Europe Backs EV Battery Switch Idea

As the electric vehicles are getting ready to leave their mark on Europe, the continent's regulators are scrambling to find ways to insure that these types of vehicles can make a difference. Currently, there are very few charging stations across the Old Continent to support the implementation of the EVs.

On the other hand, American company Better Place is slowly beginning its push into Europe, having entered Denmark last week with the help of French manufacturer Renault, who will sell there, by the end of the year, the Fluence ZE.

Better Place has one of the most innovative ways developed to date to solve the battery-charging problem for EVs. Instead of asking owners to plug their vehicles into an arbitrary socket somewhere on the street, Better Place came up with a solution that will allow switching the depleted battery with a fully charged one.

The process is supposed to be much faster than charging, taking up to three minutes for the battery on an EV to be switched, or nearly the same amount of time you regularly spend at the pump, filling the tank.

Better Place's idea has apparently caught the eye of the European Commission's regulators, who gave their formal approval this week for an R&D program called EASYBAT that will lead to the creation of vehicles with easily switchable batteries.

The first of its kind in Europe, the project will involve several organizations. According to Auto Observer, standardization organization CEN/CENELEC will support the creation of the documentation needed by auto makers, while TUV Rheinland and KEMA will make sure that Better Place and the project it leads is a solution suitable for Europe.

The EASYBAT program is expected to run until 2013, being supported by the European Union with EUR2.2 million. The first application of the idea will be seen later this year in Denmark and Israel, the launch markets for Renault's EVs.