India has lofty emission reduction ambitions, and the automobile sector is a critical area where it can significantly decrease emissions by shifting to electric vehicles (EVs). However, the greatest disadvantage, apart from the expensive initial cost, is a lack of adequate charging infrastructure.
The “Battery Swapping Technology” may significantly alleviate this issue. Battery switching effectively enables a user to change the vehicle’s battery with little effort. The vehicles are made in such a way that the batteries are very accessible and replaceable.
In battery swapping method, instead of the battery becoming a product, it becomes a service. Something that you don’t own but pay to use. Just like you do with an LPG cylinder. You don’t own the cylinder, you just want to use the gas in it and you return it after the LPG cylinder is emptied.
Battery swapping may take as little as 2-5 minutes. Thus, it becomes as simple and smooth as filling up with fuel. The energy operator may then charge the battery at the rate he desires before the next client need it. This minimizes downtime for all parties involved.
When all batteries are consolidated in one location and bulk chargers are used instead of individual chargers, the amount of space needed to perform this activity is substantially reduced.
The overall cost of putting up a battery swapping station may be as low as Rs.1 lakh, which includes the cost of 20 small battery packs that are physically swapped.
On the other hand, the cost of a switching station that serves to cars, contains numerous huge battery packs that are swapped through an automated procedure might reach Rs 3.7 crore.
To summarize, we believe that until India creates a network of EV charging stations comparable to that of petrol pumps, battery swapping technology will be useful in achieving a net-zero emission future.
Reference- Mercom India, E-vehicleinfo.com article, EV Obsession, e-AMRIT Portal