City's first shared battery-swapping station up and running
Shanghai's first shared battery-swapping station for new-energy vehicles is in trial operation in Minhang District, representing another step forward for green car supporting facilities.
The fully automated 20-second process consists of elevating the vehicle, unloading the old battery, installing the new battery and returning the vehicle to ground level.
The entire battery-swapping process takes only 20 seconds.
Covering about 100 square meters, the station can service 1,000 vehicles a day.
At the site, it took about one minute for a SAIC Roewe Ei5 to enter and exit the station. The new version of the Ei5 is equipped with a 52.5kWh battery pack, which can either be swapped or charged to 80 percent capacity in 30 minutes using fast-charging mode.
The station is operated by a Guangzhou-based company Aulton founded in 2000 that's involved in battery swapping, battery life cycle management and operating stations.
Lu Xiaoqing, Shanghai operation director of Aulton, said new-energy taxis and ride-hailing vehicles are the main users of the battery-swapping station. In the future, government, logistics and new-energy passenger vehicles are expected to use the station.
Aulton will have 12 battery-swapping stations up and running in Shanghai in the near future, and plans to have 50 by the end of the year.
