NuTech-ES Industries EV Battery Exchanging Business Model

NuTech-ES is committed to developing and marketing products and systems that will help reduce carbon emission in some way, in order to minimize the adverse effects of global warming.  In this endeavor, we have addressed one of the biggest challenges facing society today, that is, transitioning to alternative transportation.  Automobiles contribute about 35% of the total CO2 emission generated in the United States, and use about 70% of the oil consumed.  Reducing or eliminating this source will improve the carbon emission problem and oil dependency situation tremendously.

Using Electric Vehicles (EV) powered by batteries is thought by automotive companies around the globe to now be the best approach.  All of them are actively marketing EVs today.  However, there are a couple of major drawback with EVs that is being passed over by most everyone, rang anxiety and the down time for recharging the batteries.  Historically, this has been the big problem with electric vehicles going all the way back to the first ones in the 1900s.  People are now more than ever dependent on their cars being available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Waiting several hours for the batteries to charge is unacceptable for most families, with their daily transportation needs of work, school, doctor visits, soccer practice, an occasional run to the emergency room in the middle of the night, or simply gong on a vacation drive.

A solution to the problem would be to simply exchange the depleted battery with a recharged one.  But, this in reality is not so simple.  The batteries for EVs are big and heavy, weighing several hundred pounds.  The exchange cannot be done manually, and a machine would be required.  Autonomous battery exchanging has never been done before, it’s not obvious how to do it, and the automotive companies are putting off the challenges involved, which will ultimately hinder the acceptance of the EVs they are trying to market.  Then, there’s the problem of who will actually own the batteries if they are exchangeable?

This is where NuTech Energy Solutions comes in.  We have accepted the challenges, and are moving forward.  After considering several approaches to the problem, we arrived at a portable exchanging machine that’s mounted on a trailer.  Making it compact and portable will make it economically viable.  No site alterations are required.  Service station owners can buy them and sale them at a later time for a profit.  They can even rent or lease the trailers on a trial basis, with no investment risk.

The portable battery exchanger holds up to 12 batteries and is called the PERIC (Portable Energy Rack Inserted Charger).  With a 2 hour high amp charge for each battery, it can service an EV every 10 minutes on average, continuously.  That should keep pace with demand at first, but if demand exceeds the capability (as we should hope for) a second unit will suffice, or even a third.  They are after all “portable”.  Two or three could be placed on existing gas station lots.  Selling for about $100,000 (batteries not included), or leasing for $3500/mo with ownership in 3 years, they can easily each make $20,000 a month gross income for the owners.

The PERIC owners will charge the EV drivers an amortized cost recover service fee which includes the cost of the PERIC, the cost of the batteries, and the minor cost of the charging.  The batteries themselves are leased to the PERIC owners, like the propane industry does with their tanks, again eliminating investment risk.  The EV customer swaps the battery for a recharged one and pays the service fee.

At high volumes, the battery companies will probably need to establish a network of battery distributors, again as in the propane industry.  The battery recovery fee for the batteries will be controlled by the battery companies and their distributors.  The battery distributors will actually be selling “access” to an electrical charge for the batteries.  They will not be selling the batteries to anyone.  They will continue to own all the batteries, as propane distributors own the propane tanks sitting in people’s yards.  The electrical charge that goes in and out of the batteries can be used as a gauge for how much the batteries are used.  So, in a way, distributors will be re-selling electricity at a cost-plus price that will cover the cost of the batteries and battery servicing in an amortized way, so that the energy fee customers pay is less than the cost of filling up with gas.  The actual electricity cost, which is minor, is simply paid by the PERIC owners, again, who transfer this small charge to the drivers.

The battery exchanging infrastructure can easily pay for itself and the extra batteries required for the exchanging system if only 20% of drivers use the exchanges.

However, to make the EV industry viable in general, plug-in users need to pay their share of battery cost.  To do this, the EV industry needs to monitor the plug-in charging of batteries at charging ports, which could be your home.  The EV built-in battery meter can be read periodically, and the reading sent to the battery distributor, who will send a bill for those plug-in charges.  The cost of plugging in can still be much less than swapping a battery, about half the cost.  By using a plug-in log within the EV, the plug-in meter readings could be done automatically at the exchanging stations.  Even better, the plug-in readings can be sent to a distributor automatically every time the vehicle is recharged by a radio transmission from the vehicles.  This could be done by a vehicle cell phone system similar to ones used now for emergencies.

With this business model, unlike other business models, you only pay for the charges you use.  There are no monthly service fees, as in cell-phone services, or trying to guess how many miles you’re going to drive in a month to pick a particular service plan.

The battery companies and distributors will take care of the maintenance and recycling of the batteries, while making a profit leasing the batteries.  Assuming an initial battery production cost of about $10,000 each, there will be a total $120,000 cost for the 12 batteries on a PERIC.  Leasing the 12 batteries for $350 a month each, yields $50,400/yr, with a recovery in 3 years for all 12 batteries.  Less some minor maintenance cost, it’s all profit after that for an estimated 15 year battery life.  That is, the battery companies and distributors will receive about $50,400 revenue to share, for each battery produced for exchanging.

The income for the service station PERIC owners can be approximated in the following way.  Assuming 4 exchanges per hour as a minimum, in a 10 hour day, produces 40 swaps/day.  If the exchange price for a full charge is only $20 (less than most cars take to fill up on gas today), then the daily income will be $800 minimum.  Multiplying that by a 6 day work week for the service stations, gives $4800/week, or almost $20,000/mo gross.

The service station PERIC owners will pay out $4200/mo in leasing fees for the batteries (i.e. $350 lease x 12 batteries).  Assuming they bring in the $20,000/mo exchanging income, less the $3500 PERIC mortgage, the $4200 battery lease, and perhaps $3000 in electricity and PERIC maintenance cost, still leaves over 9,300/mo profit.  This increases to almost $13,000/mo profit after the PERIC exchanger is paid off in 3 years.  This should seem like a mighty good deal to most service station owners.  Almost $13,000 a month income per PERIC with no risk!

It’s a win-win situation for everyone.  The PERIC manufacture, service station owners, battery companies, their distributors, and the maintenance companies all make good money.  The automotive companies will sell millions of EVs.  And, the drivers of the world, you and me, pay less for our transportation needs while saving the environment at the same time.

Happy Driving