Swobbee develops standard battery with Honda, Yamaha, KTM, and Piaggio

The Berlin-based green-tech startup Swobbee is the newest member of the Swapable Batteries Motorcycle Consortium (SBMC) and aims to further promote the vision of a unified swappable battery system for e-vehicles. Founded in 2021, the international battery consortium has set out to establish common industrial specifications with accredited public standardization bodies, in order to develop global standards for electric motorcycles and light electric vehicles. This would make light electric vehicle batteries more economical and resource-efficient, and increase customer convenience, as the provider advertises. Additionally, it is seen as another step toward creating an efficient and sustainable battery swapping infrastructure.

Making light e-vehicles more attractive

The Berlin company aims to support this process in the coming years with its experience in developing swappable batteries and smart exchange stations. According to their own information, the system is the world's first cross-manufacturer battery swapping infrastructure with a multimodal approach for the entire micromobility sector. The Berlin-based Battery-as-a-Service pioneers emerged from the company GreenPack, which developed a standardized portable battery that is already used in numerous light electric vehicles and other electricity-based applications.

“We are convinced that with our many years of practical experience in the areas of battery swap infrastructure and system configuration of battery technology, we can make a valuable contribution to the development of a performance battery compatible with numerous vehicles,” promotes Tobias Breyer, Head of Marketing and co-founder of Swobbee.

The four founding members of the Swapable Batteries Motorcycle Consortium are Honda, Yamaha, KTM, and Piaggio. Their brands include Honda, KTM, Husqvarna, GasGas, Yamaha, Piaggio, Vespa, Moto Guzzi, and Aprilia. They are working toward equipping their electric vehicles with such a newly developed community battery in the future, it is stated. Other manufacturers are explicitly invited to join the battery consortium, thereby strengthening the acceptance of electromobility through a cross-manufacturer battery solution.

“Once the development process is complete and the new battery system goes into production, Swobbee will offer a compatible swapping infrastructure solution,” says Thomas Duscha, CEO, and co-founder of Swobbee.

From the perspective of Ludwig Speidel, CFO of Swobbee, the recent investments in Swobbee allow the company to continuously expand the swapping station network in Germany and Europe in the coming years. Swobbee will become the central exchange station for light electric vehicles, offering companies and vehicle users a convenient, efficient, and sustainable Battery-as-a-Service and Charging-as-a-Service service near them, Speidel confidently stated.