Battery-swap stations for tomorrow's cars

The company is called Better Place, and it's into electric cars. Not building them, but making them convenient enough that the public will want to buy them.

The goal of the California-based firm is to create a network of stations where drivers could charge or quickly replace out-of-juice batteries.

All the electricity would come from wind, solar and other renewable sources. In fact, the proposed system could help to smooth out the inevitable fluctuations in these supplies.

Ontario has signed on to investigate possibilities here. The province agreed to conduct a study, delayed but due soon, on financial incentives and other ways to spur the adoption of electric vehicles.

In return, Better Place is to establish a Canadian head office in Ontario, open a demonstration and education centre in Toronto next year and, eventually, set up its system in the province.

The company is also working in the United States and Australia, but it's furthest along in three other countries. Denmark just agreed to install charging and swapping stations as a showcase project for the United Nations conference on climate change, to be held in Copenhagen in December. A swapping station is being tried for three months in Yokohama, Japan. About 800 chargers are installed in Israel, with 100,000 planned for when the system goes commercial in 2011.

Electric cars still face serious technical hurdles and remain expensive. A key challenge is to make operating them as similar as possible to what we're used to, without additional worries about running out of fuel or extra expense. Which is where Better Place comes in, says its global development manager, Sean Harrington.

Drivers would pay subscription fees (the amount still to be set) to use the charging and swapping stations. They could plug in wherever they stop, with most juice flowing while they're at work, or overnight. But power wouldn't flow into the car the entire time.

Better Place aims to make these vehicles, in effect, an active part of the electricity grid – soaking up power when supply exceeds demand and reversing the flow during peak consumption times.

A sophisticated control system would communicate with each plugged-in car, deciding whether to put electricity into the battery, draw it out for other use, or do nothing. Drivers could override the system if they required electricity in a hurry.

Denmark is so enthusiastic about the potential for electric cars to manage the fluctuations in its wind-generated power supply – projected to rise to 40 per cent of the national total – that it charges a purchase tax of 140 to 180 per cent on gasoline-powered models but none on electrics. After all taxes are included, Danish gas cars can cost more than double their manufacturer's price.

The bigger the incentive, the sooner electric cars will transform the market, Harrington says.

He doesn't suggest how much Ontario should offer, but notes that Israel taxes gasoline cars at 72 per cent and electrics, only 10. Quebec recently announced $8,000 rebates, while the American government offers $7,500 (U.S.).

For those who run low while on a trip, automated swap stations could replace spent batteries in about five minutes.

But Better Place faces obstacles, besides the availability of incentives for buyers.

It's still developing software, and Ontario and other jurisdictions are years from the "smart grid" that would be required.

In some vehicles, including Chevrolet's Volt, the battery will be part of the structure and couldn't be quickly replaced. Such cars could use chargers but not the swap option.

Ontario's first stations would be in Toronto, then expand to less populated areas. It would be some time before drivers could head anywhere confident they'd find a fuelling station.

Better Place is taking not the only potential road, but an intriguing one.

Peter Gorrie is Wheels' environment columnist. He can be reached at

pgorrie@sympatico.ca

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