Swappable Battery News: Better Place Opens Its First European Station, and the Renault Fluence is Cheap in the U.K.

Swappable Battery News: Better Place Opens Its First European Station, and the Renault Fluence is Cheap in the U.K.: "

Better Place, an Israeli company that developed an automated electric-vehicle-battery swap station, expanded beyond the Middle East this week, opening its first station in Europe. The Denmark station will function as do the other Better Place stations in Israel, automatically removing the enormous battery pack from a special Renault Fluence Z.E. electric car and reinstalling a fresh unit. This holds a great deal of promise for EVs; current electric vehicle technology is limited not only by battery capacity and recharge time, but by infrastructural hurdles like a lack of available charging stations. A battery switching station—itself a gargantuan bit of infrastructure that would need to be paid for and installed—helps solve at least some of these issues by swapping the depleted battery pack out of an electric car for a fresh, fully charged battery pack in a timely manner, eliminating the typical several-hour wait for a full battery recharge.

At the same time, Renault is launching the Fluence Z.E. in the U.K., and has priced the vehicle very reasonably. How reasonably? Try £17,850 after a £5000 government grant for plug-in cars. At current exchange rates, that translates to $28,535, a whopping $5095 than a base Nissan Leaf here in the States. (More important, perhaps, is the relative affordability of the car in the U.K. A Mini Cooper S, for example, starts at roughly £18,000.) Customers are also on the hook for a $120 per month lease for the battery pack, as well.

The car that British shoppers will soon be able to buy features the same battery pack that’s compatible with Better Place’s switching stations—leading us to think that the Israeli firm has plans to expand its operations to the British Isles some time soon. Even without the station, of course, the Fluence Z.E. can recharge through a traditional power outlet, as does the Leaf. The Fluence Z.E. will feature charging ports on each of its front fenders, an electric motor that produces 94-hp and 167 lb-ft of torque, and a claimed range of 115 miles.

Better Place plans to open 19 more battery switching stations in Denmark over the next nine months, and later in 2011 a switching station is set to open in Australia’s capital city, Canberra. The Renault Fluence Z.E. goes on sale next year as a 2012 model in Europe and Australia.

Better Place—a company that builds and integrates sustainable energy infrastructures—opened its first battery switching station in Denmark today, the first station of its kind in Europe. Better Place has already begun populating Israel with battery swapping stations, and the infrastructure is compelling for the future of EVs. Current electric vehicle technology is limited not only by battery capacity and recharge time, but by infrastructural hurdles like a lack of available charging stations. A battery switching station helps solve these issues by swapping the depleted battery pack out of an electric car for a fresh, fully charged battery pack in a timely manner, eliminating the typical several-hour wait for a full battery recharge.

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