Easybat consortium gets €2.2M EU funding for electric car battery research

Easybat, a consortium of eleven car manufacturers and academic groups has been awarded €2.2 million from Framework Programme 7 to develop off-the-shelf components and interfaces that will make it possible to switch batteries in and out of electric vehicles. This will avoid the need to wait for a battery to recharge, and also offers the prospect that batteries in electric cars could be a place for storing electricity and smoothing the peaks and troughs in production that are expected as Europe makes more use of renewable electricity sources such as wave and windpower.

The first large scale application of battery switching technology will be shown by Better Place, the consortium leader, and the car manufacturer Renault, with the commercial launch of the Renault Fluence Z.E, a car with switchable batteries, by the end of this year. Better Place is a US company that specialises in setting up refuelling networks for electric cars. Renault claims the Fluence Z.E. will be the first electric car with virtually no range limit, thanks to the ability to switch the battery in the Better Place stations.

Easybat will develop interfaces for switching a battery in and out of an electric car quickly and safely; the connector interfaces between the car, the battery, the communications network, and the battery cooling system; and design specifications that meet European industry and safety standards. These will be integrated and tested on fully electric vehicles to ensure they meet production-grade manufacturing criteria and European safety standards.

The final output will be a commercially available package of battery switch integration components and design plans that allow for different types of batteries, not just a single standardised battery. Car manufacturers that want to focus on proprietary battery technology can do so, and still be able to integrate their technology into a switchable battery electric car platform.

Easybat says it brings together all the leaders in the electric vehicle industry for the first time. Better Place, Renault and Continental will contribute their expertise in producing production-grade switchable battery electric cars. The European standards organisations, CEN/CENELEC, will support the making of agreements between the parties for the creation of consensus documents to facilitate standards development for battery switching.

TÜV Rheinland, a testing services company and KEMA, an energy testing company will ensure that the Easybat interfaces comply with European safety directives and standards. The German research institutes RWTH Aachen, Fraunhofer Institute für Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung, and Technische Universität München, Denmark’s Danish Technological Institute and the University of Haifa, Israel, will provide research support.