An electric car connected to a charging station, in Birmingham, UK. Photo: ell-r-brown/Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
The roads have been cleared for a surge in two- and three-wheeled electric vehicles (EVs). On August 12, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) published a notification allowing the sale and registration of EVs without batteries. The move is expected to increase their adoption rates by dropping the vehicles’ price. In fact, delinking batteries from EVs reduces the upfront purchase cost by 30-40%, making their price comparable to or lower than conventional internal-combustion-engine vehicles.
Consumers will still end up paying for batteries in some form – but the MoRTH notification allows battery manufacturers and energy service providers to come up with separate customer-friendly business models.
Manufacturers around the world are experimenting with selling EVs without batteries. In China, consumers have to pay a monthly rental to car companies for batteries; in France, battery-renting plans are governed by the kilometres consumers expect to cover every year. With a view to developing the EV battery market, motorcycle makers in Japan are working on a shared swapping mechanism for bikes. Currently, the most popular models worldwide seem to be battery-swapping and battery-renting/leasing.
Swapping and renting
Swapping batteries is similar to going to a filling station to refuel your vehicle. A consumer swaps a discharged battery or partially charged battery with a fully charged one from a swapping station. The Ministry of Power recognised this model through an amendment in the charging infrastructure for EVs. Battery-monitoring apps can also help consumers keep an eye on the charge-level of their batteries and plan for the next swap in advance. Battery-swapping eliminates the need to charge a vehicle’s battery too much in advance or setting up a charging station at their residence or in their office space.
That said, the challenge is to set up stations to meet the likely rise in demand for swapping. These services could be set up at existing filling stations to save service providers the land-investment cost. One particular model of note is to pay as you go, as offered by Sun Mobility – a technology-enabled service that allows fleet management and asset monitoring for commercial fleet owners (cabs, bike taxis, etc.). Together with GPS/GSM tracking, drivers can keep track of battery use in EVs, track battery stations and plan for swaps more efficiently.
Radio-frequency identification systems embedded in batteries could also ensure secure payment for the energy consumed, while remote-sensing could help station operators to keep track of battery packs and interchange stations. In this model, the swapping time is just a couple of minutes for two- and three-wheelers.
This said, battery technology is also evolving so fast as to render renting/leasing a good option as well, more so because of the depreciation cost. With renting, the cost of batteries and replacements is divided over the vehicle’s lifetime. This is similar to a pay-per-view subscription: a consumer may pay periodically (weekly, monthly or annually, or per kilometre travelled) for a battery, and renew their subscription when needed.
In this case, the consumer is responsible for charging the battery and paying for the electricity as well – in exchange for not having to worry about maintenance.
Source : thewire
