Ten years ago, when the Tesla Model S was beginning to revolutionize the automotive world and before Elon Musk was richer than Midas and still looking for strategies to keep the fledgling company afloat, he came up with a novel idea: an automated battery transfer station. that could replace a Model S battery in less time than it takes to fill a comparable gasoline car with liquid fuel. At the time, it seemed that such a service would necessarily override the new “range anxiety” of electric vehicles, at least for Teslas. But it won’t. At least not yet.
For a multitude of reasons (most notably Musk’s resolve to focus on creating the now-vast network of high-speed NACS “super-qualifier” services), Tesla was unable to expand the battery-swapping system. Legacy automakers, caught in the trap of electric cars, commonly known as electric cars (EVs), have committed their resources to the immediate progression of new electric cars, leaving the challenge of charging for later or to be tackled through partners. The result is that public charging infrastructure in the U. S. Currently, the U. S. is still insufficient at present, and most EV owners (including themselves) rate their cars as at home, but it’s not an option for everyone.
After Tesla’s demonstration, the concept of battery swapping didn’t die, but it did change. In Asia, where tens of millions of people use scooters as their primary mode of transportation, battery swapping stations from scooter brands such as KYMCO and Gogoro were installed. Taiwan’s are not unusual and are also at the forefront of electric vehicle technology. They can also pave the way for electric cars and other electric vehicles.
Why Battery Change Works for Scooters
While electric motorcycles are marvels of functionality, they are also the subject of well-deserved criticism for their limited range, maximum weight, and long charging times. Conversely, its humble cousin, the city scooter, is proving to be the most productive two-wheeler to electrify in the world. In the short term. Scooters weigh much less than motorcycles, but they necessarily perform the same task while also offering excellent application and ease of use. They don’t have the expectations of superior functionality of full-size motorcycles, they trade speed for lower value and greater practicality. .
Electric scooters are not a new idea. Italian scooter and motorcycle manufacturer Piaggio, owner of Vespa, has been supplying the Vespa Elettrica for several years and Swiss company Lambretta presented an all-electric prototype, the Elettra, at EICMA last November. I enjoyed riding BMW’s CE 04 sci-fi electric scooter, which inspired me (see review above).
BMW, Vespa, and Lambretta are well-known brands, but in Taiwan and other Asian countries, lesser-known scooter brands in the domestic market have been offering all-electric models for several years. Charging issues seem to plague almost all EVs, but battery swapping systems for scooters seem to have gained momentum, and the concept is spreading to other types of vehicles, including China.
The start of the exchange
A pulls a battery from an iONEX kiosk.
In 2015, Gogoro, a Taiwanese electric scooter and motorcycle startup, began creating a network of “GoStation” self-service kiosks where users of Gogoro’s electric scooters can temporarily and cost-effectively upgrade batteries, expanding the diversity of a scooter virtually anywhere. location. Through it all, Gogoro went public in a SPAC merger in 2021, and now, GoStation battery switch slots are used tens of thousands of times every day in various countries, including Israel, the Philippines, Singapore, India, and China.
Now, another Taiwan-based scooter manufacturer, KYMCO, a major player in the global scooter market for decades, in addition to the United States, has updated its strategy around swappable batteries with a new program called iONEX, a company it was the first to create. all presented at the 2018 Paris Motor Show.
KYMCO seems to have an ambitious plan around electric scooters and battery swap stations with the recently updated battery-as-a-service project. In fact, thousands of KYMCO battery swap sites are already up and running, but the latest version of iONEX offers new, larger batteries and a simplified switching system. Users use their smartphones to pay a small amount just for the energy used, and it only takes a few seconds to reposition the batteries.
KYMCO has also added refeeable charging issues in cooperation with corporations as an additional service, as well as the ability to remove the battery and rate it at a location that doesn’t have an iONEX kiosk. Scooters can also be rated from a wall outlet. and KYMCO offers an undeniable device for charging detachable batteries inside the home. KYMCO also plans to sell the scooters without the “charge” of a battery, as the swap formula will provide this component, particularly by reducing the initial charge of the scooter by the owner.
iONEX scooters can have two batteries for a long range.
Basically, KYMCO created iONEX to ensure that there are multiple methods to keep batteries charged and scooters moving, even outdoors at switching stations. And instead of a single battery, the sleek new iONEX electric scooters (below) can generate two or more forces. cells for prolonged diversity and pass up to 60 mph. Replacing a used pack with one or two fully charged batteries at an iONEX kiosk usually takes less than a minute.
So far, precise diversity figures have not been specified, but the exchange strategy necessarily makes diversity issues moot due to Taiwan’s already gigantic network of existing exchange stations, which will continue to grow. KYMCO also has a monetary and technical partnership with LiveWire, an American manufacturer of electric motorcycles, which evolved through Harley-Davidson in 2019 before being spun off as an umbrella company and going public in a 2021 SPAC deal involving KYMCO as an investor.
However, at the moment, LiveWire electric motorcycles do not use replaceable batteries, despite a new model, the Del Mar, which uses a smaller battery than the original LiveWire model.
KYMCO and Gogoro aren’t the only players in the battery swapping industry either; Japanese motorcycle brands Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Honda, which also produce scooters, have also shown prototypes of replaceable batteries and are part of a consortium looking to implement standardized batteries between the brands. While he indicated that the battery-swapping formula would work for motorcycles, efforts now seem to be more focused on scooters.
Contacted via Forbes. com, KYMCO CEO Allen Ko said he is open to working with partners to expand the use of the iONEX battery formula, but would not call any express partners of interest. Since KYMCO is already a well-established company, it will be attractive to see how the iONEX formula works and how it affects the festival with competitive startup Gogoro and others, or if there will be cooperation between the players.
Electric Vehicle Issues: Standardization, Execution, and Monetization
Battery kiosks can be placed almost anywhere and KYMCO can also work with other scooter brands to supply power to their machines.
The task of pumping gasoline into a vehicle has been popularized for so long that it’s hard to believe you’ve ever encountered the same disorders that EV drivers face today; however, in the early 20th century, the automotive and fuel industry was grappling with this. problem. At first, gas, then an almost disposable byproduct of the creation of kerosene, a fuel that can be used for everything, was sold to early drivers in small boxes in stores. “Gas stations” gave the impression of just before 1910, but it wasn’t until 1930 that the dispensing nozzles we all know became popular through the government, greatly simplifying refueling. By comparison, we’re still in the early 20th century of the evolution of electric vehicles, but we hope that’s not the case. take decades to achieve an adequate popular load; Tesla’s popular NACS happens to have the winning hand right now.
Outside the U. S. , despite Tesla’s demonstration, some automakers are beginning to take a closer look at the concept of battery swapping. Time will tell how it will play out, as there are still a number of issues to address in battery swapping. In the market position segment, however, China’s leading electric car maker, Nio (and, by extension, Chinese auto giant Geely) is on board and has hundreds, if not thousands, of them. commercial stations in China for their domestic models. Information from 2023 indicates that millions of battery swap transactions have been implemented in China and the practice is already well established. So why isn’t it applied elsewhere?
One challenge is that most EVs use other shapes and sizes of batteries, making an undeniable shift less than undeniable, a factor that echoes the initial confusion over a charging standard for EVs. Some similarities in battery pack design occur with platforms like GM’s Ultium and Tesla’s original “skid” system, but even within each platform, there are big differences from logo to logo and style to style. The immediate progression of EV battery generation means that any standardization will likely take several years, if not. be feasible. A Chevy Bolt’s battery is the same size, shape, voltage, or weight as a Tesla, Hummer EV, or Hyundai Ionic (to name a few), and as EVs continue to evolve, that’s not likely to change, at least in the U. S. and European markets, where the festival is fierce.
Another impediment has to do with infrastructure. In China, where public works and standardization of generation can be imposed without recourse, battery-swappable generation has a greater chance of thriving, especially with the already large and growing EV user base. Given the number of other people who employ scooters in China (and Asia (via extension), a path to profitability is possible for sharing systems and corporations. In the U. S. According to the U. S. and European Union, battery-swapping stations would require large investments in real estate, robotics, personnel, protection protocols, energy storage, and other costly costs. And all for a user base that is only now getting a virtual percentage double for all electric cars on the road.
Although several automakers have announced plans to prevent the generation of gasoline-powered cars until 2030, 2035 or beyond, those are goals, not mandates, and automakers will continue to meet market demand. If enough people need gasoline-powered cars in 2030 (just six years from now), automakers will continue to make them. Make no mistake, electric cars, with their incredible functionality and immediate development, will continue to gain market share, but Ford, GM, Stellantis, BMW, and Japanese automakers only generate electric cars in a decade seem unlikely and financially unrealistic, let alone invest imaginable billions in robot battery generation and swapping standards. It may just happen, but as long as the value of liquid fuels remains tolerable, the shift to electric cars will slowly increase. rather than at revolutionary speeds.
What’s more, EV owners in the U. S. The U. S. and European Union already have a physically powerful electrical infrastructure at home that makes charging the vehicle as undeniable as plugging in a toaster, with the option to speed things up by installing a relatively affordable Level 2 charger. Would changing batteries have a positive return on investment in the U. S. , which in the end would make it successful after a pretty huge initial investment?At the moment, this is unlikely. Again, the increased prevalence of scooters in China and Asia makes such systems seem feasible, and the Chinese government could impose or simply negotiate with automakers on battery specifications to change the technology. In the United States and, to a lesser extent, in the European Union, scooters and motorcycles are still basically used as thrilling craft and are sold in very small quantities compared to Asia. Ko said that for now, the U. S. market is not the number one target for iONEX’s expansion because of those and other factors.
Commuters on scooters exiting a highway. Taiwan has about 15 million registered scooters out of a population of 23 million, and they remain the main mode of transportation in most parts of the country. (Photo by Craig Ferguson/LightRocket Getty Images)
Additionally, currently no conventional full-size electric motorcycle can use a swap formula, as the propulsion systems are too heavy to be moved by a single person. Most likely, an automated formula had been designed to enable a motorcycle swapping strategy. However, the challenge of standardization makes such a plan unlikely, given the investment required for both the batteries and the exchange formula, which would likely not be feasible once back, limiting its profit potential. But with the reduced battery needs of a scooter, it’s a smart choice, as KYMCO and Gogoro have proven.
In the United States, a battery-swapping formula could have a chance on the frame of electric bicycles (e-bikes), again, some form of standardization would be needed within the industry, which would require cooperation between competitors in the e-bike sector, which is indeed possible, at least more so than with automobiles. But that would require a primary shift in the way Americans view “charging” or use e-bikes, which are certainly gaining popularity in last-mile spaces and deliveries. . It is an area that deserves to be watched closely.
Welcome to Swap-N-Sip
A representation of a giant switching station, in design and execution for a fuel station.
Time will tell which EV “charging” formula will prevail, but it looks like at some point market forces could coalesce around switchable batteries and bring them to a usable standard, perhaps with battery length options. In short: it’s tricky when it comes to batteries, charging, shifting, and standards, as generation can evolve quickly. However, a battery swap formula would be very convenient for EV drivers, who would pay for such convenience, opening the door to monetization of such a service. There’s no need to wait hours, or even 15 minutes, for a vehicle to fill up. For scooter and Nio EV riders in China, the battery change happens in less time than it takes to fill the tank with liquid fuel, as demonstrated by Tesla. More than a decade ago. For them, the long haul of battery swapping has arrived. Will other corporations double generation or hire suppliers who can supply it?The long term is wide open.
No formula is the best and mistakes have been made. But overall, the Chinese, Taiwan’s KYMCO and rival Gogoro have shown that such a formula is feasible, especially for electric cars with many miles (or miles), such as scooters, small taxis, delivery vehicles of all kinds, and new electric cars. Harvest of autonomous robotic cars, even full-size cars.
In other parts of the world, multiple technologies, coupled with hydrogen cars, plug-in hybrids and competition, make such standardization unlikely, and if there is a breakthrough in battery fabrics, giving electric cars a greatly expanded diversity with fast charging capability, perhaps simply a moot point. The end. Stay tuned.
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