Better Place Unveils First Solar-Powered Electric Vehicle Battery Switching Station
[UPDATE]: Video of the switching station in action and photos added below.
YOKOHAMA, JAPAN- Last night at approximately 10:30 PM PST (1:30 AM EST), electric vehicle services provider Better Place will demonstrate key elements of their battery switching station technology. This is the first public exhibition of a battery switching station—which Better Place lauds as the final piece of a “total electric vehicle solution.” The company was invited by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment to set up an exhibit in Yokohama.
“Range anxiety,” as it’s called, describes the most fundamental fear expressed by would-be adopters of electric vehicles. It’s no different than the fear of driving through sparsley inhabited parts of the United States, where it’s important to know your car’s mileage and the distance to the next gas station.
- » See also: Is the Renault-Nissan Alliance Going in Two Different Electric Car Directions?
- » Get Gas 2.0 by RSS or sign up by email.
Electric vehicles differ in that their fuel is electricity stored in a battery pack. But battery packs can’t be recharged in the same amount of time that it takes to pump 10 gallons of gas. It usually takes hours. That means that either EVs are restricted to short driving distances, fully charging during long breaks in commuting (like work or home), or, they just never take off.
Better Place intends to solve this problem, and thereby eliminate range anxiety, by swapping out used batteries for fully-charged replacements. If this can be done in the same time as a pit stop (under 5 minutes), it would offer drivers a hassle-free way to dramatically extend the range of their electric vehicles.
Better Place CEO Shai Agassi’s TED speech:
Clearly, Better Place will face numerous challenges when bringing this technology to market. A multitude of these stations must be built before range anxiety can be completely eliminated, and that’s going to take time an money (each station costs $500,000, though Agassi says that’s half the price of a regular gas station). But if the idea works, it could revolutionize transportation.
More:
- San Francisco Installs Electric Vehicle Recharging Stations in Front of City Hall
- Being Smart About Your Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (By Richard Lowenthal)
- The Race to an EV Future: Being First to an Electric Vehicle Grid (By Mayor Newsom)
- How to Build an Electric Car Charging Infrastructure
Image Credits: Better Place
Love the idea of the battery swap station for electric cars! This is indeed the future of driving. So exciting to hear about Better Place’s news.
It seems a lot of structure for something that might not be around too long. It it can work as long as all vehicles have similar batteries attached the same way, but advances in the energy density of batteries is increasing and may obsolete the idea before it goes full scale.
I’ve been hearing a lot about Better Place lately, which I think is great. See this other blog post for a Better Place video, which actually demonstrates the entire concept in 1:30: http://www.buildbabybuild.com/uncategorized/better-place-driving-the-transition-to-electric-vehicles
I hope this technology doesn’t become obsolete within the next 60 days…
It’s a great idea but there should be some sort of tracking system to determine age of battery, number of times it’s been fully or partially charged, and in what vehicles it’s been in. I’m sure driving requirements/behavior in a Tesla Roadster will be different than a Nissan Cube or Tesla Model S. This plus the above variable which would affect the condition of the battery. Great idea, great coverage. Thanks!
While they certainly mean well, the business model of Better Place is completely flawed. Gasoline fueling stations work because there is industry standardization. They might be on the right or the left, but the receptacle on everyone’s gas tank is more or less the same … just as the nozzle on every pump is more or less the same.
A reasonable comparison would be a gasoline filling station in which the entire gas tank is removed and replaced with a full one. Now, all of a sudden, you have a serious problem. Auto manufacturers don’t all design their fuel tanks in the same way, they don’t all mount onto the vehicle in the same way, etc. Now each vehicle will require specialized handling, which drives up cost.
Electric vehicles will emerge in much the same way. There will be standardization on the electrical interface, plugs, cables, etc., but auto manufacturers are not going to limit themselves to specific battery configurations that lend well to drop-in replacement. The requirements of each type of vehicle will play a large part in determining battery configuration. Some will have a T-shape, some will be rectangular, some will mount under the cab, some will mount in trunk. You can see that already in they electric and hybrid-electric vehicles under development.
The only way their business model works is if ‘Better Place’ can convince all of the auto industry to adopt designs that work with their battery swapping systems. Given the start-up status of ‘Better Place’, I think that would be more or less like the flea on the tip of the tail wagging the dog.
Captain Morgan, I partially agree. However, just as plugs/interfaces/cables are being standardized, I suspect so will batteries as the major players get dwindled done ala blueray vs HDDVD formats. So eventually they only need 2-4 different battery types.
In current car batteries, there are many brands but they are all the same general size. Same with tires.
The other x factor is the rate of charge is decreasing rapidly. A123 has a battery that charges 95% of the way in less than 10 minutes, comparable to gas. Thus, Better Place will just have to put more resources in charging stations rather than battery switching.
The technology is exciting, and everything Israelis put their minds to solve is really great. I sure hope to see
this implemented in Israel in 2010. It will begin to stop the oil addiction to the Middle East hyper rich countries. Good luck guys
The battery , forgive the pun , is currently a significant cost item and warranty issue on new electric car purchases.
To make this battery swap work the ‘ownership ‘ of the battery will likely need to be a lease ownership like pressure gas bottles are owned by the ‘gas company community’ - where we pay an insured deposit that is refundable on return, or retained on swapping an empty for a full bottle.
And who is going to make the car industry standardize on battery size , fit and connections..more legislation ?
Good idea now get everyone to play nice…
And , lest we forget , where there is value in stealing something it will happen.
Perhaps a battery VIN / id tracker will need to be incorporated to reduce the incidence of battery swap out fraud. A pimped bad battery dropped off for a spanking new replacement..
Won’t be long before that concept ‘gets up to speed’ with bad guys inside and out trading batteries on the black market..
I still like the battery swap concept but this might have the same resistance factor that ’shared drop off cars’ has. We like to own the ride not share with sweaty careless strangers.