Introduction

With the amount of people living in urban areas constantly growing, the challenge of improving air quality and reducing carbon emissions becomes more and more prominent. In this context, the European Commission launched the European Green Deal, with ambitious objectives for the transport sector to reduce greenhouse emissions. A widely accepted solution to achieve these targets is the electrification of vehicles. 
With this perspective, the motorcycle industry is bringing together all key stakeholders to develop a common technology to boost electric mobility worldwide. 

Background

The motorcycle industry clearly understands that electromobility will play a key role in the future transport of people and goods. ​
By working together on common battery specifications, this will allow and enable the introduction of swappable battery stations in an efficient way. ​
​Swappable batteries allow riders to exchange their vehicle’s batteries at battery stations for fully charged ones. Instead of a full tank of gas, the clients get a fresh battery. Easy and convenient!​
Swappable battery technology will drastically shorten charging time, delete range anxiety, and reduce costs for the final users.
​Moreover, it will facilitate the re-use and re-purpose of batteries for a second life, according to a circular economy approach.

Aim

With this Consortium, the members aim to facilitate the use of electric lightweight-category vehicles by means of swappable batteries, and wish to promote the development and deployment of charging infrastructure for that.  With lightweight-category vehicles we mean L-category vehicles such as mopeds, scooters, motorcycles, tricycles and quadricycles. By common battery specifications, the introduction of swappable battery stations will be facilitated. This is seen to be key to the development of low-voltage electromobility.

About SBMC

This technology will only perform at its best if a common ground is found, and  common international standards can be adopted globally. For this reason, main players of the industry have founded the Swappable Batteries Motorcycle Consortium in September 2021. The Consortium was then soon joined by other members and intends to gather all the know-how, expertise and best practices necessary to define and promote common technical specifications and components for the best and fastest way to achieve a workable electrification.
This international and diversified partnership of vehicle and batteries manufacturers, energy providers, research institutes and associations, will address the main needs of customers and offer a user-friendly solution for urban mobility.

Advantages of swappable batteries

​See more on our Scope page.

The consortium has 4 main goals in mind

01 Develop specifications

To develop common technical specifications of the swappable battery systems: items like voltage, geometry, vehicle interface, connectors etc.

02 Confirm Common usage

To confirm common usage of the swapping systems. Ensure that batteries can be exchanged between different brands and types.

03 Promote as a standard

To make, and promote, the Consortium’s common specifications as a standard within European and International standardization bodies (de jure standard).

04 Expand its use

To expand the use of the Consortium’s common specification to global level (de facto standard).

Position Paper

 For more information, download our Position Paper in PDF format  here

Open for membership

The four founding members encourage all interested stakeholders to join the cooperation to enrich the Consortium’s expertise in order to ensure a large diffusion of standard swappable batteries in the future.
Check out all members on the Members page.
​Parties who are interested to join the SBMC can find more information on our Join-Us page and contact us for further explanation.