Is battery-swap tech the smart option for electric vehicles?

For the first time ever, researchers in the University of Lisbon compared the plug-in charging, hydrogen and ICE scenarios against the lesser-known battery swapping scenario.

While this long-term study is still underway, its latest conclusion is that the swapping model can be the best in terms of transportation’s burden on a nation’s GDP. It can be even cheaper than diesel and gasoline vehicles. On the contrary, e-mobility based on plug-in charging would cost 1% more and the green hydrogen scenario would be a full 3% of GDP more expensive.

Until recently, the swapping model remained a niche subject. Both its proponents and opponents have put forward only hypothetical arguments rarely supporting them with sound data. This is where the true meaning of the study is.

“This kind of systems analysis is both rare and invaluable,” said Levi Tillemann, vice-president for policy and international outreach at Ample. “A lot of research analyzes just the battery or charger without taking into account the cost and complexity of the generation, storage and distribution system.”

The study looks forward to the 2030s. By this time, energy generation in many countries is expected to be almost 100% renewable and the cost of batteries drastically lower than now. On the minus side, renewables are effectively non-dispatchable and unable to follow the demand’s spikes and lows. To offset this issue, power utilities will need to either install excessive generation and transmission capacities or use balancing technologies such as pumped or battery storages. Of course, this translates into an increased cost of electricity for consumers.

This is where electric vehicles can help. By the next decade, more than 20% of power generation will serve road transport with a huge impact on the total balance. In fact, all electric scenarios considered in the study turned out to be good for alleviating imbalances because vehicle charging or hydrogen production can be scheduled for the periods of energy excess characterized by lower electricity tariffs. However, their capabilities are different in quantity.

For instance, in the plug-in model, consumers can be quite flexible in choosing when to slow-charge their vehicles. However, rapid chargers lack this ability and also consume energy in short sharp spikes, the most challenging pattern for the renewables. Because of this, the hydrogen-based model is better owing to its capability to produce hydrogen only from cheap electricity.

To read the complete article, visit TU-Automotive.