Stellantis and Ample will exchange batteries together in Europe

Remember Better Place? Ten years ago the curtain fell for the Israeli startup, which started working on battery swapping stations mainly in collaboration with Renault and also in the Netherlands. The project failed, but Better Place may have simply been too far ahead of its time. After all, we now know Nio, which, in addition to its own cars, will also exchange the batteries of Geely and Changan. For the time being, this means that these manufacturers will develop EVs together with Nio – read: EVs based on Nio technology – that are suitable for Nio’s battery swapping stations.

Now, however, support for this concept is coming from a less expected source. The large Stellantis, known for Peugeot, Citroën, Opel and Fiat, among others, will open battery exchange stations in collaboration with Ample. Ample is a start-up from San Francisco that specializes in this technology, but the switching stations will initially be located in Europe. The first is for the Free2move shared car fleet in Barcelona, ​​Spain, where 100 Fiats 500e can change batteries at Ample from 2024. That has all kinds of advantages, say the creators. This means that Free2Move’s cars can get back on the road quickly and do not always have to be on a charger, which can indeed be an advantage, especially in busy city centers.

Interestingly, the Fiat 500e is apparently suitable for such a changing station. We have known this about Nios for some time, because they were developed from the start with battery changing in mind. The collaboration between Stellantis and Ample is currently limited to the Fiat 500e, but Stellantis says it is looking at options to expand battery swapping to all EV platforms. That is interesting, because the Fiat was still developed under FCA regime and technically has nothing to do with the models from Peugeot, Citroën, Opel and DS.