The era of electric cars has already started. Every year with more strength, but it is commercial vehicles that are truly betting on sustainable mobility. The Japanese from Toyota have devised a battery replacement system to avoid recharging downtime.
The autonomy in electric cars is no longer one of the important keys to discarding these models. The increase in battery capacity is reducing the famous energy anxiety syndrome, but charging time is a key issue. Much more in the field of commercial vehicles, where they translate into money.
The electric vans have a double problem: the greater weight reduces autonomy and charging times are considered dead times, in which the vehicle is immobilized, which means an increase in costs. The Japanese from Toyota, together with the Japanese courier company Yamato Transport and Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corporation, the latter owned by the Japanese giant, are developing a battery system in the form of interchangeable cartridges for electric vans.
Toyota studies the feasibility of cartridge batteries
The R&D department of the Japanese giant is studying, together with courier and logistics companies, the possibilities of this technology that would allow reduce costs for companies, for example, those for recharging the battery at peak times. But for this it is necessary to analyze the design of current batteries to design the cartridge.
This technology entails significant advantages for operators of zero-emission commercial vehicles, since considering that the battery is the same in a fleet of vehicles, a refilled cartridge can be used in another vehicle when you pass by the charging station.
Among others, a large charging infrastructure is not needed because, in addition, spare batteries can be charged while the vehicles are running, reducing downtime due to charging and also acquisition, by sharing batteries with other models. The Japanese will carry out field tests around Tokyo in 2023, with a fleet of small electric vans made by Toyota, Suzuki and Daihatsu.