Better Place finishes first 1,000 battery swaps without problems
Better Place battery swap station - click above for high res gallery
While the full jury is still out on Better Place's battery swap idea, the first "juror" seems to have made up her mind. The company said last week that its automatic battery exchange stations have swapped out 1,000 batteries and vice president Jason Wolf told attendees at the Smart Grid Innovation Symposium that the swaps have been made without a hitch. The robots in the swap stations have not had any problems exchanging the 400-lb batteries, Wold said. So, one big technical question about Better Place's strategy has, at least for now, been answered. The bigger questions about the financial side of things are still debatable.
Gallery: Better Place battery swap station
[Source: Greentechmedia via International Business Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
guyledouche 12:23PM (6/09/2009)
Big deal. It has been said before on here and will be said many more times Im sure... It will be impossible to impose a standardization of battery sizes, voltages, and mounting configurations between all of the EV manufacturers to ever make this worth while. It also has other problems like extreme capital costs as well as operating costs. Not to mention that fact that the batteries will be hard to track and keep tabs on.
EV's will succeed, but the refueling of them will have to be done (At least in the near future) using the existing infrastructure I.E.-- the electrical grid, and the outlets in our homes. That is one of the beautiful and highly appealing aspects of EV's anyway -- Home charging.
The R&D money going towards these swapping systems could be put to far better use actually improving the batteries themselves, IMHO.
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Zeph 1:02PM (6/09/2009)
This is just a scheme so that big industry can retain ownership of the batteries and keep the total cost of ownership high.
How the heck is building hundreds of thousands of charging stations a better solution than simply electrifying existing parking so people can charge wherever they can park? Or making solar and wind power charging stations on the highways?
Batteries should be recycled at the end of their life or if they underperform. This sort of quick swap systems is pointless. A 15 minute quick charge would be good enough, and we know that over time the infrastructure would get better.
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Chris M 5:42PM (6/09/2009)
Project Better Place (and several other companies) do plan to build lots of charging outlets in public parking areas, that would be used to handle most EV recharging situations. Battery swapping would be an extra cost option for those travelling long distances who needed the fast refill, and for those rare instances when the battery becomes deficient and needs to be replaced.
Nick P. 4:42PM (6/09/2009)
Let them work on their dream and sheer for him instead of being negative. The same thing was said about Tesla, remember?
Obviously, we know that the EV field as attracted it's share of scamers, but I think that Better Place, along with Tesla and Fisker are the only ones systematically implementing their business plan and jumping past every hurdle thrown at them.
We need every player willing and able to fight the EV fight.
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Sam 4:50PM (6/09/2009)
Hi sorry to be so blunt but both of you are talking out of total ignorance...
-BP will support all batteries and there manufactures if they would let them
-Bp wants you to charge in parking lots & home (it even is developing a GPS notifocation software to let you know were there free spots avalible)
-BP's swapping is meant for those 2% who are driving long distances not the masses (there wont be millions of these guys)
-BP is making sure your Highway capable sedan will cost less than 20,000 grand (not 52,000)
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xyz 1:44AM (6/10/2009)
I knew it! BP is our savior!
Tda7000 7:34AM (9/24/2009)
Batteries are the new petrol.
But if we're going to use them, they should be interchangeable, or at least, all charging stations need to be compatible with all cars.
You don't pull up to a Mobil instead of a Shell and get told that their fuel pump won't fit in your tank do you?
Lots of things are globally standardized, it wouldn't be hard.
But most of all, the batteries need to be recyclable!
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