No-go for battery swapping kills Commodore EV

If Melbourne-based EV Engineering’s much-heralded electric Commodore has a future, it’s as a niche product outside of General Motors’ wider global electrification plans.

Built around Better Place’s global battery-swap technology, the Commodore EV sits at odds with GM’s strengthening electrification strategy.

Speaking yesterday at a symposium on the company’s electrification strategy in San Francisco, the company’s Detroit-based electrification engineering head, Larry Nitz, stressed that rapid-charge systems and constant improvement to battery technologies are the key drivers in the company’s future.

In doing so, Mr Nitz effectively quashed any idea the electric Commodore might have a place in the company’s growing fleet of plug-in hybrids (including the Volt) and battery-only vehicles like the Spark EV to debut at the LA show later this month.

Developed by EV Engineering, a Melbourne-based consortium partially funded by Better Place and a $3.5 million grant from the federal government’s now-defunct Green Car Innovation Fund, the Commodore EV was built using drivetrain-less donor vehicles provided by Holden.

Amid a flurry of publicity, the company rolled out a fleet of seven prototypes in July. Many a Canberra dignitary took a ride and declared themselves impressed, likewise our own motoring.com.au's writer Matt Brogan. One even recorded the longest distance covered in 24 hours (an unofficial 1886km), albeit with the help of 15 battery swaps.

General Motors remains unconvinced. “We’ve talked to Better Place and a lot of people, we’ve done a lot of studies in relation to how best to recharge – battery swapping, fast charging, slower charging and so on,” said Mr Nitz.

“I think what comes out clearly is to charge at home at night, charge at work. I’d stay stop-by fast charging could develop. We’re not proponents of battery swaps. If you’re going to quickly refill, fast-charge systems are the way ahead.”

Putting its time and money where its mouth is, the company is active on the standards committees behind the fast-charge combo plug that comes standard on the upcoming Spark EV. Revealing that vehicle at the symposium, it stressed its breakthrough value in charging speed – flat to 80 per cent in a claimed 20 minutes, less for smaller top-ups.

Why not swap the battery? “Well, you’re tampering with something that’s integral to the structure of the vehicle, with high-power electrical and thermal connections that are mission-critical. You might be able to do that a few times, but to do that over and over with large batteries is a tech challenge.”

Executive director of electrification strategy, Ray Bierzynski, said on-board charging is simply more efficient and practical than building networks of swap stations and sorting out standards and battery sizes with car-makers.

“You still have to charge the battery, whether or not it’s on board the vehicle. So why not charge it on board?

“When you take it off the vehicle you’re introducing into the supply stream multiple batteries for each vehicle… They have to be stored some place while they’re being recharged.”

But the biggest issue is in the compromises battery swapping imposes on vehicle design, Mr Nitz continued.

“Not every car is going to have the same battery. The total packaging of the Volt and the Spark depends on us engineering and designing a battery that fits into those vehicles – the battery pack is unique to each model. I mean, to swap the battery out of a Spark EV in the way they’re suggesting you have to remove the rear axle. Battery swapping’s just not conducive to efficient battery pack and vehicle design.”

Pamela Fletcher, GM’s executive chief engineer for global electrified vehicles, added that the cause hasn’t been helped by China’s State Grid power monopoly going cool on the idea, too.

“State Grid were all about battery swapping,” she said. “They thought that was the future of electrification in China. But they’ve have moved away from it too – you’ve just got too many entities having to collide and coordinate to make that happen.”

Speaking to motoring.com.au later, Mr Nitz came up with a surprisingly simple solution to many of the problems and consumer anxieties facing the EV industry.

“You want to know how to deal with a lot of those problems? Here’s how – you ready? Charging at work. That would go so far to level the load on the grid. Simple as that.”

Well, not so simple really, he continued. “Yeah, of course it’s full of complex issues – building owners, land owners, infrastructure owners, where to put charge points, how many and so on.

“But putting in charging (stations) at workplaces would really double the utility of the battery. If you really wanted to do something, that would be it.”

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