Mitsubishi, Fuso, other firms to pilot EV battery swapping initiative in Tokyo

MANILA: Mitsubishi Motors — alongside Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC), Ample Incorporated, and Yamato Transport Company, Limited — announced a multi-year commercial electric vehicle (EV) battery swapping pilot program in Tokyo.

The said initiative will be comprised of more than 150 battery-swappable trucks, made up of Mitsubishi Minicab EVs and Fuso eCanters (showcased sometime last year), as well as 14 modular battery swapping stations across Tokyo.

Ample Incorporated — an American battery swapping company — will provide battery swapping technology for the participating EV platforms and will install and operate swapping stations.

Meanwhile, Yamato Transport — a Japanese shipping and logistics firm — will be the initiative’s first major customer.

The project, according to Mitsubishi, is supported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Environment Public Corporation. It will commence in September and is open to additional automakers.

Reduced downtime, automated battery swapping

Per Mitsubishi, the goal of the project is to reduce vehicle downtime during charging.

On that note, the consortium targets battery swapping that can be accomplished in as little as five minutes. It will be fully automated, so drivers are not required to exit their vehicles during the battery swapping process.

From Kyoto to Tokyo

The current initiative expands upon earlier collaboration between participants, Mitsubishi explained.

In 2024, Yamato Transport, MFTBC, and Ample ran a successful commercial delivery pilot alongside battery-swapping taxis in Kyoto.

The Tokyo effort not only increases the project’s scale but also directly supports Japan’s ambitious economy-wide climate goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 46 percent from 2013 levels by 2030, achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

According to Mitsubishi, the transportation sector accounted for roughly 19 percent of Japan’s total carbon dioxide emissions as of 2022, making commercial fleet electrification a strategic priority in Japan's decarbonization efforts.

“The partnership’s goal is to demonstrate how battery swapping can support the real-world demands of commercial EV operators and to establish a backbone for commercial battery swapping in Japan’s largest city,” Mitsubishi wrote in a press release.

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