'Four-minute battery swaps': Is this the future of EVs?

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An Australian brand is giving old diesel trucks a new lease of life by repurposing them as electric vehicles in a way that could revolutionise the future of the technology.

Displaying its innovative tech at the Everything Electric show in Sydney, Janus Electric‘s vehicles are changing how trucks carry out short- to mid-journey trips by having a removable battery.

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Being able to forklift the battery out and swap in a charged one means trucks can back out on the road quicker than filling up the tanks with diesel.

The biggest advantage is that these trucks are being converted from vehicles that have already had a long life with a diesel engine powering them. This means no extra emissions compared to completely building a new one.

Drive sat down with Janus CEO Lex Forsyth to talk about all things electric trucking, and how it is changing what we know about future EVs and the industry.

How do electric trucks work?

Janus has converted 23 old trucks from diesel to electric, with the example displayed at the show being a used 10-year-old Kenworth.

Unlike most EVs, the battery is removable for charging, meaning instead of having to sit and wait for it to top up, the driver can just call over a forklift, unload the battery, and then install another virtually as fast as a bowser could fill the tanks if it was still diesel-powered. In fact, the whole process, Forsyth says, takes as little as four minutes.

“Where the fuel tanks were, we put our swappable battery technology, which has 620kWh of battery life. We can swap them within four minutes and put them into the charge stations we’ve built. All Australian built, manufactured right here on the Central Coast in New South Wales,” said Forsyth.

What’s the range of these EV trucks?

A big focus of EV technology is, of course, the driving range. The Janus trucks are good for a claimed 300km to 400km, which he says is similar to what Volvo is getting from its own electric mid-length trip trucks.

“A lot of fleets are doing this because most electric trucks currently have a ceiling driving range of about 300km to 400km. That’s just where battery technology is at right now,” said Forsyth.

“We analyse the freight task with our clients and then put the charging infrastructure where it makes sense. As we build the network, the whole principle behind our solution is that it’s open source, so all companies can use it.

“[Having your own charging hub] is completely optional. You can either use our infrastructure, own your infrastructure, rent your batteries from us, or buy batteries.

“If you think of the battery as a swap-and-go gas bottle, the beauty is that it only gets charged for the energy we put back into it. If they come in at 30 per cent because they’ve got a longer load they need to do, they don’t lose that energy. They only pay for what goes back into the battery. It is energy as a service, and the next generation is an inverter, so we can [put power] back to the grid.”

The charging infrastructure itself looks ultra basic; think of it as a large-scale camera battery dock. You lift it out, put it in and let it charge up.

What’s the benefit of a converted truck?

The team at Janus has tried to keep as much of the truck infrastructure as possible. That means the gearbox, driveshaft, differential, cab, and chassis are all almost original. Old trucks can be given a new lease of life, which translates into less waste going to landfills and fewer emissions emitted to construct a whole new vehicle.

Forsyth also made the point that these trucks are essentially getting rid of all parts that need consistent servicing, lowering running costs and parts going to landfill.

“We’ve removed anything associated with the diesel engine, and this is a big saving for the industries; you’re not doing a service on that truck every month,” said Forsyth.

“The economic benefits are huge. Sustainability is not just an environmental focus, it’s got to be economically viable too.

“We look at the trucks and say the environment has got to be a beneficial byproduct of what we do. What our fleets find is that it costs $175,000 for a conversion, as opposed to $750,000 for a new electric truck – which is a big economic saving for the fleet and capital.

“The other side is the ongoing savings in maintenance and tyre wear because we don’t have the heat going through the drive-on. These things run at about 40 to 50 degrees Celsius, whereas diesel engines run at 100 degrees. All that heat is going through all the components, and the things that wear out components are heat and friction.”

Is it possible to use this technology on future EVs?

Something like this system could be the answer to long wait times at public chargers, and even an answer to complex battery changes when they fail in passenger EVs.

Lex Forsyth says that while it may be possible for future EVs, it’s much easier when it comes to trucks because they are built on a similar framework to each other.

“There is capacity for this to be used in the car industry. The problem with battery swapping in cars is that we don’t all drive the same car. Whereas with trucks, something like this fits on a Kenworth, Volvo, fits on a Mack, Western Star, and Freight Liner, because trucks are built to a manufacturing framework,” said Forsyth

“It could work if we all drove the same car. But, the trucks make sense; these things are putting out the biggest emissions. That’s where we want to focus.”

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