Jim Holder Will hybrids be spared the 2030 cut-off?

In Norway, you navigate to the swap station via your Nio’s sat-nav, which automatically books you in when you get close. Park in the marked rectangle, press an icon on the car’s touchscreen and the car autonomously backs in. Rollers line up the car, magnets prevent movement and jacks elevate it just enough to take weight off the suspension. Extractors then remove 10 bolts holding the battery in place and a separate jack removes the battery, which forms the car’s underside. A fresh battery is then extracted from the ‘hotel’ where it has been sitting

charging at a maximum rate of 60kW and preconditioned. The new battery is fitted, the car is checked for new firmware downloads, the screens come back to life and you can drive off. Each swap costs 100kr (£8.70) after you use your two monthly free ones. I clocked it at 5min 57sec from pressing ‘go’ on the touchscreen. I never had to leave the car, going Entire process is automated and you remain in car one better than a petrol station.

Last year, BP signed a deal with Aulton New Energy to develop battery-swapping services, while many of Nio’s stations are located on the forecourts of Chinese oil giant Sinopec. And Nio signed a deal with Shell in November last year to jointly construct swap stations in Europe and China.

Not everyone is convinced that it’s a good idea, however.

“I think we’re complicating it by changing battery parts,” Paul Philpott, CEO of Kia UK, told the audience at the SMMT Electrified event last month.

“Charging times are going to come down,” he added, citing the already fast 18-minute time to get from a 10-80% state of charge on the new Kia EV6.

Charger providers are understandably cool on the idea, too.

“Battery swapping is not globally scalable,” Tom Callow, former head of insight and external affairs at BP Pulse, wrote recently.

It’s certainly costly. A Swedish study published last year quoted Nio figures of $772,000 (£588,220) to build a swap station in China – including the batteries and site leasing etc – compared with $309,112 (£235,530) for a bank of charge points. What’s more, Nio needs to produce extra batteries to load the 13 slots in its latest generation of swap station. Aulton New Energy’s thirdgeneration swap station holds 28 batteries, requiring an even bigger capital outlay. In China, they get a helping hand. The government has cut purchase subsidies for higherpriced EVs but kept them for Nio cars to accelerate progress in battery-swapping tech. “Geopolitics is playing a role here,” said Michael Dunne, head of Chinese-focused automotive consultancy ZoZoGo. “China’s leaders make no secret of their ambitions to set global standards for ❝ China makes no secret of its aim to set global standards for new tech

new technologies directly challenging the US. And they openly support both Nio and CATL’s ambitions to dominate this sector via subsidies and incentives to offset the skyhigh up-front investments.”

China is also very good at persuading its mainly state-owned car makers to collaborate on technology such as battery swapping.

Nio has a great selling point, maybe even better than Tesla’s hassle-free Superchargers, but it probably needs to persuade another car makers to buy its platform to increase throughput at swapping stations to boost revenue.

That’s unlikely to be a European company, although it’s easy to picture a link-up with Geely-owned brands on future models, such as upmarket Lotus SUVs.

Back in Norway, Skarpass suggests another customer: his beloved Jaguar. Battery swapping wouldn’t be enough to persuade him to buy a Nio.

“It doesn’t have the right badge, but the concept is good,” he says. “If Jaguar were to adopt the system, I would definitely switch.” NICK GIBBS

BUSINESS Jim Holder

INSIDE INFORMATION

Hybrid, plug-in hybrid or electric: what will be allowed in 2030?

PRESSURE IS MOUNTING on the UK government to defi ne what will constitute a hybrid car from 2030-2035, which it has set as the period when engines will be phased out of new car sales forever.

Legislators have kept the description deliberately oblique, undertaking a period of consultation that is rumoured to be getting rather more intense than anticipated. It was expected that arguments would centre only on defi ning the electric-only range needed to be achieved by a plug-in hybrid. Now it’s not so clear.

Reports suggest that realworld data on conventional hybrids is causing pause for thought. While some see the technology as offering only mild benefi ts, others point to data that suggests it’s making a real difference, partly through its effi ciency and partly because, unlike PHEVs, which need human intervention and a working infrastructure, it’s always on.

The latter argument has merits. Picking through the data is an uncertain game, complicated by car makers being allowed to work together and pool their results. It’s notable, however, that Toyota-Mazda has for some time led the average CO2 emissions pack in Europe, with its 70%-plus hybrid mix challenged only by Stellantis, which has a helpful bias towards low-emissions small cars.

Little wonder that the jockeying for position appeared to step up a gear recently when newspaper leaks suggested Toyota was increasingly eager to fi nd out the government’s decision, its anxiety heightened by a need to know what to do with its hybrid-focused Burnaston and Deeside manufacturing plants and their 3500 or so workers.

Of course, inscrutable Toyota politely rebuffed the claims, but it seems only reasonable that it would want to know the timeline to investing billions in refi tting the facilities or closing them down – a decision that’s likely to be dictated not just by electrifi cation plans but also by the UK’s battery manufacturing capability and competitiveness as the shroud of Brexit unfurls.

But the government looks inclined to bide its time as it weighs up just how realistic its 2030 cut-off date is for the sale of pure-ICE cars. If EV uptake continues at the current rate and nationwide charging infrastructure can be built in time, it can take a harder line.

Even optimists admit it’s a stretch, though – not least as nobody knows for sure how big the advances in range and cost reduction will be between now and then.

But if the 2030 deadline for a full switch remains challenging, and the data on the merits of hybrids versus plug-in hybrids compelling, don’t be surprised to learn that what was announced as a line in the sand turns out to be drawn slightly farther away than originally billed.

Batteries are compatible with a number of Nio models

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