Battery swapping

practice of quickly swapping a discharged battery pack of an electric vehicle with a charged one

Battery swapping is an electric vehicle technology that enables the rapid exchange of a depleted battery with a fully charged one. This method provides a swift alternative to traditional charging, commonly applied in electric forklifts. It offers an efficient solution for maintaining electric vehicle functionality without prolonged charging delays.[1][2][3]

History

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As far back as 1896, people were talking about a service where you could swap out a used-up battery for a fully charged one. The Hartford Electric Light Company actually started offering this service between 1910 and 1924. They did this through the GeVeCo battery service, mainly for electric trucks. If you owned a vehicle, you'd buy it without a battery and then get one separately from the General Vehicle Company (GeVeCo), which was partly owned by General Electric.[4]

Beginning in 1917, a similar service operated in Chicago for owners of Milburn Electric cars.[5] A rapid battery replacement system was implemented to service 50 electric buses at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[6]

References

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  1. Shu, Catherine (2021-10-11). "Gogoro launches battery swapping stations in China". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  2. "Industrial electrical vehicle stalwarts head out on the road - at Simplenewz your social news reader". web.archive.org. 2011-07-16. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  3. "Swappable batteries for electric vans and lorries make sense". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  4. "GeVeCo". The Lost Annals of Transport. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  5. Kirsch, David A. (2000). The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History. Rutgers University Press. pp. 153–162. ISBN 0-8135-2809-7.
  6. "BIT Attends the Delivery Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games -Alternative Fuel Vehicles". Beijing Institute of Technology. 18 July 2008. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2013.