Renault is not quite done with the idea of making EV batteries easily replaceable. However, the question is whether that will also happen in the form that was tried out in 2008 together with Better Place.
Renault CEO Luca de Meo mentioned the idea of swapping EV batteries himself this week, Automotive News Europe reports. We deliberately do not say ‘changing an empty battery for a full one’, because that is not what Renault is focusing on this time. Instead, it would look at other uses for a quick-change battery pack.
“From a business point of view, there is a good reason to explicitly separate the battery from the car, especially when it comes to an older battery,” De Meo would have said. That is why Renault’s senior management would have asked its engineers to re-examine the old idea, naturally taking into account the current knowledge and expertise in the field of battery technology.
De Meo probably refers to the easier application of older car batteries in places outside the car, as is already the case with Nissan Leaf batteries at the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam.
Better Place
In 2008, Renault and the Israeli Better Place teamed up to create a network of battery changing stations. There, users could simply exchange an empty battery for a full one. Starting with the Renault Fluence ZE, they wanted to make it possible to undertake a longer journey simply and without much loss of time.
Better Place was able to realize such a battery exchange station at various locations, including our own Schiphol. Still, the project failed and the company had to file for bankruptcy in 2013. With lightning-fast charging times and increasingly larger and more efficient batteries, it is now clear that electric driving can also be done without changing batteries, but Renault apparently still believes in the basic idea.
Incidentally, it was also Renault that offered the battery in a separate lease construction for a long time. The idea was that (especially) Zoe drivers would always be assured of a properly functioning battery. Moreover, it depresses the ‘bare’ price of the car considerably, which of course lowers the threshold for potential buyers. However, this idea was not followed up and has since been abandoned by the French themselves.
Nio
A second party that is seriously engaged in changing EV batteries is the Chinese Nio. That brand was recently launched in Norway and that means not only the sale of cars, but also – yes – the setting up of a network of battery changing stations. So here it is all about the original application: ensuring that the EV driver can be on the road again after a few minutes with full power.