A research project at Linköping University in Sweden in conjunction with the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) will study the feasibility of introducing battery swapping for heavy goods vehicles in Sweden.
Many in Sweden do not know what battery swapping is, the university said. The main challenge is developing an entirely new business model to create common value for new and established players. “The technology is there, but the business model is not,” it said in a press release (in Swedish).
A specific question is how batteries and battery swapping stations can be separated from ownership of vehicles, to avoid having to have the same owners.
Svetla Käck, project manager and senior researcher at VTI, said: “We will also study the pros and cons of battery swapping with other alternatives, especially charging by cable. In technical terms, battery swapping hasn’t had much focus in Sweden.”
Certification and standards will also be looked at in the study, as will the effect on equality of opportunity in the industry.
Alongside the study, the team will be lodging an application to build three demonstration battery swapping stations in Norrköping, Linköping and Stockholm.
The one-year study has Skr5 million ($480,000) funding from the Swedish Energy Agency.
Image by Svetla Käck, VTI
