Abstract Summary
Along with passenger cars and heavy-duty vehicles like buses and trucks, the electrification of transport also involves lighter vehicles like mopeds, motorbikes and e-bikes. For commuting within urban environments, last-mile logistics and shared mobility, light electric vehicles (LEVs) are increasing in popularity globally. With low operating and maintenance costs, zero tailpipe emissions and the declining total costs of ownership, LEVs are very promising for commercial applications. Aside from costs, there have been other challenges associated with light electric vehicles: range, charging speeds and the availability of public charging infrastructure. The use of battery swapping stations with interoperable batteries presents a solution for these issues, but has only been used at small scales, limited to individual models or brands. A lack of standardization of batteries for LEVs has remained a barrier for the wider scaled implementation of swapping, along with the capital costs associated with swapping stations. However, in recent years, battery swapping for mopeds has proved to be very popular in Asian markets. In Taiwan, which has the world’s highest density of scooters - six in every ten people own one -battery swapping stations already outnumber gas stations. Similar developments are ramping up in India, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. In Europe, where passenger vehicles dominate the discussion on transport electrification, standards organizations are moving quickly to formulate a battery swapping standard for mopeds. Vehicles with swappable batteries have already been released in the market, with the expectation of both an upcoming standard as well as swapping stations in densely populated urban areas. The implementation of battery swapping stations opens a door for new business models, not just related to shared mobility and logistics, but also related to energy storage and grid services This paper gives a global overview of the rapidly moving developments in battery swapping for mopeds and their ongoing entry in the European market.
