Stellantis partners with battery-swapping specialist Ample for swapping of Fiat 500 batteries

Stellantis, the owner of automotive brands such as Chrysler, Jeep, Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat, has partned with the California-based battery swapping startup Ample to offer battery swapping for the Fiat 500 in a limited project in Madrid, Spain.

Using battery swapping stations similar to what Chinese companies BluePark (BAIC) and Nio has commercialised in China and now roll out in other markets the users of the Spanish car sharing program Free2move will be able to swap batteris in their vehicles under five minutes. 100 Fiat 500 electric will be adapted to use Ample’s modular batteries, which can fit into any electric vehicle as drop-in packs. This enable Stellantis to integrate Ample’s technology without reengineering of its vehicle platforms. The program is planned to start in in 2024

In a press release Stellantis states that the two partners "have agreed to work toward integrating Ample’s Modular Battery Swapping solution in Stellantis electric vehicles. Battery swapping technology allows an EV customer who stops at a battery swapping station to have its depleted EV battery swapped out for a fully charged battery in a matter of minutes".

The two companies are also in discussions regarding the expansion of the application of Ample’s Modular Battery Swapping Technology to meet Stellantis fleet and consumer demand across other Stellantis platforms and geographies.

Ample started to perform battery swapping for Nissan Leaf driven by Uber drivers, without direct involvement of Nissan in Bay Area. The company raised $30M in 2021.

Battery-swapping has so far been championed by Nio and BAIC-owned Bluepark in China. In October Nio said their drivers in China had finished 33 million swaps since the start of the program. There are also several initiatives for both heavy EVs and for scooters.