Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for an EV battery exchange system that may be used in future Ford EVs, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on March 24th, 2023, published on June 25th, 2024, and assigned serial number 12017622.
The Ford Authority Take
This past May, Ford filed a patent for a swappable battery system for EVs, adding a fresh take on a rather old concept at this point. However, unlike some similar ideas revolving around the same concept, this patent didn’t propose swapping out the battery pack that’s located underneath an EV, but rather, batteries that would instead be mounted somewhere like the frunk or rear cargo area, and users would simply pull into a battery swap station when they need a fresh unit.
Now, this newly filed patent presents us with a similar yet different idea for a swappable battery system, one that’s a bit more conventional in how it operates. In this case, the vehicle would drive over a set of lifters, which would then raise the vehicle to access the battery pack, remove it, and slide it out of the way before a new, fully charged pack rolls in from the other direction and replaces it. After that, the driver would simply continue on their journey with a full charge.
Though automakers – including Ford – continue to explore ways to speed up EV charging, the concept of swappable battery packs remains viable, given the fact that it’s akin to changing out the batteries in a remote control or any other type of electronic device. It’s unclear if this type of tech will ever actually catch on and become commercially viable, but it’s also clear that Ford plans to continue exploring ways to make it happen if that is indeed the case.
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Comments
Nice idea but Ford needs to create a history of actual battery replacements due to aging or usage, not just cell failures, before redesigning future vehicles for this type of exchange and building such system. The Chevy Volt is the best example of a domestic EV with enough years to evaluate if such battery replacements are justified. Even Tesla abandoned this idea.
Copying the Chinese NIO now. Way to be ahead of the adversary lol.
How many cars are going to get damaged by this method? How much is insurance going to go up? Is it even going to be any faster than plugging in?
If dc fast charging is pushed to gas re-fuel speed – swapping would be SAFER than making plugging in the highest performance thing a BEV does (with megawatt+ connectors and pulling heat from cells). It’ll only take one story of an incinerated family for the public to demand otherwise.
US market should should find consensus on 2 sizes of swappable batteries for premium crossovers. Lower cost EVs would use today’s fast charging. Truck BEV is mostly a poor idea. The bean-counter/investor dream of one scalable system was always foolish.