While the electric vehicle (EV) market continues to grow, the industry still faces challenges putting supporting infrastructure, mainly charging points, in place. An innovative technology, referred to by the industry as ‘battery swapping’ or ‘battery switching’, may be a future solution to this issue, allowing drivers to quickly ‘swap out’ car batteries.
Ian Trueman, Electrical and Electrification Director at Contechs, said: “This emerging technology is taking root in Europe after successful trials in China, and is proving to be not only faster for users but also cheaper than conventional charging in this early stage of deployment. There are still many issues that need to be resolved before it can be more widely considered, however, such as compatibility between OEMs and its current high infrastructure cost.”
Contechs has conducted extensive benchmarking in this field of research, which has resulted in the development of modular electrical architectures with intelligent ‘skateboard’ configurations that enable the use of battery swapping. Over the next five years, Contechs plans to invest heavily in research and development of battery cell technology and computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools, as well as launch an industry-first Systems Engineering Training Academy to address the skills shortage across the industry.
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