China’s XEV has taken to the show floor at IAA Munich to demonstrate how European buyers will be able to exchange batteries in its upcoming city car. Partnering with fuel company ENI, the two companies are set to launch battery swapping stations.
The batteries will be swapped on the XEV Yoyo, a 2-meter (6.5-foot) long city car with a 10.3 kWh battery pack. The automaker claims that’s enough juice to help the car travel up to 150 km (93 miles) on a charge. Although you can recharge the battery if you so choose, the battery pack is also small enough to simply be swapped out in a few minutes.
XEV announced at the show that it will be setting up “Battery Xchange” cabinets at a number of ENI service stations around Europe to give Yoyo owners an easy location to swap their batteries.
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The move, says the company, is important to EV adoption since the length of charging times is often enough to turn away potential buyers. It must equally be said, though, that one of the most environmentally taxing aspects of EV manufacturing is the battery, so producing more batteries may affect the car’s green credentials.
The Yoyo is also of note because XEV claims that it is among the most thoroughly 3D printed cars coming to market. Apart from the chassis, the seats, and the glass, almost everything that is visible on the car has been 3D printed. That means that the car can be built in just three days.
Prices for the Yoyo start at €13,900 ($16,484 USD) before green incentives. The Citroen Ami city car, for comparison, costs just €6,000 ($7,115 USD) but only gets 70 km (43 miles) of range and has a top speed of 45 km/h (28 mph), as compared to the Yoyo’s 80 km/h (50 mph) top speed.
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