to three blocks to meet different range requirements at swap stations.
A standard EVOGO battery swap station has a footprint equivalent to three parking spaces, can house up to 48 Choco-SEBs and allows one-minute swapping for a single battery block, and a variety of swap stations to suit the climates of different regions.
Battery swap revolution
Last year, vehicle OEM Honda Motor announced plans for a battery sharing service for electric tricycle taxis in India using its swappable lithium-ion batteries.
The scheme is due to begin in the first half of this year, and follows demonstration testing in India in February, 2021, when 30 units of electric rickshaw taxis were driven for a total of more than 200,000km.
Last July, Indian government-owned IndianOil partnered with transport infrastructure power company Sun Mobility to set up electric vehicle battery-swapping stations at select fuel stations in cities across the country.
A state-of-the-art battery swapping station was inaugurated at Kapoor Service Station, one of Indian Oil’s leading retail outlets in Chandigarh, in northern India.
And in March last year, a consortium of motorcycle OEMs joined forces to define the standardised technical specifications of swappable lithium-ion battery system for vehicles.
Honda, KTM, Piaggio and Yamaha Motor signed a letter of intent to create a Swappable Batteries Consortium for Motorcycles and Light Electric Vehicles belonging to the L-category: mopeds, motorcycles, tricycles and quadricycles.
The consortium began activities in May, 2021.
