Europe to debut its 1st e-car battery switch station
Europe’s first commercial battery switch station is set to debut in Denmark later this month. The technology, the brainchild of the electric-car business Better Place, enables drivers of plug-in vehicles to quickly exchanges depleted batteries for fresh ones rather than having to wait for a battery to recharge.
The new station is just one part of the eMobility project, “Greening European Transportation Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles,” which has just been selected for a $7 million (€4.95 million) award under the European Commission’s program to decarbonize the economy. The project is led by a coalition that includes Better Place, FCC Construccion of Spain, Verbund of Austria, the city of Copenhagen, Elia System Operator of Belgium, the Technical University of Denmark, the city of Amsterdam, the Public Research Center Henri Tudor of Luxembourg and DSB Kommerciel of Denmark.
The two-and-a-half-year pilot project features four key elements:
- The deployment of the first battery switch stations in Europe: one in Copenhagen, one in Amsterdam;
- Plans for a network of battery switch stations across Western Europe;
- A pilot mobility project in Denmark that calls for both electric cars and trains;
- An analysis and report on the conditions needed to accelerate the deployment of an “open-access” electric-car infrastructure of charging and switching stations across Europe.
Six European Ministries of Transport — Denmark, The Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg — have endorsed the project during its application phase.
Following the launch of the first battery-switch station in Denmark, the coalition will begin deploying additional stations and charging points across the country and plans an initial commercial launch of its eMobility services by the end of the year.
