Audi has teamed up with micromobility operator Voi and Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider Swobbee to install a set of battery swapping kiosks at its prototype charging hub in Nuremberg, Germany.
Audi’s charging lounge offers a smooth supply of energy to Voi’s e-scooter fleet through two newly equipped Swobbee battery-swapping stations on the premises.
E-scooter batteries can be quickly exchanged at the kiosks, where they are charged and stored on-site under optimal conditions and under 24/7 monitoring.
The hubs save Voi’s patrol team from having to travel back and forth over large distances to charge batteries at central warehouses.
“With the Swobbee stations placed in close proximity to our rental station, the exchange batteries of our e-scooters can be changed with significantly less energy and labour input,” Stephan Boelte, Voi’s Regional General Manager for DACH and Eastern Europe, told Zag Daily. “This allows us to further increase the sustainability of our fleet. We are confident to expand our cooperation to other locations in Germany in the future.”
Swobbee provides operators with a pool of fully charged batteries, while managing and recycling defective units.
Swobbee CEO and Co-Founder, Thomas Duscha, said: “We are very pleased to now also be working with Voi, one of the most important drivers of micromobility in Europe. Swobbee and Voi share the same vision: to create attractive and sustainable mobility offers for cities worth living in.”
Audi charging hub
Audi’s innovative charging hub opened in Nuremberg about a year ago.
In 2021, shared operator Tier launched the first pilot project at the site with Audi and now the car manufacturer is looking to expand its offering.
Aimed at drivers and riders who may not always have access to charging at home or work, the automaker’s luxury hub is also a lounge, available by reservation via an app, offering space to relax, work and eat.
So far around 60% of the charging processes are carried out by returning customers, an indication that home charging is not possible for many people in the urban environment.
With the e-scooter sharing service at the door and the connected Swobbee battery changing stations, the Audi charging hub has become an intermodal mobility hub.
“With the hub, we want to transform our guests’ ‘charging time’ into a holistic experience,” explains Maximilian Oberacher, who is responsible at Audi for innovative services in the Audi charging project hub. “The intelligently combined micromobility offer from Voi and Swobbee is an important building block in our tangible ecosystem.”
