It’s no mystery that one of the central points of research in the electric mobility sector is batteries. There are many important issues surrounding batteries: their weight, their cost, the technology behind them, their capacity, charging speed, autonomy/capacity and, last but not least, wear and tear, i.e. the normal course of charging and discharging cycles that make the battery perform less and less, reducing its real capacity.
It is precisely on this front that manufacturers are focusing their efforts, with the creation of partnerships for the standardization of batteries that at least allow city vehicles to eliminate some of the less pleasant aspects of electric mobility from the outset; in fact, due to so-called “replaceable” batteries (i.e. interchangeable and replaceable in real time with another battery of the same type at special exchange stations), the more or less prolonged charging pause is replaced by the few seconds needed to remove the worn-out battery and insert the new one that will be 100% charged.
The interchangeable and standardized battery can also have another not insignificant advantage: if it is replaced periodically or if it is deposited from time to time at an exchange point that checks its effectiveness, it can eliminate the risk of the user finding themselves, over time, with a battery that is no longer in good condition and is no longer able to guarantee the design capacity and the nominal autonomy. This is by no means a secondary issue, especially considering that these batteries can be very expensive for the user. From this perspective, the user no longer owns the battery, but “buys” its use.
The approach that Kymco has been showing since 2018, and which will be reiterated in its evolution during EICMA 2023 in relation to its Ionex electric brand, also starts from these issues: the “good” battery becomes a “service” and a whole eco-system is born. The Ionex Battery-as-a-Service Solution for Energy Companies is, in fact, just one of the three pillars of Kymco’s electric mobility strategy, which is accompanied by the Ionex Battery Measurement Unit for EV Manufacturers and the Ionex Energy Station for Battery Exchange Network Operators.
In short, with the Ionex eco-system, Kymco aims to be an interlocutor for all the players involved in individual electric mobility, seeking to meet all the challenges on the battery front that we mentioned at the beginning: On the one hand, users and network operators have the Ionex Stations, where they can exchange vehicle batteries, on the other hand, there are the companies that will be able to offer the battery as a service and, at the other vertex of this triangle, we find the Battery Metering Unit, which is a standardized electronic module to facilitate the integration of Ionex batteries into any electric vehicle project. In this sense, it is symptomatic what Karim Donnez, CEO of LiveWire (which has long had a partnership with Kymco on the subject of electrics), commented in a statement: “The Ionex BMU allows electric vehicle manufacturers to meet customer expectations for the ‘electric age’, probably emphasizing the fact that this standardization allows for considerable savings that can be translated into affordable price lists.