The Stellantis group (Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, etc.) has just signed a partnership with the American company Ample in order to offer battery exchange on its cars. The Fiat 500e will be the first model to benefit from this technology, allowing rapid “recharging” in just five minutes.
Like autonomy, which still wrongly worries many motorists, charging remains a barrier for many of them. In fact, they fear not being able to find a terminal, but above all spend time refilling the battery of their electric car. But this is however changing.
A new technology
Already because there are more than 110,000 terminals in France alone, some of which have great power. But that’s not all, because manufacturers and equipment manufacturers are working to develop batteries that can charge more quickly. This is for example the case of the Qilin CTP 3.0 from CATL which only requires around ten minutes. Not to mention the 800 volt architecture, which equips the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 in particular.
But that’s not all, because some want to go even further and make charging even faster. This is for example the case of Nio, the first manufacturer to offer battery exchange on his cars that we were able to test. But soon he won’t be the only one. And for good reason, the Franco-Italian group Stellantis also wants to equip its electric vehicles with this technology. And this is currently coming to fruition with a new partnership.
The company, fruit of the merger of PSA and FCA announces in a press release that it has signed a collaboration with the American company Ample, based in California. But what will this consist of very precisely? Well the company from across the Atlantic will be responsible for supplying batteries designed to be exchanged for the group’s cars, as well as dedicated swapping stations. Especially since Ample has a real advantage.
And for good reason, its stations have the advantage of being very easy to install, requiring almost no work. Which allows them to be implemented everywhere, in just three days. Enough to facilitate the deployment of this technology, which allows charging in just five minutes, almost without driver intervention. The car is then recognized by the station, and the latter just has to launch the operation via their smartphone.
Less than five minutes
The battery exchange procedure allows you to leave with a fully charged car without the need to plug in. However, this technology will not be immediately available to all owners of Stellantis group electric cars. In fact, experiments will first start next year in Madridin Spain, with a fleet of 100 Fiat 500e via the Free2Move car-sharing service.
If the first tests are conclusive, other models should logically benefit from this automated charging solution, which will be offered with a subscription. For the record, the latter simply consists of removing the empty battery from the car to replace it with a full pack. However, Ample does not give details on the number of accumulators that can be stored at the same time in each station. But you should know that this is not the company’s first attempt.
It recently signed a partnership with the American manufacturer Fisker, since the Ocean SUV will also be compatible with the battery swapping. For the record, the latter is arriving in Europe, in order to compete with the Tesla Model Y. But other companies are also interested in this technology, such as the SAIC Motors group, which notably owns the MG brand. Chinese battery giant CATL is also considering installing its battery swap stations in Europe in the coming years.
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