#TIL: What is Battery Swapping and what does it take to set up a battery swapping station?
By Shilpi Samantray
Battery swapping is a quicker, alternative mode of charging an electric vehicle, where instead of plugging in the vehicle to a charging socket, the drained battery is simply replaced with a fully charged one.
The process is fairly simple and the separation of the battery from the vehicle can be done by the end-user. The end-user needs to take out the existing battery from the vehicle, put the newly charged battery, deposit the drained battery, and finally make the payment. That completes the process of recharging the vehicle using battery swapping. The whole process of swapping takes only 2–3 minutes, thereby mimicking the experience of the existing fuel stations.
In order to set up a battery swapping station the following parameters are to be considered:
1.Demand Estimation: It is important to understand the demand in a location before setting up a station. This will include the projection of the number of vehicles that the station will cater to, the number of batteries that will be needed, and the power supply required to serve the demand.
2. Site Selection: Based on the estimated demand, the size of the land can be estimated, and accordingly the site selection is done while ensuring that adequate power supply is available to meet the demand.
3. Swap station set up: A swap station will comprise of the power supply system, charging system, inventory, payments system, and mechanism for battery handling/exchange. This will also include civil work (like flooring, painting, branding, shed/cover, fencing, boundary wall, foundation work), CCTV camera etc.
4. Swapping Mechanism: This includes the mechanism to identify and clearly figure out how the end-user will collect the new battery and where the depleted batteries will be deposited (or plugged-in). The process has to be smooth as it will determine how much time the consumer will spend to get a fully charged vehicle.
5. Authentication/Security: In order to ensure that the end-user deposits only the original battery which was initially supplied by the operator, there needs to be a proper authentication system embedded in each unit. Since most of the stations will run 24x7 there needs to be surveillance security to protect the equipment.
6. Payment: Smooth payment system will stimulate the industry’s development. Effective implementation will make the process convenient for the user as well as the operator. Few payment options used by the existing operators include a monthly subscription model, app-based payment, direct invoice to the user/owner of the EV.
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