Changing the batteries It's not just done in China. Fiat tries in Madrid with the 500e and Ample

ROME – Recharge an electric Fiat 500 in five minutes? You can, if you are in Madrid and have just rented one from Free2Move, the shared mobility company of the Stellantis group. And you can, not because they have invented a super fast charging station in Spain, but because you just need to stop at one of the first five battery swapping stations of Ample, Stellantis’ American partner, leaving the flat one in place of a charged one. The system is called “battery swap” and so far only a few Chinese manufacturers have done it, mostly in China. The testing of the Fiat 500e in Madrid could open up a third way with a progressive extension of the stations in Spain and Europe, Ample president John de Souza promised Automotive News Europe, without specifying times and places.

The “battery swap” is a quick solution to the age-old problem of long charging times. However, it is not the Columbus egg if in 2007 an Israeli entrepreneur, Shai Agassi, had proposed it with his company Better Place to Carlos Ghosn's Renault. A deal with great fanfare, testing in Israel and Denmark, but the business ended with Agassi's dismissal at the end of 2012 and Better Place's bankruptcy.

Fiat’s “battery swap” in Madrid uses batteries supplied by the San Francisco company. They are not bought but rented, allowing – if the system were to take hold – a saving of around 30% on the cost of purchasing an electric car today. Ample already has experimental collaborations for fleets with Uber in San Francisco and Tokyo, with Cox Automotive and Eneos in Japan, with Mitsubishi and Daimler Trucks. The strength of Ample’s “battery swap” lies in the speed and standardization of the batteries, adaptable to multiple models. The weak point is that the car platforms must be prepared for the gearbox, while most manufacturers have platforms on the road that include the integrated battery.

Not the forty Fiat 500e around Madrid, which should become a hundred by this summer, and not so many models from Chinese manufacturers. In China, where the push for the electrification of mobility has been a state affair for at least ten years, the “battery swap” receives specific incentives from the government. Today, fewer than 5,000 swap stations are active, even though the declared goal for the end of this year was 25,000. Nio, a Shanghai-based manufacturer of electric vehicles, alone has just under 3,000 and, a couple of years ago, it had installed thirty in Northern Europe, announcing 120, but without anyone talking about it again. Just as, again in 2023, near the Berlin airport, two Chinese companies – the sector specialist Aulton Dianba and the manufacturer MG of the Saic group – installed a “battery swap” station at a petrol station of the French TotalEnergies. An experiment with no follow-up. In China, Saic is moving forward together with Nio, Geely and others. Byd has limited its “battery swap” program to bus and taxi fleets, Tesla initially tried it on a Model S, before abandoning the program. The bet of those who don’t believe in it is in the development of batteries, increasingly more capacious and less expensive, and in the spread of fast charging stations. But not yet convenient and fast like the “battery swap”.