What is a battery swapping station? Battery swapping stations have significant advantages, and their future development is taking shape. As a new scenario for recharging electric vehicles, the battery swapping station market is waiting to be explored. Battery swapping refers to the centralized storage, charging, and uniform distribution of a large number of batteries at charging stations, which also provide battery replacement services for electric vehicles. Depending on the location, there are two modes: the swap-and-charge mode and the centralized charging with unified distribution mode. The swap-and-charge mode is the commonly adopted approach, where the swapping station is responsible for both battery charging and replacement. According to the swapping method, it can be further divided into chassis swapping, lateral swapping, and box swapping. With the continuous maturity of battery swapping technology, chassis swapping has shown more prominent advantages in terms of battery performance, swapping process, and swapping time, making it a potential mainstream mode in the market.
Battery swapping has significant advantages, and its future development has a preliminary blueprint. Firstly, battery swapping significantly reduces the recharging time, saving up to approximately 10 hours compared to charging mode. Secondly, battery swapping causes minimal battery damage and extends the battery lifespan. Thirdly, "vehicle-to-battery separation" reduces the cost of purchasing vehicles for users. Fourthly, battery swapping imposes less pressure on the power grid and can form a strong peak-shaving and valley-filling capability through Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) solutions. V2G utilizes electric vehicle batteries as buffers for the power grid and renewable energy. When electric vehicles are low on power, they can be replenished from the grid, and when the grid experiences shortfalls, surplus power from electric vehicles can proactively supplement it. The China Society of Automotive Engineers estimates that the annual electricity demand for electric vehicles in China will reach 745.4 billion kilowatt-hours in 2030, accounting for 6-7% of the total social demand. The charging power will be 194 million kilowatts, accounting for 11-12% of the power grid's load and forming a strong peak regulation and frequency regulation capacity.
Top-level design promotes the development of battery swapping, and policy subsidies are substantial. Firstly, from a planning perspective, national policies in recent years have gradually favored battery swapping. Starting from 2019, relevant national agencies successively issued multiple policies to encourage the application of battery swapping. Specifically, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, provinces and cities are focusing on developing the battery swapping industry, with Jiangsu and Sichuan provinces leading in terms of the planned quantity of battery swapping stations, each exceeding 500 stations. Secondly, regarding subsidies, battery swapping stations receive subsidies for both construction and operation. Construction subsidies range mainly between 150 and 400 yuan per kilowatt. For passenger vehicle battery swapping stations, the subsidy amounts per station range from 500,000 to 750,000 yuan, whereas for medium and heavy-duty battery swapping stations, the subsidy amounts range from 500,000 to 1 million yuan per station. As for operation subsidies, they are awarded based on the actual charging volume and range from 0.1 to 0.2 yuan per kilowatt-hour. Additionally, Beijing has taken the lead in subsidy intensity nationwide. In addition to construction and operation subsidies, additional subsidies are provided based on annual assessment results, effectively incentivizing the long-term and sustainable operation of battery swapping stations.
Battery swapping and charging are not mutually exclusive; there is no conflict between them.
Firstly, it should be clarified that battery swapping and charging are not in conflict but rather parallel energy replenishment solutions. The market often has concerns about the battery swapping industry, wondering whether it is only a transitional solution with the development of new technologies such as ultra-high-voltage fast charging and solid-state batteries. We believe that in the long term, battery swapping will coexist with charging, and its market penetration may even surpass that of charging. Even without considering the technical challenges faced by current ultra-fast charging (XFC) and new battery technologies (power grid load, peak power sustainability, etc.), even if achieving the so-called "10-minute full charge," it would only reach a replenishment rate of 30-40% of the current battery swapping stations (according to announcements from Flymove Automotive and NIO, the battery swapping time is approximately 2-4 minutes). Combining the lower actual construction costs of battery swapping stations with the advantages of price arbitrage, vehicle-to-battery separation (which reduces the pressure of purchasing costs for users), flexible rentals, and stronger service capabilities in unit area, we believe that, at the very least, battery swapping will be a parallel energy replenishment solution alongside ultra-high-voltage fast charging under the most pessimistic expectations.