Can EV battery-swapping technology accelerate electric truck adoption? Isuzu thinks so

Isuzu believes battery-swapping stations could be the key to mass-market electric vehicle (EV) adoption, especially for light trucks that need to minimise downtime and maximise hours on the road.

Shown at this year’s Japan Mobility Show and called EVision Cycle Concept, the battery-swapping station is compatible with Isuzu’s new N Series electric light truck, set to launch in Australia in 2025, with plans to begin trials in the brand’s home market before potentially expanding globally.

Speaking to CarsGuide at the show, Isuzu Motors Limited Vice-President of Corporate Strategy Division, Konstantin Kriegelsteiner, said the swapping stations could ultimately bring down the running costs of the electric trucks to close to a diesel.

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“As you can see the biggest cost in the truck is the battery itself, so if you optimise the use of the battery and you can make do with a much smaller battery, it won’t be – in the long run – much more of a price premium than an ICE truck, and that’s why we believe in swapping batteries,” he said.

Isuzu’s electric N Series truck is available overseas in various configurations with 20kWh battery modules up to a total of five – or a 100kWh battery.

However, even with the maximum 100kWh capacity, the light truck will travel only around 200km due to its size and utility.

Isuzu’s battery-swapping concept however, means depleted 20kWh battery modules (positioned on the left and right sides of the ladder-frame chassis) can be swapped out in about three minutes, allowing drivers to stay on the road.

Isuzu believes battery-swapping stations could be the key to mass-market electric vehicle (EV) adoption. (Image: Tung Nguyen)

Kriegelsteiner explained the idea behind this concept was born from the limited resources needed to make lithium-ion batteries, and that maximising uptime was a better solution than even larger battery sizes that require lengthy recharge times.

“Strategically, there's not enough lithium in the world to replace every ICE (internal-combustion engine) with a battery electric truck, so we look at it from a more social perspective,” he said.

“There are enough batteries for everyone if we switch from that mindset that you always need to start with a full battery.

“Just have enough electricity to cover your workload for the day, and if everybody is doing that, we have enough batteries for the world.”

The battery-swapping station is compatible with Isuzu’s new N Series electric light truck. (Image: Tung Nguyen)

And because these battery packs can be removed from the vehicles in minutes, it also opens the possibility for them to power other devices and have global applications, according to Kriegelsteiner.

“Yeah [there are global opportunities], especially, for example, South-East Asia, Africa markets, which don’t have a reliable electric network quite yet,” he said.

“These batteries, you could actually put on a big truck and deliver to little villages and you have enough electric to power a village for a while.

“Like if you do a ‘barbie’ [in Australia], you would have LGP cans, so you could do something like that with battery electric, as well.

The swapping stations could ultimately bring down the running costs of the electric trucks to close to a diesel. (Image: Tung Nguyen)

“Isuzu is very strong in industry engines as well, so, power generators and so on. So, we see in the long run, there’s going to be more demand for power units, which are bigger than a campsite.”

However, Isuzu isn’t the only truck brand working on a battery-swapping technology with Mitsubishi’s Fuso (majority owned by Daimler Truck) showing off its solution earlier this year, while Janus Electric has also developed swap-and-go technology in Australia.

The biggest criticism aimed at a battery-swapping solution has been uniformity and co-operation across multiple brands, as it appears none of the proposed technologies are interoperable.

Multiple brands would need to agree on battery size, position and composition, while stations would need to be compatible with various body styles and dimensions.

For Australia, Isuzu Trucks sees “potential” for the local market, but has no concrete plans to bring the technology Down Under.