By Paul Lienert
March 3 (Reuters) - Ample, a seven-year-old San Francisco
startup, wants to skirt one of the big hurdles to widespread
adoption of electric vehicles by reviving the idea of quick,
automated battery swaps for owners concerned about running out
of juice while driving.
The main benefits, according to co-founders Khaled Hassounah
and John de Souza, are time and cost savings. EV owners would no
longer face long lines and wait times at charging stations. And
the cost of the modular batteries that Ample has developed could
be amortized over longer periods of time, which in turn could
lower the initial cost of an electric vehicle, much of which
currently is tied to the battery pack.
Hassounah, Ample's chief executive, and de Souza, president,
said their system can replace a depleted battery with a fully
charged one in less than 10 minutes, using an automated process
that “works with any electric vehicle,” at a cost “as cheap as
gasoline.”
Despite Ample's bold business model, the road blocks to
success are many.
The concept of battery swapping was tried more than 10 years
ago, with great fanfare and lots of funding, by Israeli startup
Better Place. The company raised - and eventually burned through
- more than $800 million before closing its doors in 2013 after
failing to convince enough vehicle manufacturers to embrace its
concept.
Ample, which faces competition from at least six startups
with similar strategies, has raised $55 million from such
backers as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Spain's Repsol SA
, according to investor website PitchBook.
Although Tesla Inc initially tested, then withdrew,
a plan to offer battery swapping to customers, EV maker Nio Inc
lets customers swap batteries at some 200 locations in
China. Honda Motor Co Ltd has partnered with Yamaha
Motor Co Ltd and scooter maker Piaggio to
develop swappable batteries for light electric vehicles.
Automakers also are rolling out vehicles with improved
battery packs that provide longer range between charges, as well
as shorter charge times, which could make battery swapping
obsolete.
A greater impediment may be that automakers including Tesla
and General Motors Co already have or are working on
proprietary battery systems, and are likely uninterested in
redesigning their vehicles to accommodate Ample’s modular
batteries.
Hassounah said Ample is working with four of the world’s 10
largest automakers, but declined to identify them. The company
also has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc in San
Francisco, swapping batteries in Nissan Leafs.
(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit
Editing by Matthew Lewis)
