Power Swap is now a part of AutoEnergy, for more information click here.

Project Background

Power Swap
Background

The world today is marked by a strong trend in electrification, but the electric mobility market is still at an early stage of development. In 2019, only 0,6% of the total fleet in Sweden was represented by battery electric vehicles (BEV).

Why?

The reason is that electric vehicles can’t be used in the same way as fossil cars due to long charging times and limited access to charging infrastructure.

The
Concept

Power Swap is a fully automatic battery swap system for electric vehicles. With Power Swap you can “refuel” your electric vehicle in 3 minutes – providing uninterrupted e-mobility. With Power Swap, the remaining obstacles with electric vehicles are eliminated, leveraging the market potential beyond early adopters and facilitating the sales growth while enabling a faster transition to a climate neutral transport infrastructure. Further, by removing the discharged batteries from the vehicle, they can be charged harmoniously in the battery storage, reducing peak loads on the grid while being utilized as renewable energy storage.

Advantages

Concept
video

A concept video of a modified Renault Zoe with the Power Swap system. The battery swap unit automatically locates and replaces the battery in under 3 minutes. The discharged battery is sent to a storage unit where it is charged at a harmonious rate.
Play Video

Battery charging
requires time ...

Battery charging requires time. Even fast charging often requires as much as 2 hours. One might expect that the future developments will bring the charging time to zero, but this will never happen due to the laws of nature.

As an example, the current needed to charge three Tesla batteries in the same time as filling up a petrol car (3 min) is 7300 Amps! Compare this to the 16 amps which are is common current delivered to residents. In a future large scale scenario one can see that the challenges are extreme.

Solar
power

Solar power

Power Swap’s system will create a sustainable zero-emission profit source for energy and fuel retailers who can take advantage of the potential lying in electricity sales from renewable energy sources (such as solar-, wind- and hydropower) to EV drivers. This is in line with their search for new sustainable business models. Further, while stored in the storage unit, the swappable battery packs will not only be charged, but can also be used as external energy storage and for grid balancing services. 

The Game
Changer

By eliminating the remaining problems with long charging times, Power Swap will boost the large scale market expansion of electric vehicles. The project is a major undertaking, but we have found a way to start small and grow.

The solution is based on installing swap units at existing fuel stations or parking lots, not to build new swap stations which have been tested by other players before.