- Transportation is ripe for disruption: Cars sit idle 95% of the time. Freeing up those dormant cars to be a part of the economy will take more than just Uber. Bikes have a major role to play.
- Swappable batteries: India’s EV revolution will begin with auto-rickshaws running on swappable batteries. Compared to larger batteries used in EVs, which typically aren’t interchangeable, these swappable batteries are smaller, cheaper, and take less time to charge. “Suddenly the whole economics was working. And once the economics work, one can scale,” said Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala.
- Diesel demise: Munich, home to BMW, considers diesel ban to tackle pollution
- Coal demise: The inflection point - clean energy is about to become cheaper than coal.
- Bengaluru is eating the dangerous heavy metals it produces: What leaves Bengaluru's washing machines ends up in its lakes, and dinner plates.
- University rankings: Chinese institutions went ahead of several prestigious European counterparts. No Indian university in world's top-100 list.
- Ravi Suhag: India’s most prolific hackathon winner never went to an IIT (or any other name brand school)
Friday, June 16, 2017
Quick notes: Swappable batteries, Eating metal...
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6 comments:
Some are also looking at liquid electrolyte batteries, which can be poured/pumped into the vehicle's tanks, like petrol is.
Sounds like Prof Jhunjhunwala followed our earlier discussion:
Jhunjhunwala realised that there was an opportunity to build volumes if EVs could be separated from the single most expensive component: batteries. “We said we’ll start buying vehicles without battery”.
Battery-swapping has been looked at for a long time - the former head of SAP quit to launch a battery-swapping startup company, more than a decade ago. Batteries have long been known to be the most expensive component of an electric vehicle.
Didn't Shai Agassi try it in Israel? It was a great model from a pioneer. For it to succeed in North America, one should be able to buy the car without the battery and then take battery service similar to a cell phone service. Maybe I will suggest this to Padmashree Warrior.
iirc it was shai agassi, of SAP, who created betterplace, the battery swapping firm, in israel and iirc sweden. didn't work because of the numbers (not enough customers). but if autos (which have vast numbers, short and frequent trips, and low radius of activity) can be used to pilot this -- thus creating charging and swapping points all over cities -- it'll get a kick-start.
Check out this latest article:
http://wallstreetpit.com/113583-recharge-car-batteries-instantly/
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