Ample unveiled its second-generation battery swapping station; the new system—with double the robotics and running many operations in parallel—decreases the swap time from 10 to 5 minutes. A whole platform raises the car, allowing passengers to come in and out of the car as a swap is in progress.
Approaching the Ample station, the car is recognized by the station, whicih automatically raises its door. Once parked inside, the driver initiates the swap from the Ample app on a phone.
The new station takes just 3 days to build, allowing Ample to deploy across a whole city in just a few weeks. Ample is already supporting Uber drivers at its 12 stations in the Bay Area, with more deployments coming this year in California, Japan, and Spain.
Ample says it will work with any EV design; the swappable Ample battery acts as a drop-in replacement for the original battery design in the car. The process of getting a new car on the Ample platform takes 2-3 months, the company says.