Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Electric Vehicle Battery-Switching System Unveiled
Startup Better Place demonstrates a system for swapping out depleted batteries for charged ones.
By Kevin Bullis
Better Place, a company based in Palo Alto, CA, that's made deals with numerous governments around the world to install charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, has demonstrated its battery-switch station for the first time. The event took place at 1:30 A.M. ET this morning, in Yokohama, Japan, as part of a government-sponsored exhibit. Japan is studying ways to meet a target of having electric vehicles account for half of all new vehicle sales by 2020.
One thing holding back electric vehicles is their limited range, due to the large size of battery packs and the cost of batteries. A battery-switch station allows drivers to quickly swap out a depleted battery for a charged one. If these were placed at intervals along a highway, they would allow for long-distance trips without stops to recharge the battery, which could take hours. The automatic switching system can swap out a battery in less time than it takes to fill up a gas tank, Better Place says. Other automakers, such as GM and Fisker Automotive, are opting for a different strategy to extend the range of electric vehicles. They include an onboard gas- or ethanol-powered generator to recharge the battery during driving.
Here's a video of the switching station in operation.
Better Place says that the switching station is designed to work with a number of different battery-pack configurations. But many experts warn that, if these stations have to supply too many different types of batteries, they will become too large and costly to be practical. As it is, automakers that are developing electric vehicles are designing custom battery packs for each vehicle, rather than one pack that can work with their own vehicles as well as with those of other manufacturers. Chrysler, for example, recently unveiled five different battery packs.
The switching-station demonstration involved a Nissan Dualis SUV fitted with a battery pack that uses battery cells from A123 Systems, based in Watertown, MA. Better Place has been collaborating with both Nissan and A123, but the company says that production electric vehicles from Nissan won't necessarily look like this.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comments
despite the $160 million raised by Better Place for """its""" project (derived from MY idea of a "cellphoneCAR") the battery-swap concepts have NO future, since new research seems allow a simple and low cost way to recharge slightly modified batteries Li-Ion batteries 100 TIMES FASTER than today's models
image of the battery swap here: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/video-better-places-automated-electric-vehicle-battery-switch/
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Gaetano Mara...
05/14/2009
Posts:114
Technology is always changing, but people will still need and want a place to stop after driving x-many kilometers.In time the technological factors will be outstripped by the human factors and if Better Place can be in there as the refuelling technology standard, possibly licensing this 3rd parties, then they are sitting on a good business. They are trying to get out ahead of the game with stations, with a technology(they can adjust that part later)and with their brand.
horsecrow
05/15/2009
Posts:1
nickov
05/15/2009
Posts:1
It would be possible too to have arrangements between different companies such that they track their inventories and charge each other offsetting fees at intervals. This would be similar to the way roaming agreements are made between cell phone companies and ATM machine usage clearing is done today. From the drivers point of view, they would have memberships but would also be able to use other companies in a network for an extra fee of some kind.
In the end, I agree with those who imagine that the next generation of batteries will have quick recharge times. We are already beginning to see it.
MakeSense
05/17/2009
Posts:93
The swapping companies will monitor the quality/condition of the battery packs and repair/replace as needed. After all you don't need to replace all the cells just the defective ones. This is what the propane exchange companies do. They test, repaint, repair and replace as needed.
As for battery compatibility, that is up to the companies or the Feds. We currently have compatible small batteries (AAA,AA,C,D, etc.) we should be able to come up with a large battery solution.
tlynnch
05/23/2009
Posts:5
SimonHoer
05/18/2009
Posts:4
It's unfortunate that Auto companies continue to pour money in these ventures when so many quantum leaps in energy storage are taking place under their noses.
Super-Capacitors are real, they're right around the corner, and they will make chemical batteries obsolete. So why aren't auto manufacturers investing in them? Probably becuase they're in bed with too many people to do the right thing. And everyone wonders why they're going bankrupt.
IHiJump
05/18/2009
Posts:2
So we want a technology that is HERE NOW!
won't stop them from keeping working on it tho.
Call us when it's ready
erbium
05/27/2009
Posts:99