Techno-Economic Framework for Electric Vehicle Battery Swapping Stations

Electric vehicle (EV) battery swapping stations (BSWSs) are an important aid in rapid transport electrification, especially in developing countries where per capita income is low and expensive battery prices discourage EV penetration. Consequently, a BSWS model, where the BSWS owns the battery, can help in EV penetration and rapid transport electrification. This article presents a new EV BSWS model to obtain a suitable tradeoff between the swapping time and the quality of battery health indicators. The state of charge (SOC), battery abuse, and battery degradation are measured/estimated online, while the state of health (SOH) is determined offline. The cost of the swapping cycle is determined by considering multiple cost components and penalties. The modeling approach not only enables determining a fair and affordable price for each swapping cycle for EVs but also helps keep a check on the battery’s SOH and remaining useful life (RUL) during swapping without significantly increasing the battery swapping times compared with the average refueling time of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. The swapping cost of the BSWS model is also compared with home and commercial charging station (HCS and CCS) models under different assumptions. The analysis suggests that the battery can be swapped in 6 min for light vehicles, comparable to the complete tank refueling of ICE vehicles. Moreover, with appropriate consideration of EV opportunity profit (EVOP), the BSWS remains feasible compared with HCS and CCS even at a high-profit margin of 750%. Also, battery degradation is considered using the economic model’s degradation cost component, and its link with different SOC strategies is explored. Again, the results suggest that SOC strategies can be a helpful way for BSWS to maximize battery life and increase its profits. Moreover, considering EVOP along with battery degradation and SOC strategies further highlights the feasibility of BSWS.