VIDEO: Better Place battery swapper demonstrated
Project Better Place battery swap - Click above for a hi-res image gallery
One minute, 13 seconds. That's how long it took for the whiz-bang battery switcher engineered by Better Place to remove a battery from the undercarriage of its Nissan demonstration SUV and replace it with another. That's faster than either the fastest fast charge or filling it up with regular. You don't even get out of your car! Sweet!
The demonstration was part of the official opening of a Better Place exhibit in Yokohama, Japan, as part of a 6-month feasibility study being conducted by the Ministry of the Environment. The Land of the Rising Sun would like a full 50-percent of the cars sold there to be electric-powered by 2020. Besides the battery swapper, the exhibit also has four Better Place charging stations installed and an array of solar panels from Sharp to provide electricity.
While the machinery that conducts the battery switcheroo looks impressively simple and concise and may convince many about the viability of the plan, we suspect it won't enough to silence all the critics of the Better Place model. You can find the official press release along with a video after the jump. Check it all out and let us know if you're persuaded in the comments.
Gallery: Better Place battery swap station
[Source: Better Place]
Press Release
Tuesday, 12 May 2009 Better Place Unveils First Automated Battery Switch for Japan EV Study Demos Charging Infrastructure for Fixed and Switchable Battery Electric Cars
Yokohama, Japan (May 12, 2009) -- Better Place today achieved a milestone in accelerating the mass-market adoption of electric vehicles by demonstrating the world's first battery switch technology along with electric car charging spots. This simple range extension technology delivers a cleaner, more convenient experience for drivers. Better Place was the only foreign company invited by the Japanese Ministry of Environment to demonstrate its switch technology, which provides a viable solution to make electric vehicles a reality by offering drivers virtually unlimited range.
Better Place showcased its battery switch platform today using a modified NISSAN electric crossover SUV to demonstrate how to switch a depleted battery for a fully charged one. The company also demonstrated its commitment to open network standards by charging a fixed battery, electric car, via one of four Better Place charge spots installed at the demonstration site. Recharging of the vehicle batteries is made possible by Sharp Corp. photovoltaic solar panels, creating a truly zero emission solution.
"Today marks a major milestone for the automotive industry as well as for Better Place," said Shai Agassi, Founder and CEO, Better Place. "For nearly a century, the automotive industry has been inextricably tied to oil. Today, we're demonstrating a new path forward where the future of transportation and energy is driven by our desire for a clean planet and a robust economic recovery fueled by investments in clean technology, and one in which the well-being of the automotive industry is intrinsically coupled with the well-being of the environment."
The Renault-Nissan Alliance is partnering with Better Place in Israel to enable zero-emissions mobility throughout the country by 2011. The realization of zero-emissions mobility in Israel will require the deployment of battery switch stations as well as a steady and reliable supply of vehicles adapted to accept the switchable-battery layout required by the Better Place business model. The project and the teams have been working closely together for the past two years and are excited about seeing the manifestation of their efforts in today's demonstration of the battery switch platform.
Better Place is committed to delivering a complete solution to drivers that includes in-car services, management systems and multiple ways for drivers to recharge their electric car including networks of charge spots and battery switch stations powered by renewable energy. The infrastructure offers drivers the same convenience to "top off" as they enjoy today with gasoline or petrol stations, with charge spots installed where you live, work, and shop, while battery switch stations are deployed for the exceptionally long drives.
"Japan has always been at the forefront of automotive engineering and design and maintains a strong sense of environmentalism," said Kiyotaka Fujii, President of Better Place Japan and Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific. "The launch of Japan's electric vehicle study is an important milestone in achieving a zero-emission transportation society, and our successful demonstration of charging vehicles with both fixed and switchable batteries is an important contribution towards moving the entire industry forward."
The automated switch process, which takes about a minute, is faster than filling a tank with gasoline, providing a cleaner, more convenient experience for drivers. The technology safely and quickly removes a depleted battery and transfers a fully charged battery into the vehicle. The process is seamless and automated, and the driver remains in the vehicle the entire time.
The system works with two robotic battery shuttles on an automated track system. One battery shuttle holds the fully charged battery, which will be inserted into the vehicle, while the other shuttle simply removes the depleted battery from the vehicle. At the end of the process, the track system returns the removed battery to a storage bay for recharging and preparation for use in another electric vehicle. The battery shuttles are designed to work with a wide variety of battery enclosure sizes and shapes for universal application to a range of electric vehicles.
The switch technology featured in the Yokohama exhibit will be further developed into production for the commercial switch stations, which will be deployed in Better Place markets around the world.
Better Place, the world's leading mobility operator, aims to end the world's dependence on oil for personal transportation by building a network for charging electric cars powered by renewable energy. Better Place enables markets to switch to a sustainable transportation model, reducing oil dependency and greenhouse gas emissions while fueling the "green" economy. With initial venture funding of $200 million, Better Place began deployment in Israel in 2008 and will begin operating the network of charge spots and battery switch stations in 2010. The company plans similar network deployments in Denmark, Australia, California, Hawaii and Ontario, Canada. With the network in place, Better Place buys batteries and clean electricity and sells miles/kilometers to provide drivers a convenient, affordable and sustainable alternative for mobility. More information is available at http://www.betterplace.com.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Phil 12:17PM (5/13/2009)
Battery swapping is a waste of time and will never be commercially viable or popularly accepted.
Reasons for this:
- Packaging constraints on vehicles design mean common battery forms are unlikely to be possible
- High value of the battery pack does not lend itself to a swap model: people can abuse the battery then simple swap for a new one. This could be mitigated by completely disallowing home charging, but that would make a very unattractive battery vehicle.
- Advances in battery technology will make the model obsolete. When a 500 or 1000 mile range battery is available, why would you ever need to swap? No one can drive more than 1000 miles per day, and therefore overnight recharge. Alternatively, fast charging batteries would also making swapping useless.
I would not waste a single penny of my money on battery swapping!
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Matt 12:56PM (5/13/2009)
What if you want to go on a road trip? Should we now expect that every hotel or friend's apartment will be fitted with a plug that we can recharge from? Are we to limit where our EV's can go because of limited charging points?
I don't know the answers to these questions, but it looks like Better Place is a serious operation, and I would wager they have considered many of your points. Lets let the market decide, shall we?
zenwick 7:27AM (7/17/2009)
I have those same concerns, plus a couple more:
The swapping infrastructure will start out with a bunch of nice, new batteries. What happens when they all start reaching the end of their lives, and instead of 100-mile range, they now all have 20-mile range or 10-mile? Will the battery-swap company have the means to replace their inventory, or will the whole infrastructure just degrade?
Replacing a component as heavy as a battery seems like a process that will never be safe for the average citizen, no matter how automated. If the process is like the one in the video, how long will it take for the first person to drive off the rails and into the pit? Not very long, I'll bet.
paul34 12:23PM (5/13/2009)
Also, I feel that while someone obviously put a lot of hard work into that, I can't really see it catching on. Most people (at least in the US) have enough trouble even staying in their lane. Driving up on two skinny ramps with a raised hole between them is just asking for a disaster in the making. Susie soccer mom will rush in at 40 MPH, miss the ramp, and drop half of her overweight SUV in the middle, smashing the ramp, smashing the tracks for the battery carrier, and basically significantly damaging the station's infrastructure, meaning they have to go down for days or weeks and lose all that revenue.
And then Susie soccer mom will sue because she thinks the station set up is "dangerous."
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Matt 1:02PM (5/13/2009)
There are literally thousands of oil change stations set up like this. The ramps are not necessarily required, but in the standard setup at an oil change station accidents are extremely rare. It may not be 100% fully automated when there's a person guiding the driver onto the platform, but hey, new jobs are good, right?
fnc 1:53PM (5/13/2009)
I'm sure this one was a raised platform for demonstration purposes. In the wild, they could be built flush with the ground to make them as easy to use as existing automated car washes (which the Susie mom's of the world have yet to destroy).
I quite like the idea of standardized packs. In the future, as batteries improve, you could be swapping out for packs with considerably more energy in them than ones today, letting you go farther and farther between swaps. Or, they could build lighter packs in the same format without a loss of energy density, giving you a zippier performing car.
Arnold Schneider 4:05PM (5/13/2009)
in the webcast they say, that the the hole is closed and will only be opened when the vehicle is turned off. So it seems to be impossible to get into that hole for this tennis-soccer or whatever mom.
captainpease 12:27PM (5/13/2009)
I'm totally sold. However, I'm not sure ALL Better Place swapping stations need to be proprietary. Why not partner with existing gas stations to, say, convert car wash bays into these swap stations? Just rebrand the side of the old car wash bay and BADA-BING! A gas/battery swap station.
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Zeph 12:32PM (5/13/2009)
Battery swapping is, at best, a niche product. I agree with the first poster, advances in battery technology will make it obsolete. Searching around the web makes me think it's obsolete already.
This world is dominated by a cartel that has kept a stranglehold on energy technology. Electric and ethanol (and possibly H2O) technologies challenge that, so they are trying to herd populations back into centralized energy delivery business models. If the people fall for this they are pissing away their energetic freedom, which in time would make for a more peacefull and prosperous world.
Most of you probably have a feeling I'm right.
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matt 12:48PM (5/13/2009)
pretty neat they can swap out a battery that fast. However I think I'd much rather own the battery in my EV... I think both fast charging and range extended EV's are a better solution.
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Nick P. 12:50PM (5/13/2009)
Great work. They use simple robotic that would be quite straightforward and cost-effective to implement. I believe this will cost way less than installing insulated underground gaz wells in traditional gaz stations.
The good news is that Tesla's Model S will be compatible with this system as well as supporting the standardized plug proposed by GM. These guys are all working toward standardization, which is remarkable.
What I like about Elon Musk and Shai Agassi is that they don't care about skeptics. They just do their thing slowly and surely, hitting one milestone after the other.
It's always easier to destroy & mock than to build. Go Better Place!
- Nick -
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Matt 1:05PM (5/13/2009)
What he said ^
Sir.Vix 12:57PM (5/13/2009)
Battery swapping feels like ignoring the advancement of technology. If batteries like those in the Tesla Roadster, that being Li-Ion with a 220 mile range and 3.5 hour 220v charging time, lasts roughly 6 years or something. (tesla’s batteries don’t last thing long because they fully discharge, i think). But if that’s now, what about 10 years from now? What about 15? 20? Battery swapping stations will appear as a fad when battery tech sucked, won’t they? I mean, when i’ve got a 500-1000 mile range EV in 10 or 15 years….i’m gonna trip over a plug SOMEWHERE in that time, would i still want to swap out the battery?
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Chris M 4:41PM (5/14/2009)
Yes, energy density of batteries will improve, but that improvement could go to improving range or reducing battery size and cost, or a little of both. I suspect we will see range leveling off in the 400 to 500 mile per charge range, because getting longer range would cost more but wouldn't be of much benefit - trips over 400 miles are rare.
Also, "10 minute" charging gets increasingly difficult when the total stored energy is increased to achieve that longer range. 10 minute charging was barely possible with a 35 Kwh battery, but it would get totally ridiculous with 70 to 100 Kwh battery packs. So, ironically, those higher range packs would be where battery swapping would really shine for drivers in a hurry. That is why Tesla is planning a 45 minute fast charge and battery swapping for their model S.
Of course, not all plug-ins will use battery swapping. Plug-in hybrids won't need it, some BEVs won't be designed for it, and it would be totally absurd in a NEV.
Sir.Vix 11:44AM (5/16/2009)
If the market wants swapping, then hey, better than oil. I'm a skeptic about it, but we'll see! someone made a comment about how with better place, your car could be like your cell phone contract...in which you pay a monthly usage fee and a very low price, or free, car. You would of course turn in everything when your contract was up, just like a lease. I definately think the public would be appealed to that. I would still want to own my battery and my car though, i think the cost savings will *most likely* be greater than paying a monthly lease to better place.
Eric White 12:58PM (5/13/2009)
The problem Project Better Place faces is standardization of battery pack design over time and across range classes.
1.) THE PROBLEM OF TIME
As battery packs evolve, they will enable higher energy density and corresponding reduced footprints for the same range class.
For instance, Volt Gen 1 has a ginormous T-shaped battery pack. GM has stated Volt Gen 2 will aim for the same range (40 miles) with reduced cost. This implies that if energy density improves from either chemistry or battery pack design, the battery pack volume & footprint will most likely be reduced. This will enable them to save weight and add a back middle seat. In the process, as the footprint changes, the design itself may change. For instance, will it still be a T-shape? How about a more compact cross shape? If the footprint really shrinks, it could even move to the hood or trunk.
2.) THE PROBLEM OF RANGE CLASSES
In addition, BEV’s and E-REV’s will come in a variety of range classes to accommodate price sensitivity, especially early in the lifecycle when batteries are really expensive (~$1k/kwh). Lower priced secondary commuter cars will have less total energy required relative to higher priced primary cars (e.g. station wagons, minivans, SUVs, etc.) for both range and weight reasons. These will inherently have different battery pack designs and accompanying footprints (assuming one chemistry is on an efficient frontier for price and performance).
Therefore, battery evolution and different range classes prevent practical application of the idea, let alone its’ economics.
The only solution to this problem would be to standardize battery pack MODULE design. This could scale up and down across different range classes at any particular point in time (e.g. 8 modules for 40 mile range, 16 modules for 80 mile range, etc.). It could also stay constant across time as battery chemistries evolve (e.g. 8 modules for 40 mile range in 2010, 6 modules for 40 mile range in 2012, etc.).
Of course, I personally believe that VC’s like Shai Agassi are more interested in getting strategic control of the battery pack supply chain due to its’ relative value (50% of new vehicles) than a practical solution. That’s probably why you wouldn’t see him at an SAE conference discussing practical standards like battery pack module design or charging port locations.
The awful truth is that car manufacturers will be reluctant to agree to these standards because they will lose control over proprietary pack design and resulting profits (~50% of future vehicles). As globalization impacts these manufacturers more and they’re forced to compete aggressively for normal car subsystems, this will be a last refuge for profitability they will not want to give away for free.
Enforcing some agreement on the need for battery pack MODULE standardization is actually something government regulation may be able to enforce. This would help consumers stay out of the dual claws of both proprietary manufacturer designs and monolithic PBP-like supply chains. This would actually enable a robust battery pack MODULE market, reduce long-term material costs, and enable battery pack module swapping competition (if even necessary long term).
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rob 2:10PM (5/13/2009)
Eric,
With regards to your comment about standardization and the effect of time. If the pack size is standardized and cell performance is improved, then wouldn't the range increase? I relate this to my handheld GPS. With cheap AA batteries I get about 5 hours of intensive use. If I use a better brand of battery, read this as improved performance, I get 7 hours out of the same form factor.
I'm also not so sure that range classes, or even form factors, are that much of an issue. The packs to be swapped have to be stored. Couldn't the "robot" just pull the right pack from the right storage spot? I've seen this done at a rather large parts warehouse. Perhaps a small car, midsize sedan, van/SUV version? Engineers are really good at figuring out designs if the item they need to package is fixed in shape, weight, etc.
You could have the same form factor pack in several flavors: economy (shorter range, few cells, light weight, assumes home recharging), medium duty (longer range, more cells, heavier weight, still assumes home recharging), maximum range (long range, fully packed with cells, heavy, assumes swapping), performance (shorter range, fewer cells, high power use, assumes swapping), etc. This seems pretty attractive to me.
lne937s 12:58PM (5/13/2009)
Looking at this, I think that the best battery system may be a 2-part system, where the vehicle has a proprietary battery system that covers most daily use and then has a secondary battery that gets swapped out/leased to extend range for long trips- where you wouldn't want to spend 20-30 minutes out of every 2 hours of highway driving at a high-voltage charging station. If the swapped battery is not the sole source of electricity, it can be smaller and standardized to fit a wider range of vehicles. Potentially, if you include software in the car to recognize the parameters of the replacement battery, you could upgrade the replaceable battery relatively easily. And you could potentially have different battery offerings depending on the needs of the traveller- more stored energy with less power density and more weight for long-distance highway cruising or less weight with higher power density (and less energy storage) for more performance...
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3PeaceSweet 5:08PM (5/13/2009)
The other part of the battery could be leased from the local utility and used for regulation. The lease would be part of your electricity bill and you could have some arrangement on using the batteries for grid regulation. The utility could make a big deal about adding as much renewable/nuclear capacity to the grid as they add in electric vehicle demand. In a way you would both invest in both the battery and the new capacity.
occ 1:02PM (5/13/2009)
Awesome! I'm all for it.
Common battery forms need not be restricted. All you need is simple dimensional constraints and battery could be any form, staying within that dimension. Advance in battery would actually make the form factor a non-issue in the future.
Advance in battery capacity doesn't mean eliminating swapping stations. For long trips, you'd still want to swap because you may not be anywhere near a plug, or stay long enough (or want to) to charge 1000 mile capacity.
Susie mom wouldn't be using swap station often, if at all, unless Susie mom goes on a long trip. Susie mom would be plugging in every night. Swapping station allows for unlimited range, just like gas stations. Besides, it's easy engineering wise to dumb-proof a driver's ability to stop at a designated spot.
I agree with captainpeace...battery, swap stations, plugs, etc should not be proprietary...I'm not sure BP wants that either. There's more than enough business to go around when you're replacing oil.
I'm sure they will have a model for "using your own generated electricity" with battery swap (or battery that is not yours)...BP is too smart not to include that...being that their whole mission is to do away with dependency (in oil).
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