Heavy Truck Battery Swap Station Is Test Case for Cities
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Singapore’s first charging and swapping station for big rigs can replace batteries in under five minutes, simultaneously solving two big hurdles for the city’s electrification ambitions — space limitations and grid strain — and serving as a test case for other high-density metropolises around the world.
The 1,550-square-foot station takes up one-sixteenth of the space needed to charge 30 heavy trucks through the traditional plug-in method. It uses much less electricity — just 1,600 amps, compared with the 6,000 amps of power required to fast-charge 30 vehicles, according to EcoSwift, the company behind the project.
The entirely automated process can handle 60 trucks a day and costs about S$1 million ($777,000). That compares with about S$3 million for 48 standard fast-charging points, the company said.
It’s still early days — the technology is currently only able to serve one electric truck model from Chinese manufacturer Sany Group Co. But it offers a potential template for cities around the world that are struggling to roll out charging infrastructure at a pace that keeps up with demand.
NIO and CATL Form Strategic Partnership on Battery Swapping
NIO and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. ("CATL") signed a strategic partnership in Ningde, Fujian. Together, they will advance the high-quality development of the new energy vehicle industry by building a… — NIO (@NIOGlobal)
While range anxiety is a core concern for drivers traveling vast distances in places like the U.S. and Australia, crowded cities like London and Paris present their own set of challenges. Space is hard to come by and expensive to secure, and the aging electricity grid risks being overloaded if a lot of EVs are charged when power use is already high, increasing the threat of fires.
“Europe faces space and grid constraints — finding sites where you can bring enough power in a short period of time,” said Madeleine Brolly, an analyst at BloombergNEF. In the U.K., for example, “you have to dig up a road to bring power to your site, but the roads are too busy to close,” she said.
That contrasts with China, a pioneer of battery-swap technology, where the International Energy Agency estimates that as many as half of electric heavy-duty trucks sold in 2023 were enabled with battery-swapping technology.
But even industry leader Nio Inc. has grappled with the complexities of expanding beyond its home market. The company’s roughly 60 charging stations dotted across Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden tend to be off highways to target drivers traveling longer routes, rather than commuters in densely populated cities, according to Brolly.
Leading battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. is also looking to boost its presence in the battery-swapping sector. Last year, it opened the world’s first in-port battery-swapping station for heavy-duty trucks, serving multiple models. Earlier this year, CATL signed a partnership with Sinopec Corp. to expand a battery-swapping network, and is working with Nio to build out a network for passenger cars.
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Back in Singapore, EcoSwift plans to add more swap stations in industrial areas and is in talks with bus builders about incorporating the technology in their systems.
Heavy-duty vehicles, which include big rigs and buses, are a major contributor to emissions from the road transport sector. Singapore’s 52,000 heavy vehicles contribute close to a third of its land transport emissions, according to government estimates. In the European Union, it’s more than a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions from the road transport sector. And in the U.S., medium- and heavy-duty trucks contribute 23% of the industry’s emissions.
