Battery Swapping Station for Electric Vehicles

SEMINAR PRESENTATION REPORT

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree

of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY

in

ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

by

Name: Aman Singh

Enrollment No: 0061480782
Group : 7 EEE123

Date of Submission: 21 November 2022

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

MAHARAJA AGRASEN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
(AFFILIATED TO GURU GOBIND SINGH INDRAPRASTHA UNIVERSITY, DELHI)
DELHI – 110086
November- 2022

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 Abstract
In contemporary days, the research and development enterprises have been focusing to
design intelligently the battery swap station (BSS) architecture having the prospects of
providing a consistent platform for the successful installation of the large-scale fleet of hybrid
and electric vehicles (i.e. EVs). The BSS may calibrate its subsystem for the electric vehicle (EV)
deployment by accomplishing similar idea as in existing gasoline refuelling stations, in which
the discharged batteries are being replaced or swapped by partially or fully charged ones by
spending a few minutes. The BSS approach has arisen as a promising technology to the
traditional EV recharging station approach as it provides a broader experience of business
prospects for the specific stakeholders. This work deals with the introduction to BSS including
infrastructure, techniques, benefits over charging station and key challenges associated with
BSS. Furthermore, an S34X-smart swapping station for EVs is proposed and finally, the key
thrust is research for BSS is discussed. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first kind of
review work on BSS.

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 CONTENTS

Name of Title Page

Number
Abstract 2
Content 3
Introduction 4
Charging Methods for EVs 5-9
• Plug-in charging station
• Superchargers
• Wireless induction charging
• Battery Swap
Battery Swapping Systems 10-14
• Different Battery Swapping System
• Function of the Swapping System
• BSS for Public Transport
BSS Benefits 14 -15
• Customer Prospective
• Power System Benefits
BSS Challenges 16 - 17
• Interchangeability
• Feasibility
• Infrastructure
• Battery degradation
• Battery ownership
Conclusion 18
References 19

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 Introduction
Vehicles are the demand for today's fast life but an increased number of vehicles have grown many
serious issues on the environment and also on their management. Moreover, since they are driven by
the power of non-renewable sources there is a need to develop better alternatives for future public
transportation with an efficient vehicle management section. Dependency on fossil fuels makes them
unsustainable as a major part of these have been exhausted and it will take thousands of years to generate
them again and hence with them they also make the transportation unsustainable . At the epicentre of
this research is the idea of revolutionising the entire automobile sector, which can be realised employing
the concept of EVs. The EVs are indeed the need of the hour owing to above-mentioned reasons and
many others too. The development of the EV technology must be concomitant with the development of
the charging technology for vehicles.

The charging infrastructure constitutes the backbone of the EVs. The diverse genres of EVs include
plug-in electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrid EVs etc. and are sensational in numerous prospects that
include reliance from fossil fuels, monetary savings, emission-free, safe driving, reduction in noise, low
maintenance etc.. The development of EV technologies is receiving a warm welcome as a centre of
happiness in the EV industry. Even though such positive evidence, there still some concerns are related
to such novel ideas for those stakeholders who need to envision, before they plan to spend in electric
fleet rollouts. Owing to scarcity in the availability of recharging stations, extended charging delay,
coercion by underlying utility grid, and the most important is the inherent EV range anxiety (EVRA)
problem, the social hindrance may arise in the existing EV owners. The noticeable and promising
charging techniques comprise the conductive EV charging (flow of power between EV supply
equipment (EVSE) and EV battery through the conductive link), inductive charging (flow of power
between EVSE and EV battery wirelessly through the induction principle), and the EV battery swapping
system (where the discharged battery is replaced by a fully charged one) charging and wireless
(inductive) charging, the battery swapping system, i.e. the third one, has still not deployed as a
commercially feasible option. Amongst all, the battery swapping appears to be an appropriate
solution for the present-day scenario. As against the conductive method for charging through
EVSE, the swapping of the EV battery proposes one key benefit, i.e. quick recharging of the
EVs. The job is effortless, the car driver simply drives his vehicle to a battery swap station
(BSS), park in a dedicated area, the battery swapped is autonomously done, and drives back
after making the payment. Tesla has already switched to the business for over three years and
the whole operation consumes less than a pair of minutes, even quicker than refuelling an
internal combustion engine vehicle. Coupled to this, the range that such services provide is like
the holy grail of electric mobility. It tunes the flexibility and usability of EVs with that of
combustion vehicles .

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 Charging Methods for EVs

The most renewed charging technologies nowadays include fast charging, inductive/capacitive
charging, mobile charging, robotic and autonomous charging, battery swapping as well as
particular charging for fleet EVs. Now the most important ones will be discussed here below.

Pug-in charging stations

Wired charging is actually the most widespread solution without real competition right now. It
simply consists in pugging in the car to a charging station through a cable.

Regular Charging
Usually chargers are of onboard type or can be connected to an external infrastructure. The
current for normal charging is most of the times low and multistage charging is the common
solution, in which voltage and current are constant. Charging times largely depends on the
battery size and a full charge may take from five to twenty hours. This kind of charging is also
known as AC charging. In case of onboard charging the car maker provides the AC/DC
converter and charging power is usually small (3-5 kWh) and useful for small electric vehicles.
In case of off-board charging (called also DC charging), charging powers are larger and it is
for larger vehicles. Converter is provided at the station. Normal charging, having low power
and current, doesn’t stress too much the grid and preserves the battery life. It can also be
economically convenient if well planned. The odds of this solution is the time required (it is
not indicated when we are in emergency or scarcity of time).

Rapid Charging
Rapid charging has been thought as a solution to time problem coming from regular charging
which has limited the spread of EVs. This charging mode implies higher currents (150-400 A)
and powers and is performed off-board at charging stations, allowing to recharge the battery at
60%-80% SoC in just 20-120 minutes. This solution has some disadvantages too, usually a
pulse-type charging is commonly adopted and being it difficult to control charging current
pulse then damages to battery lifecycles may happen. Going on, we should consider also that a
little level of standardization is present today and installation/operating/maintenance costs are
higher than normal charging. Finally, this kind of solution is not optimal in managing energy
consumption with its daily peaks and valleys, being not able to guarantee flat loading and
unloading the whole day (through B2G systems as well), making it difficult to implement a
modern holistic vision of a 360 degrees system of grid, vehicles, batteries and electronic
devices fully connected. The power grid is stressed reducing its stability and challenging its
capacity due to output current peaks (mostly when many vehicles are being charged together).
For these reasons, rapid charging is useful for emergencies and to help EVs diffusion, however
it cannot regularly substitute normal charging.

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Superchargers
Tesla’s supercharger is a 480-volt DC fast charging technology as a proprietary complementary
good for its electric vehicles. The superchargers’ network has been introduced in 2012 and in
March 2020 there were 16,103 Superchargers in 1,826 stations worldwide (an average of 8.8
chargers per station) in U.S., Europe and Asia. Electrical power is supplied at maximum 250
kW with the off-board connector.

Figure: Tesla’s network of supercharger in US

Tesla Model S has been the first car to be able to exploit such a network followed by all the
others. The business model implies free charging for life in some case and a maximum kilowatt-
hour per year in others. The payment occurs by credit card and is based on energy used or time
spent. Tesla decided to focus their usage on longer journeys. Apart from this network of
superchargers, the American company owns a proprietary network of 23,963 destination
chargers in places like hotels, malls or restaurants. These chargers provide less power (22 kW)
and are used to charge cars slowly for free (for Tesla’s customers).

Figure: Tesla’s supercharger station

In September 2017, Tesla launched the urban superchargers which are more compact and
power-limited versions of the common supercharger, deployed in urban areas like parking,
malls of garages. Tesla is planning to increase the percentage of superchargers’ stations using
solar panels.
All Tesla’s models apart from the Roadster are able to exploit supercharging technology and
the future planned models as well.

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In 2019, Tesla opened the "V3" stations which provide up to 15 miles per minute (depending
on circumstances).
In the European market, Tesla has been required to adapt to standard for European public
charging (i.e. CCS/Combo2), providing existing models with adapters. The incompatibility
with models imported from U.S. still remains.
Currently Tesla is also working on possible agreements with other car manufacturers for
superchargers network sharing and on the deployment of mobile superchargers.

Wireless induction charging

Figure: Wireless induction charging example on car

Inductive charging (also known as wireless charging or cordless charging) “is a type of wireless
power transfer. It uses electromagnetic induction to provide electricity to portable devices.”
It is mostly applied to smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, toothbrushes and medical devices,
However, it can be used also for electric vehicles. Energy is transferred from an inductive pad
(no perfect alignment is required) through inductive coupling, with no need of wire connection.
AC runs through the induction coil in the pad (primary coil) and, thanks to electromagnetic
laws, an alternating electric current is transmitted to a second induction coil (receiving) in the
car. This AC current is converted in DC current through a rectifier and utilized to charge the
battery of the vehicle.

Compared to plug-in charging wireless charging offers benefits in terms of simplicity, user
friendliness and sometimes better efficiency. Main issues are instead coming from
compatibility, limited power and the fact that today their usage is limited to stationary charging
which means when the car is parked with engine off. The real innovation would be the dynamic
charging mode which would solve most of the problems linked to short ranges. This solution
is currently under research but has two major obstacles which are large air gap and coil
alignment, affecting the efficiency of power transfer. Also possible impacts on human health
are under research.

Induction wireless charging is operating under some pilot projects in particular locations but is
not actually commercially viable. In 2018, BMW revealed that: “We would offer wireless
chargers with the 530e plug-in hybrid in select markets worldwide.” In reality, until now, no
more news has been released by the German car manufacturer neither about details of the
project nor about a project extension. If the previously reported problems could be solved,
wireless charging would have an enormous potential to change EVs usage scenarios. In
particular, it would be beneficial to autonomous driving development and advance since cars
could easily charge without human intervention both statically and dynamically. The
advantages of such a technology may impact also rideshare, taxi and public transport
applications.

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US-based WiTricity, a leading developer of wireless charging tech, has stated that “their
systems are capable of bi-directional power transfer, chargers with this capacity could allow
EVs to resell energy to the grid during peak periods, potentially combating storage and
overload issues that could otherwise be a major obstacle to widespread EV adoption.”

Anyway, the odds about this technology are still limiting its commercialization and companies
holding patents are waiting for the right moment to invest on its penetration on the market.
Until that day, plug-in charging technologies will be a good solution to let the EVs sales ramp
up since charging times are improving constantly.

Battery Swap

Although developments in technology and battery improvements are expected in terms of the
ability to store energy and to recharge faster, replacing batteries today seems to be the fastest
and safest system by now to restore the autonomy of an electric vehicle, since a lot of issues
can be found concerning the two other most known emerging solutions.

Fast charging technologies, such as Tesla superchargers, are not currently considered the best
choice by many experts, as in the long term they could significantly shorten the useful life of
the batteries and their ability to maintain charge. Wireless charging if not provided in a
dynamic form are useless in solving the charging duration issue (waiting time for customers)
since charging is slow and this slow charging problem must be added to concerns related to
safety and technical efficiency.

What is sure right now is that even if fast charging is growing year by year it still poses a lot
of critical challenges and, even if it allows to fully charge many cars in less than one hours, the
actual technology cannot be in any case competitive in terms of convenience with a traditional
vehicle which takes 5 minutes to fill the tank. From this basic consideration started my work.

Figure: Concept of battery swapping on Tesla source

But let’s take a step back and describe what battery swap actually is. The concept of Battery
Swapping as an energy refuelling station for electric vehicles was already introduced in 1896
to solve exactly the same problems that still afflict this type of vehicle, autonomy and long
charging times. It was then put into practice by the Hartford Electric Light Company which

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created a battery supply and maintenance service for vehicles of the General Vehicle Company
(a subsidiary of the General Electric Company). The vehicle buyer could buy the car without
the batteries and then pay a monthly fee plus a variable for miles travelled for the replacement
service. Both the vehicles and the batteries were modified to adapt to a quick replacement and
the service was active from 1910 until 1924 allowing coverage of over 6 million miles. In
modern times the solution is quite common for work lift trucks for example. The first company
that tried to spread a Battery Swapping system was Better Place.

The process flow is simple, he just needs to stop and let the mechanism swap his exhausted
battery with a fully (or almost) charged one thanks to its subscription fee. In this way the
customer is able to go on to his final destination and the concern is about the diffusion of these
stations rather that the capacity of the battery itself. The depleted exhausted battery is then
charged.

The process flow is simple, he just needs to stop and let the mechanism swap his exhausted
battery with a fully (or almost) charged one thanks to its subscription fee. In this way the
customer is able to go on to his final destination and the concern is about the diffusion of these
stations rather that the capacity of the battery itself. The depleted exhausted battery is then
charged.

Grid reliability may take some benefits form a battery swap solution since today it is not
designed to support the load profile of the estimated growth of circulating EVs. For sure an
improvement in the grid structure as well as an optimization in the management of charging
strategy will be required but they might not be sufficient and here comes out the BS technology.
Some studies have also confirmed that the degradation rate of the battery in case of fast DC
charging is much faster that slow charging which may be adopted in battery swapping stations.

It seems legit to think about battery swapping as the solution to all problems but things are
quite different since there are many odds and obstacles and, most of all, many doubts arise
about the customer acceptance of such electrification strategy.

Battery swapping projects are supposed to be very expensive and a big problem of
compatibility is present as to participate in the battery exchange you need an EV compatible
with a battery architecture designed for the BSS (i.e. standardized).

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 Battery Swapping System

Among all presented charging technologies and/or related infrastructures this paper focuses on
battery swapping (BSS), which is considered the solution that best fits the modern market,
society and stakeholders’ requirements. The idea is to analyse it in depth in all its aspects,
providing examples, deep dives on operations and a simulated case study as well.

Different battery swapping techniques

The steps involve for swapping of the battery at BSS is replacing the used battery that has been
depleted below its predetermined state-of-charge (SoC) level from a new and fully charged one
to sustain the electrified transportation. The early 19th century backs the history of swapping
when the interchangeable battery services were first suggested to overcome the limited range
of electric cars, trucks etc. [46], in which the exchange process was done by utilising the
manpower. Better Place [47] was the first commercially deployed battery switching service
that employed the swapping strategy for electric cars. The swapping technique was not
implemented for heavy-duty vehicles (buses and trucks) and was limited to electric cars only.
However, due to high capital investment for developing charging and swapping infrastructure
and lower market penetration, the company incurred severe financial losses and was eventually
liquidated. The battery swapping technique for electric buses was first used commercially by
China in 2008 during the summer Olympics when they switched batteries of ∼50 buses
operating over different routes [48]. Since then the swapping technique for the buses has been
widely implemented in China, Japan, South Korea, and other countries as well. The different
swapping techniques are discriminated based on the position of the battery in the vehicle and
the point of application of the robotic arm and are given as follows:

1. Sideway Swapping: This is mostly employed in case of vans and other vehicles where
the sideways positions is the most convenient.

2. Rear Swapping: This is utilized for vehicle in which the battery is placed from
backwards. Usually in the case of cars with large boot space.

3. Bottom Swapping: This is used for the vehicles whose battery is placed at bottom of
the vehicle. The swapping station is in the manner such that car is placed on elevated
platform and the batteries swapped from the vehicle using the robotic arm and other
accessories generally placed bellow the ground level

4. Top Swapping: This is most commonly used for the electric buses wherein the batteries
are placed at the top and upon the arrival of the bus, the rooftop opens and the swapping
is completed by means of the robotic arm.

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Features of Swapping System
To establish and successfully implement the swapping technique for buses, vans, and other
cars, extensive planning needs to be done covering all the necessary requirements ranging
from the availability of the batteries, chargers to data storage and management through cloud
and communication between the components to ensure interoperability. The BSS for the
vehicles will operate successfully provided there is continuous communication between the
different components of the system viz. the smart vehicle, swapping station, and information
system. The information system will be used to communicate with the vehicle as well as with
the station. The vehicle will communicate with the information system through the WAVE
communication while the station will utilise the local internet for communication. When the
vehicle's battery is depleted, the information system will receive the notification from the
vehicle, requesting a battery swapping service. The information system will inform the
station about the location of the vehicle, its expected arrival time and identifications so that it
prepares the battery by the time the vehicle reaches the station. Once the vehicle reaches the
station, the driver swipes his membership card and the information system locates all the
relevant data correlated with this card. This data includes information concerning the vehicle,
battery, vehicle's swapping history, transactions completed and other pertinent information.
Operating personnel will verify this data and direct the customer towards the swapping area
where the required battery switching will take place by means of a robotic arm. All the data is
being backed up on cloud storage from where it will be accessible to the authorities as well as
customers to ensure complete transparency within the procedures. Once the swapping is
done, the vehicle's battery will be monitored immediately for its state of charge, state of
health (SOH), remaining charge, battery age, battery life, number of charging and discharging
cycles undergone and accordingly the owner will be informed about the charges incurred and
the estimated time by which he can receive his fully charged battery. The robotic arms will
sequentially place the battery within

The charging racks in which each slot has the capability to charge the battery. The electric bus
battery pack has a battery management system that monitors safety, voltage, and temperature
of the individual cells for charge safety and balancing. The high voltage battery connector will
be attached manually and only when the connector and the inlet have been sealed the charging
begins. The closed contact between the connector and the inlet will be safeguarded by means
of a latch which will allow the current to flow once the contact is complete. Also, the swapping
station has the ability to perform bi-directional power flow with the grid.

Load curve is improved by the process of charging in off-peak hours and injection of power
into the grid during peak hours by the stored batteries. This process eventually increases the
overall efficiency of power systems.

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Figure: Typical BSS procecing unit

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As shown in Fig. any power distribution substation (1) can also be monitored by said BSS
control room (2). The said control room (2) can control and/or regulate and/or monitor the
overall functioning of the said BSS. The said charging racks (3) equipped with any slow and/or
fast charging methods capable EVSEs coupled with the said battery racks (4). The said
swapping track (5) can facilitate any logistics and/or safety check and/or manual and/or
automatic unscrewing and/or screwing the battery of any xEV. The said swapping lane (6) can
be any stationary and/or moving lane from the entry point to the exit point of the said BSS. The
said swapping robot (7) can facilitate any xEV discharged battery removal and/or fetching any
xEV compatible charged battery from said battery rack and/or installation of any battery pack
on any xEV through any battery swapping method on the said swapping lane (6). The said
battery/charger maintenance room (8) can facilitate any maintenance and/or repair as and when
required for any battery and/or charger. The said BSS maintenance room (9) can facilitate any
maintenance and/or housekeeping as and when required for the ideal and/or optimal operation
of the said BSS.

The swapping station operates on the first-in-first-out principle, i.e. the vehicle arriving first
will be given priority for their swapping services as compared to those who arrive later. To
attend the demand of all the vehicles approaching the swapping stations, itis necessary that the
batteries must be charged immediately after swapping so that they are available to other
arriving customers. This integrated operation of stations will optimise the vehicle for its route,
allowing the vehicle to maximise its journey with minimal lag. Battery charging factories and
BSS serve as a base for the current EV battery swapping systems.

A logistics system is generally employed for the transportation of a large number of centrally-
charged batteries. Battery logistics strategy, BSS planning and construction strategy, and
battery charging strategy for the BSSs are getting a lot of attention for research.

BSS for Public Transport

One of the most crucial and widely used public transportation vehicles is an inner-city traveller
bus [53]. Owing to their flexibility, economic feasibility, and ability to operate over all possible
routes with fewer maintenances/services, they are employed over almost all the routes within
a city. The characteristic features of the electric bus are stated as follows: firstly, the buses run
over predefined routes with a predefined schedule. Secondly, the buses operate throughout the
service hours and stop only when any malfunction occurs. Thirdly, the buses have very small
time breaks between their trips, which is once a single trip is completed bus is immediately
prepared for the next trip with minimal stoppage time. This is done to maximise the deployment
of the fleet buses without parking them at the depots for long periods. These features can
persuade as well as dissuade the concept of electrification of the buses. The merits of using an
electric bus can be that the bus utility can be optimised to satisfy the schedule to a certain extent
with minimal harm to the environment [54, 55]. One grave issue that would require attention
would be of charging the batteries once they are depleted. This is where the battery swapping
technique becomes an indispensable requirement of the transportation system to avoid the lags
in schedule and optimise the utility of the buses. The merits of swapping technique for electric
bus are as follows:
• The battery swapping system is fast and efficient method as compared to other available
battery charging option available in market thereby allowing the consumer to continue
drive without much delay

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 • The battery swapping technique reduces the customer waiting time as well as prolongs
the battery life (better battery chemistry) as compared to those which undergo the fast
charging scheme (50 kW and more) as the battery is charged at the desired voltage for
a long duration. the desired voltage for a long duration.
• Bidirectional power flow is incorporated in BSSs for connection with the grid. The load
curve is improved by the process of charging in off-peak hours and injection of power
into the grid during peak hours by the stored batteries. This process eventually increases
the overall efficiency of power systems. This is also more economical for station
owners when they have enough charged batteries for supporting their needs.
• The battery swapping technique for the public transit electric buses would allow the
optimisation of these vehicles to satisfy their schedule to a certain extent with minimal
harm to the environment. The battery pack of an operational electric bus has a capacity
ranging from 320 up to 590 kWh. Even the widespread deployment of fast DC charging
(rating up to 240 kW, 200 A, 480 V) would consume sufficient time that would
eventually disrupt the normal operation of the transportation system. This is where the
battery swapping technique becomes an indispensable requirement of the transportation
system to avoid the lags in schedule and enhance the utility of the buses.

BSS Benefits

Customer Prospective
Battery is believed as the costlier part in customer's view for having an EV. The discussed and
projected BSS scheme will allow the customer to lease the battery instead of lump investment
which was estimated between $12,000 and $14,000 for replacement of 24 kWh in 2012.

Very long charging times, up-gradation of household installations to high power chargers, and
the limited number of public charging stations are some other concerning parts for EV owners.
Level 1 chargers of a typical rating between 1 and 6 kW are used for direct connection in
households which takes 15 h for completely charging a 24-kWh battery. However, up-
gradation alternatives for a less charging time of up to 7 h are available as level II chargers
with a power rating of 3.3 kW. However, the upgradation cost is an extra investment and is
estimated at $849 in 2013. Even if owners will agree to invest this amount then also they will
not be able to use it fully due to the limitations in household current supply.

The relatively small size of the batteries also poses as a constraint for EV users and it results
mainly to a limited range. Easy access of owners to BSSs can eliminate these problems.
Otherwise, the traditional methods are not cost-effective in terms of heavy infrastructure when
compared to the proposed mobile BSSs.

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Figure: Challenges of BSS

Power System Benefits

With a rapidly growing EV market the need for fast chargers can become the prime concern of
consumers. To keep with the advancements in technology they will be required to upgrade to
the latest available charger to satisfy their daily energy needs. In this aspect, BSSs are obviously
superior to the traditional charging infrastructures as the upgrade is only needed at the BSS site
whereas in the traditional framework the upgrade is to be made on both sides, i.e. at the
household level and also at the charging station. Furthermore, as the system is a pack of
batteries, it can inject power back into the grid, smoothing the net daily demand curve and can
provide services to the system as a whole. This very feature of the proposed BSS apart from
being a storage device offers additional benefits such as frequency regulation, load following,
and voluntary reserve provisions.

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 BSS Challenges

Let us talk about battery swapping; the main benefit associated with the swapping model is
speed. The whole operation could take less than five minutes, pretty much the same amount of
time many people spend filling their gas tanks at stations today. Another plus point is that
people need not have to leave their vehicle or deal with potentially tangled or dirty cords. You
could sit in your vehicle while the operation takes place. However, the picture is more complex
than this, Furthermore, it has been explained in detail in.

Interchangeability
Brand compatibility and cross-platform features promise the success of technology and make
it a dominant trend of the market. The availability of similar interchangeable battery packs of
different manufacturers is the only hope of a battery swapping system to stand firm as a primary
option. This simple solution is dependent on the manufacturer's consent. However, this might
limit the innovation, uniqueness, and flexibility of products designed exclusively by any
manufacturer. Moreover, it will also limit product development as cell manufacturers, residing
at the top of the product chain, will have to design standardised cells to provide similar cells to
next level manufacturing entity, only through which further standardisation can be produced.
One can argue that there might be different power segments for the battery pack, but this would
then create a problem with supply and demand and also, possible compatibility issues with
vehicles not designed for higher or lower powered battery packs.

Feasibility
The battery design is currently posing as the highest hurdle of battery swapping technology.
The design of the battery should incorporate robustness in removing and re-installing it from
the vehicle. In India, only a few vehicles are presently offering such battery pack designs. For
example, Hero Maxi allows discharged battery to be swapped easily with a charged battery and
the discharged battery can be put to charging separately.

Infrastructure
The infrastructure required for the battery packs is immense and much more complex and
expensive than charging. BSSs in comparison with charging stations exert the same magnitude
of demand with the prime requirement of charging the battery packs. The sole difference is that
the demand of the former can be controlled (even in a practical scenario, the battery packs
should always be available for consecutive incoming customers and hence should offer
charging time accordingly). Furthermore, to fulfil the daily requirement of any station, the
stacked quantum of charged battery packs should always exceed by a certain percentage of
daily demand. So, the feasible strategy is to keep one battery pack within the vehicle and
another at swapping station, i.e. two battery packs for every car. Even after sorting all this out
it still seems a distant future, as the economics of a nationwide battery swapping system is not
speaking in favour when compared with a nationwide car charging system.

Battery Degradation
The maximum battery charge range is negatively affected by the degradation of its performance
over time. Hence the new battery packs will be more favoured by customers over the option of
other relatively old battery packs as they will offer low energy storage due to degradation over
time and this will reflect in the mileage of EVs. Hence the content of customers will lie only in
new battery packs, which considerably, will reduce the operating cycle of any battery pack.

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Battery Ownership
The vehicle owner owns the battery: in this case, the owner will have to purchase an additional
battery pack that can be used as a replacement battery when the battery in the vehicle gets
discharged, which is very less likely to happen! The ownership over a battery pack will always
be null for a vehicle owner. This offers several advantages. Since the vehicle owner does not
own it he does not have to pay for it, which makes EV cheaper. On the contrary, he is never
getting the swapped battery back and has to pay an additional lease amount besides the cost of
energy. This can be charged on each swapping or any other mutually agreed frequency, say
one month. The later method of lease amount is costly considering the least amount is inclusive
of minimum two battery packs and service charge of swapping station (whereas only one
battery is bought if the vehicle is charged and has one owned battery). The lease-on-each-swap
option is, even more, costlier (as swapping stations will be at an elevated level of investment
risks) and will bend customers for less usage of swapping stations to avoid these excessive
charges, especially when a charging option is available.

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 Conclusion

BSS strategies are arising as a promising alternative to the traditional battery charging station
approach since they provide a wider set of business opportunities to the dedicated stakeholders.
This work has presented the multidimensional aspects of an ideal BSS deployment. The
complete infrastructure, techniques, and benefits of BSS with respect to the consumer, power
system operator, and aggregator has been presented. Furthermore, the key challenges
associated with the BSS such as interchangeability, feasibility, infrastructure, battery
degradation, and battery ownership is discussed in detail. Furthermore, the following area can
be considered as a thrust area of research:

• Concept of the energy of entities (EoE) for contemporary power system infrastructures,
discussed its significance in launching economically viable swap station networks.
• BSS topologies that work under the EoE paradigm.
• Need for optimisation framework defining business model for swapping stations
corresponding each stakeholder involved in the smart charging infrastructure, i.e. smart
grid, aggregators, and xEV customers.
• Needs to define internet of things (IoT) paradigms shall be emerged as the supreme
technology in providing utilities to intelligent transport specifically for smart charging
of xEVs.
• Efficient multi-layer fog computing architecture for intelligent transportation and
explained its significance in designing smart xEV-based BSSs.
• Need to highlight the data science prospects and challenges that may evolve during
installation and running of BSS infrastructure.

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 References

1. Khan, W., Ahmad, F., Ahmad, A., et al.: ‘Electric vehicle charging infrastructure in
India: viability analysis’, Lect. Notes Electr. Eng., 2018, 487, pp. 193–206

2. Sustain. Energy Rev., 2015, 41, pp. 1277–1287 Poullikkas, A.: ‘Sustainable options for
electric vehicle technologies’, Renew.

3. BloombergNEF. “Battery pack prices fall as market ramps up”. Article published on
BNEF blog, Bloomberg Finance L.P., December 2019.

4. BloombergNEF. “Electric Vehicle Outlook 2020”. Findings’ overview, Bloomberg

Finance L.P., 2020.
https://about.bnef.com/electric-vehicle-outlook/

5. Deloitte. “New market. New entrants. New challenges. Battery electric Vehicles”.
Deloitte UK’s report, United Kingdom, 2019.
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/manufacturing/deloitt
e-uk-battery-electric-vehicles.pdf

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