As China sees a drop in electric vehicle sales due to Government subsidies declining, there are plans by one state-owned manufacturer to entice new customers via a battery-swapping scheme.

Sales of electric vehicles (EV) have been declining in China for the past 9 months, with a significant drop in March 2020. 

This in part due to the Chinese government dropping EV subsidies by 10 per cent this year, followed by a further 10 per cent next year and another 10 per cent in 2022. 

The subsidies will also only apply to lower cost EVs priced at less than 300,000 yuan (NZ$70,000). However, if the car has a battery-swapping system, then the subsidies will still apply. This is widely seen as encouragement of the swap system and a way to enhance EV adoption. 

Automotive News used the example of the EU300 EV. Ordinarily the car has a 129,800 yuan price. However, when included with a battery swap program, the price drops to 79,800 yuan plus 500 yuan for battery swap prices per month.

It is said that a battery swap can be done in three minutes, quicker than the fastest current EV charging.  Range anxiety, plus the higher cost of an EV vehicle, has been cited as one of the biggest obstacles in EV adoption. The battery swap would solve this problem. 

BAIC ‘s subsidiary, BJEV, had committed to building 3000 battery-swapping stations in 2018 but by 2019 was still at 160. The biggest obstacle seems to be cost as a station costs 3 million yuan to construct. 

There are 433 in battery swap stations in China as at end of March 2020, according to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Technology and Industry Alliance. 

Tesla had originally been on a plan to adopt battery swaps in 2013, but abandoned this plan in 2016 in favour of the supercharger network.