Reducing TOC of Commercial EV Fleets - Battery in the Cloud & Battery Swapping Stations

Mitsubishi Corporation, Bosch and BPSE (Blue Park Smart Energy Technology) have collaborated to assist with the electrification of commercial operating fleets.

The demand for electrification is increasing, but uptake can be hindered by the initial investment cost to deploy a Commercial EV fleet, down time during charging, and lack of insight into battery life and performance.

To reduce initial investment and fleet operating costs, the joint concept is based on fleet operators paying to use and swap batteries, rather than purchase them.

David Boyce, Christchurch Mitsubishi: “Initially the Proof of Concept (Pilot) for this will be in China, with the aim of eventually expanding the solution worldwide.”
Neutral, third-party leasing services – e.g. mobility service providers/financing companies, would provide:

Bosch Battery in the Cloud Technology

Battery Insight: to control and maximise battery life and performance, battery-related data would be transmitted in real-time, to the Cloud.

Using AI, Commercial EV fleet batteries would be continuously monitored and analysed to detect and predict the health, capabilities and optimal usage of each battery over its lifetime.
Actions would be taken to slow battery cell aging – e.g. batteries aren’t charged to 100% in extremely high or low ambient temperatures.
Drivers and fleet operators could be notified of faults or defects which may need to be repaired.

BPSE Battery Swapping Stations

A Battery as a Service business model – utilising Mitsubishi Corporation’s battery service commercialisation capability and BPSE’s battery swapping platform.
Fleet operators would pay for the service: drivers would swap depleted batteries for fully-charged batteries, at swapping stations.
“Along with Battery in the Cloud technology, Battery Swapping Stations will leverage the electrification of commercial EV fleets and maximise battery asset lifetime value,” says David Boyce: “They’ll also lead to the reuse of batteries in the second-life market and improve sustainability.”