Can Stellantis Succeed Where Tesla Failed Making EV Battery Swaps Practical
The ability to quickly swap out an electric car's battery seeks to address two main issues. The first issue is the speed at which an EV charges. Even the fastest Tesla Supercharger takes up to half an hour to charge a drained battery completely. Secondly, it makes replacing a bad battery significantly easier down the road. To pioneer battery-swapping tech, a field in which Tesla has not made significant strides, Stellantis is teaming up with Ample, a company laser-focused on battery-swapping tech. Ample's goal is to make EVs more accessible by making it an easier process to own, charge, and repair if necessary.
Starting as early as next year in Europe, Stellantis will be fitting Fiat 500e cars that are part of its car-sharing fleet with the tech needed to swap in a fully charged battery in as little as five minutes. The pilot program will consist of 100 Fiat 500e EVs with Ample's modular battery architecture in Madrid, Spain.
Stellantis and Ample's solution to long charging times
Unlike a lot of EVs, which lean towards the large side, the Fiat 500e seems like a perfect candidate for the program. The car doesn't lend itself to a particularly large battery in the first place, and that fact alone would make swapping out the battery a relatively straightforward process. Adapting the same technology to other EV platforms like Ultium from General Motors or Tesla's battery platform might be more challenging.
Those future challenges aside, Stellantis and Ample are in relatively uncharted territory as far as the rest of the EV world is concerned. Most other EV tastemakers like Polestar have turned their focus to making the battery charge faster. Stellantis and Ample's solution is thinking outside of the box.
As of now, Stellantis has not announced any plans to bring the technology to the United States or given a real timeline as to when the pilot program will end.