Fully robotic system for swapping electric car batteries within 3 minutes.

Project Information

POWERSWAP

Grant agreement ID: 808705

DOI

10.3030/808705

Project closed

EC signature date 12 February 2018

Start date 1 March 2018

End date 31 August 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

POWERSWAP AB
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - POWERSWAP (Fully robotic system for swapping electric car batteries within 3 minutes.)

Reporting period: 2018-03-01 to 2018-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

TThe problem we target with Powerswap is that the sales and introduction of Electrical Vehicles (EV’s) evolves very slowly. In Sweden 2017 only 0,4% of the new vehicles were represented by EV’s. The main reason for that is that the available EV’s are optimal for only a small part of the population that can afford to have more than one vehicle, i.e. one EV as a city commuter and a conventional vehicle covering other needs.
The following obstacles limit the development of EVs market: (1) charging takes too much time; (2) the number of super chargers is not sufficient; (3) charging a big number of EVs creates an enormous stress on the grid; (4) cost for implementation of hundreds of thousands of charging poles is high; (5) the cars are blocked for usage when charged; (6) there is no realistic plan for massive development of charging infrastructure.
According to EEA Europe's total electricity consumption by electric vehicles will increase from approximately 0.03 % in 2014 to 9.5 % in 2050. If electric vehicles were not charged smartly to avoid peaks and troughs in power demand, peak demand could be much higher. Shifting the charging of cars to times when demand is lower will reduce the extra peak demand. Another challenge are “fast chargers” that will accelerate the problem as they take huge amount of power from the grid within short period of time.

Our solution is extremely important for the society. Our fully robotic system integrated with the mobile app allows for “refuelling” of electric cars within less than 3 minutes in a cost efficient manner. Our project has social added value by creating healthy urban environment and accelerating the development of clean transport systems. This will allow to achieve the EU transport and mobility goals defined in the 2011 Transport White Paper by removing important barriers in the area of e-mobility. The decrease of CO2 emissions with the massive use of electric cars with easily replaceable batteries will additionally lead to reaching the EU goal of cutting carbon emissions in transport by 60% by 2050.

The overall objectives were to assess the technical feasibility of Powerswap, defining Powerswap requirements for demonstration, validation and scale-up of the robotic system as well as for international expansion, fixing the deficiencies of the first device and establishing a basis for international commercialisation.
The objectives for the market feasibility included answering the question whether the project is commercially viable, taking into account e.g. the development costs and business prospects as well as defining a road map for the continued development and subsequent commercialisation.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work performed (covered by the report) included performing technical, operational, organizational, market, commercial and financial feasibility, resulting in a business plan development and formulation.
The technical feasibility study has been successful and the Powerswap company is preparing for the next part of the launch. The Phase 1 objectives to list necessary activities and to create solutions to technical constrains have been performed with promising results. No remaining technical problems have been identified which can hinder us to build system demonstrators and pilot units for use in real operational environment.
The technical work has been split into four main modules aiming at the Phase 2 project: (1) the battery cassette for adaptation of the car; (2) the prismatic battery itself; (3) the battery swap unit or robot; (4) the automatic battery storage including charging facilities.
Among the main results achieved so far is the first adopted Renault Zoe completed with two battery prototypes. The economics for battery swap functions have been thoroughly studied together with all relevant parameters in a comprehensive calculation model. Cost for swapping is calculated to about 14 cents per 10 km driving. Number of extra batteries in the circulation is less than 2,5% of all batteries in the loop.
The demonstrators will be installed in Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm as well as in Berlin together with the Infra Neu Organization. A demonstrator will be exposed at an international car show.
Although the plan for Powerswap is aiming for the entire growing EV market, the feasibility study has resulted in a focused plan to start the introduction with the segment of the market which is in most need for an improved charging method, the commercial fleets. Taxi fleets, courier services, transport fleets, police cars, ambulances, car rental pools and community fleets – all do need to operate 24/7 and they can not use EVs with time consuming cord charging. The pilot project is planned for the biggest taxi companies in Stockholm and other fleet owners will be invited in the following expanded pilot stage.
The organizational feasibility has resulted in a project plan for Phase 2 including the identification of missing competences (the team of employees and external consultants). The business plan has been created which includes partners in Europe, US and in China.
Business projections are showing a very good profitability for the company itself, for the intended business partners and equipment vendors. The funding requirements for Phase 2 project have been calculated at the level of EUR 3M, which will comprise demonstrators, pilot units, adopted cars, establishment of sales structure as well as dissemination and communication activities.
To maximize impact, we conducted communication and dissemination activities to ensure that the knowledge of the project is spread to the key stakeholders on the market. We improved our promotional video, discussed further details regarding the cooperation with potential partners. One of them was Nevs (former SAAB). The results of exploitation and dissemination shown, that there is a huge interest on the market with respect to Powerswap (end-users, partners, Key Opinion Leaders) and that we definitely should continue with the project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Our solution is beyond state-of-the-art because it is based on a mechanical unit (robot) and not the establishment of a full swap station. The Powerswap unit is intended to be installed in a similar way as a petrol pump at a petrol station.
The big novelty is that we are bringing in the battery from the side instead of from underneath, eliminating the need of cleaning the feeder from the dirt falling from the bottom of the car. That simplifies the design radically and makes it possible to design a “unit” instead of a station. Powerswap requires only 12 square meters, while full swap stations require 200m2.
Our concept is based on two smaller batteries as that reduces the size and cost of swapping equipment. Handling batteries with weight of 200 kg is much easier than if the weight is 400 kg (state-of-the-art). In addition to that the speed of the swapping increases substantially as the inertia in the moving parts is much lower.
While the existing R&D stage solutions are all designed for one special battery (size and shape), our design is made for batteries with prismatic (box like). Out robotic system enables swapping different sizes of batteries from different vendors.
Based on our experiences from the automatic refueling systems, we have been able to create a unit with low complexity and few critical parts.

Our strategic objective is to deliver a solution that can become a mainstream vehicle batteries swapping method. The SME Instrument funding will be used as a trampoline for rapid development and international expansion.

The result until the end of the project will be market and investment ready product, demonstrated with reference users. We will also acquire first paying customers. The long strategic result following the implementation of Powerswap technology, will become a real game-changer: EVs itself will become cheaper than traditional cars.

This means a faster mass implementation and boosted development of e-mobility, as the cost of our infrastructure, which is based on swapping robots, is 1/10 of the cost compared to an infrastructure based on charging poles.

The implementation of Powerswap will boost the electrification of vehicles and will help car companies meet legally-binding carbon targets for new cars sold in the EU: 95g of CO2 by 2021 . Powerswap will give the EU EV infrastructure a major boost and encourage new surges in EV transportation leading to definite elimination of combustion engines. Powerswap moves the standardization in the sector forward. By implementing the most optimal (cost, time and effort) swapping system based on prismatic batteries Powerswap will stimulate fast, massive implementation of its revolutionary solution for EV charging. Our robots will communicate in a smart way with power infrastructure, minimizing the pressure on power grid and maximizing the use of renewable resources. Last but not least – social EU added value linked with eliminating harmful substances from the air, ground and water in urbanized areas is priceless and will help to fight derivatives of degenerative diseases.

Car bottom plate with battery

Battery swapping robot

Prismatic battery

OKQ8 station with Powerswap