Project: Sweden-China Bridge – Collaborative Academic Platform for the Electrification of Transportation Systems

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In this report we explore the situation in China vis-à-vis battery-swapping technology, its history, the current level of achievements, direction of the technology and its implications for society. We have chosen to explore battery-swapping solutions because they are complementary to stationary charging piles, and because their introduction in China has been ongoing since 2010. We want to understand the motivation, drives and barriers to this development and explore the underlying technical as well as the business aspects of establishing and expanding these new solutions. As researchers, it is our ambition to explore and understand the underling aspects, motives and drivers as well as conditions, challenges and consequences, in this case, the introduction of battery-swapping systems. Battery-swapping is not new. It was explored in Europe, Israel and the USA before China took the initiative to develop large scale swapping systems. This is explored in the Appendix to provide a historical and context-based understanding of its origin and global status in order to better understand the Chinese situation. Our focus is initially on new energy vehicles (NEV), more specific the segment of small electric cars. We are aware that there are also buses, trucks, heavy duty vehicles, small sized two- and three wheelers etc. that use battery-swapping technology, however, they are not focused upon in this paper.