Automotive

Ample gets EV battery swaps down to just 5 minutes

View 3 Images
Ample's next-gen battery swap station can now exchange EV battery modules in five minutes, and supports "both small passenger cars and large delivery trucks"
Ample
Ample's next-gen battery swap station can now exchange EV battery modules in five minutes, and supports "both small passenger cars and large delivery trucks"
Ample
Ample's next-gen battery swap station can be deployed to a site, assembled from pre-built sections and open for business in just three days
Ample
Ample's next-gen battery swap station features a platform that's raised during the automated battery swap process
Ample
View gallery - 3 images

As electric vehicle adoption ramps up, drivers may start to find queues adding to their top-up times at charging stations. One alternative solution with potential is to swap out the run-down battery pack for a fresh one, and Ample has just revealed that it's managed to do so in just five minutes.

Ample launched its first-generation battery swap station back in 2021, after developing the solution in stealth mode for seven years. Electric vehicles fitted with "Lego-like" battery modules could roll onto the platform and have its spent modules automatically removed and replaced with fully charged ones in under 10 minutes. The removed battery units are then recharged, ready for the next customer.

Since launch, the company reports that stations have been deployed across the San Francisco Bay Area to support fleet partners such as Uber and Sally in testing the quick-swap solution. Ample has also been in consultation with last-mile delivery services to get a better understanding of their needs.

"When working with these fleets, we continuously heard that despite well-intentioned efforts to electrify fleets, drivers could spend upwards of 10-12 hours, or 25% of a work week, at a charging station," said Ample in a blog post. "We've heard from cities that, in the race to electrify, there is a lack of reliable EV charging for city dwellers who don't have access to garages and the option of overnight charging, and our new solution seeks to fix that."

Ample's next-gen battery swap station features a platform that's raised during the automated battery swap process
Ample

The latest station is designed to support electric vehicles of all sizes – from small passenger cars to Sprinter-sized delivery vans. The EV rolls onto the platform, which raises while the swap is in progress. Drivers and passengers now have the option to remain within the vehicle throughout the process, or exit and stretch their legs. And five minutes later, the low-charge battery modules have been removed and replaced with fresh ones and the vehicle can be driven out of the station.

Ample has described the recent experience of an Uber driver in San Francisco, who picked up and dropped off passengers around the Bay Area and clocked up 120 miles before the batteries needed some attention. The Ample station's door automatically raised after identifying the approaching authorized vehicle, the driver parked up and then initiated the quick-swap process using a smartphone app.

The domestically produced shoebox-sized battery modules have been tweaked for improved safety, and are designed for integration into any modern electric vehicle. The new stations have been redesigned for easier deployment to a site in just three days, and have also been made more durable to suit different local conditions as the company eyes expansion. They can also be remotely monitored 24/7 "for enhanced safety and customer support."

Ample is now calling for more electric vehicle manufacturers, fleet operators and municipalities "to join us in the quest to electrify." The video below has more.

Source: Ample

View gallery - 3 images
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Flipboard
  • LinkedIn
12 comments
Don
This seems to be the real solution to EV trucks and heavy/long-distance transport. These swap stations could be very lucrative, especially when installed using the given location infrastructure (e.g., truck stops, weighing centers).

PACCAR, for instance, could have its own network and charge other trucks/companies when swapping too.

Still, EVs and autonomous driving will only become viable once we actually change our infrastructure to accomodate theme- from charge points to roads to traffic lights to lanes dedicated for autonomous vehicles.
anthony88
So is it possible to get under an EV, unbolt a battery module, and carry it away? Would it be also possible for EV manufacturers to put a charging port inside the boot/trunk/hood of their vehicles so a modular battery with enough charge to get the car home can be easily dropped in, connected, and then returned to a pickup station the next day, fully charged?
vince
The whole problem with the whole EV industry is dishonesty. In order to sell EVs and ramp up sells the industry hides that EVs are not full replacements for gas cars by designing ultra low CD cars (aerodynamics) that only get relative ranges under ideal one occupant conditions. Those conditions are 65 percent stop and go and 35 percent highway at under 60 mph. Thus highway ranges at 75 to 85 mph are much lower and if all negative factors are present--high winds, low temps, highbspeeds, high loads, racks with bikes up to 5 being brought along, towing uobto maximum loads,etc the range can drop by 300%. Thus realistically batteries need to be from 300 to 500 kWH to have comparable ranges of a gas pickup or med/large SUV. Now cones the real kicker. If the EVs were being sold with gas equivalent ranges they would take several hours to charge...which is not practical. So then the ability to swap batteries becomes the best way to impliment future comparable EVs. It wont matter a whole lot if a battery is 40 kWh or 400 kWh if they have ability to swap batteries it wont take a lot more time. But it sure as heck will take too much timevto charge even with 800 Volt sytems your looking atspending more time charging than driving. So EVs currently are a lie.
EVUK
The battery-swap, EV-history-oblivious, research-averse idiocy and amnesia never ends. As always - battery-swapping only (possibly) makes sense for commercial fleets and 30-60 sec swapping definitely would be great if not essential for EV races like Formula E.
PS. China's Changan have battery-swapping down to 30 seconds(link below) - and oh yeah - the world's first battery-swapping stations were introduced in circa 1910(113 years ago!!) by the Hartford Electric Company in the US etc etc - see my previous 3,487(approx) highly-researched - ergo lengthy and detailed - comments here and elsewhere on this time-wasting, old-as-the-hills battery-swapping issue / idiocy(= idiotic for so many, many patently obvious reasons).
See Changan 30-sec swap:
https://cntechpost.com/2020/10/27/from-three-minutes-to-30-seconds-nio-led-battery-swapmode-sparks-race/
Repeat - batt-swapping is possibly useful for certain fleet operators - and 30-60 sec swapping would definitely enable Formula E race cars to compete against and beat Formula One cars in a long-overdue combined FIA Formula EV v ICE race series - something that audiences really want to see but which the FIA and many powerful combustion and fossil-fuel vested interests are still refusing to even contemplate.
Paul G
Bob Stuart
Let me know when they break 30 seconds. Machines are usually quick.
Winterbiker
It is time for this. Too bad the auto makers did not get together and set standards for modular swappable batteries in the first place.
Expanded Viewpoint
Over all, EVs are far WORSE for the environment at present than Carbon fuel powered ones! Look at all of the Carbon fuels that have to be burned to mine the ores from the dirt, then transfer them to smelters to process the metals out of the ores so they can be used in batteries, then form the metals into electrodes and cases, then look at how much Carbon is burned to charge up the batteries, then look at the impracticality of recycling the metals in the batteries. Then look at how much water is used to refine just one battery's worth of Lithium, Cobalt and Nickel and Silver or what other materials are needed. Now if those batteries grew on trees and vines, and the electricity just came out of the air for free, we'd have something to talk about there! Oh, and don't forget about all of the manufacturing and installation of additional infrastructure to support all of those charging stations too! Or do they just grow up out of the ground by burying a few magic beans?? As a further note, what about all of the additional pollution that processing those battery materials causes? Are those industries and their technologies really totally benign to the environment?
holdenmidfield
I can't help but notice that the most comments posted on NA are by naysayers who sound like flacks for the petroleum industry. If you work for or are involved in this industry in any way, please disclose this. If your job is to mislead and misinform, shame on you. And remember, fighting the future is futile. The future always wins.
martinwinlow
@ vince - Sorry but your knowledge of EVs and the physics behind them is severely constrained, as is your logic. This may explain your ridiculously anti-EV position - along with everyone else who hasn't the faintest idea what they are talking about. Have you even *ever* driven one any significant distance? "...the range can drop by 300%." I assume you mean 60%, ie it'll only go 1/3 of the distance it should? This, too is twaddle, anyway. In my 15 year EV driving experience, the very worst case drop in range for a modern EV would be about 30%. And can I also point out that the average daily car mileage is barely more than 30 miles so why the obsession for every car sold to be able to do hundreds of miles? FYI, most high performance motorcycles designed for the road have a range barely more than 100 miles (which is fortunate because they are generally extremely uncomfortable). *Do* get out of your armchair and actually try something out properly before spouting your nonsense on the WWW!
martinwinlow
@EVUK - The other potential major markets for sensible use of battery swapping is agriculture and construction. That said, think it will not be long before huge agricultural fields have mains take-off points in one corner and those enormous agricultural machines that just go up and down a field all day long will arrive under (small) battery power, plug in and then play out a cable as they go and reel it back in over and over... why, just like the mining industry has been doing for decades!