Honda & Panasonic to install battery swap stations
Honda and Panasonic announced a project in Indonesia to trial battery swapping for electric motorcycles. The pilot will start this December through a joint venture deploying Honda’s Mobile Power Pack at a couple of a dozen stations.
We had featured Honda’s battery swap system for electric motorcycles in our newsletter before and now the project has taken on substance.
Together with Panasonic, Honda will begin their research in Indonesia before the year’s end. The pilot is funded through Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, NEDO. Local Pacific Consultants has come on board as well to oversee the research experiment including on-site surveys and coordination with local companies.
Indonesia’s legislation requires a joint venture formed by the companies that will trade as Pt. HPP Energy Indonesia. They will install charging stations at several dozen locations and charge multiple units of the Mobile Power Pack simultaneously in order to supply fully-charged batteries to users at any time.
Indonesia is the world’s third largest market for motorcycles, mostly running on fossil fuels. The battery exchange trial for electric motorcycles will take place in the metropolis of Bandung in western Java, and in Denpasar and Kuta, both located on Bali.
The concept of battery swapping has been proven successful for electric two-wheelers before, particularly in Asia. Taiwan’s Gogoro for example entertains a large fleet of electric scooters including battery exchange stations across Taipei reportedly.
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