The global automotive corporation Stellantis (parent company of Fiat) has entered into an agreement with the California company Ample, which deals with battery replacement in electric cars. The aim is to simplify the powering of the Fiat 500e shared electric car fleet in Spain, with the agreement potentially extending to electric cars in Europe and the United States over time. Details brought by The Verge magazine.
By becoming one of the first car manufacturers that Stellantis intend to use battery replacement technologysuggests that the charging infrastructure for electric cars in Europe and the US will remain a major obstacle to their expansion in the near future, and alternative solutions will have to be sought.
Exchange station instead of charging
The car corporation will work with Ample to launch a battery replacement system for a fleet of Fiat 500e vehicles offered as part of the car-sharing service through subsidiary Free2move. The service will launch in 2024 in Madrid, where the Fiat 500e is already available. Ample currently has four stations in the city and plans to build nine more in the coming months.
Ample developed a standardized battery exchange station, which can operate in a relatively small space. The stations do not need as robust an electrical connection as an ultra-high-speed DC charger requires, since each station will charge several battery modules at a lower power.
Battery swapping in electric cars is very popular in China, but has not yet caught on in other countries. There have been several attempts to build battery-swapping infrastructure in the U.S.—Tesla tried it five years ago, for example—but few have been successful.
Automatic replacement of accumulators
Stellantis will install modular batteries in Fiat 500e vehicles that will be compatible with Ample’s exchange system. The exchange works by driving the vehicle into a station where it will be slightly raised. The robotic arms will remove the dead battery from the bottom of the vehicle, replace it with a fully charged one, and then start the vehicle back up. The whole process should take just five minutes.
“Our system knows how many batteries are in the Fiat 500e, knows how to remove each of these modules and how to put them back in the same arrangement,” Ample CEO Khaled Hassounah said at a press briefing. Launching with a small fleet of shared vehicles in one city will help determine how well the Ample system works and whether it can be expanded to new markets to include private vehicles.
Customers who then buy cars compatible with Ample’s replacement system simply pay for a certain number of battery replacements, thus Stellantis it will open up a new source of income. “We believe this is an infrastructure issue that can and will scale,” added Senior Vice President of Charging and Energy Ricardo Stamatti.
Compatible with any electric car
Ample modular batteries are theoretically compatible with any electric car, however their implementation requires some technical modifications. Modular batteries are installed on an adapter plate (a part that allows the connection of two components or devices that would otherwise not be compatible) that replaces the vehicle’s original battery.
Ample must design a structural frame for each model, which will replace the existing battery pack and which will contain replaceable modules. At the same time, this solution must meet the technical parameters of the original set – including the same fasteners, screws and connectors.
This is not Ample’s first test of battery replacement technology. As early as 2021, the company launched a small test event in the Bay Area, demonstrating its modular battery replacement for the original batteries in an electric car, which allows automatic exchange stations to replace dead batteries with charged ones.
2023-12-10 15:45:52
#long #wait #charger #fiveminute #exchange #Fiat #test #replaceable #batteries
