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The Intertubes are buzzing with word of a new EV battery on wheels that can seamlessly swap in and out of a Class 8 diesel truck. While Tesla CEO Elon Musk famously dismissed the idea of EV battery swapping long ago, swapping has become commonplace in some markets overseas and the freight hauling business could be among the first to crack open here in the US.
EV Battery Swapping, Class 8 Truck Edition
The potential for battery swapping to seep into the US market is already apparent in the low-hanging fruit of delivery e-bikes. Passenger cars would be next up the scale, considering that Tesla trialed a swapping system all the way back in 2015. However, that experiment quickly slid into the dustbin of Tesla history, and other swapping attempts in the US eventually followed it down the memory hole.
Now the California battery swapping firm Revoy (formerly SixWheels) is gearing up to skip right over the passenger car market and zero in on Class 8 heavy-duty trucks. Instead of full electrification, Revoy is pitching a swap-able solution that delivers substantial savings on diesel fuel for existing trucks, without the expense of an all-electric retrofit, let alone investing in a new electric truck.
