What are battery swap stations & how do they work?

Battery swap stations (BSSs) present a promising approach to getting EVs recharged within a quite short time. Attempts have also been made to deploy BSSs for some EV types, such as electric taxis, electric buses, and freight EVs.

What is battery swap?

Battery swapping – which simply means changing out depleted electric vehicle (EV) batteries for fresh, recharged ones – is an alternative to charging batteries inside the vehicle, as is used for the vast majority of the world's electric cars. While battery swap is still largely a nascent sector, China has the world's most developed model by far.

Are battery swap stations equivalent to gas stations?

Outside the battery swap station, a slogan reads, "Battery swap stations are equivalent to gas stations for electric vehicles".

Does energy storage sharing extend the capacity of battery-transferable switching stations?

Energy storage sharing is considered in this study, that allows stations to exchange batteries via the traffic network, and this extends the capacity of Battery-Transferable Swapping Stations (BTSSs).

Is China experimenting with battery-swap technology?

While it's mainly used for larger vehicles – close to half of the electric heavy-duty trucks sold in China in 2023 were equipped with battery-swap technology – the country is also seriously experimenting with swaps for personal cars.

What is the optimal layout of battery swap stations?

5.3.2. An optimal layout of battery swap stations (BSSs) An optimal layout of the BSSs (see Fig. 11) could be obtained by solving the optimization model using the Greedy Algorithm, as detailed in Section 4.3. A red point in the map represents a BSD point, and the service coverage area of a BSS was represented by a green circle.