Khaled Hassounah and John de Souza founded Ample nearly a decade ago to design swappable batteries for electric vehicles. Now, those years of work on a difficult but crucial technology have paid off: The San Francisco startup is partnering with its first major vehicle manufacturer to launch its technology and infrastructure in Europe.
Ample will work with Stellantis to outfit dozens of electric Fiat 500e cars in Madrid with swappable battery packs designed by Ample. The cars will be available for consumers via Free2move, an on-demand car rental company owned by Stellantis.
Initially, the companies will launch a fleet of 100 cars through the partnership but the goal is to grow that fleet as Ample builds out its charging stations and brings on more car manufacturers.
For consumers, the proposition is simple. Instead of waiting up to an hour or more for a vehicle battery to charge, Ample's ststions swaps out the battery packs with ones that are fully charged in around five minutes.
And for vehicle manufacturers like Stellantis — which owns car brands including Alfa Romero, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati and Peugeot — it adds value and convenience without requiring major redesigns.
Another benefit of Ample's system is that it still allows plug-in electric cars to be charged at conventional charging stations, giving both drivers and manufacturers options.
Hassounah told me he expects to announce more automaker partnerships next year.
Battery swapping technology was already used in more than 30% of all zero-emissions heavy-duty trucks sold in China in 2021, according to a report from the California Energy Commission which awarded Ample a $15 million grant earlier this year to help the company scale its manufacturing capabilities.
The technology is underutilized in the United States, though. And industry forecasts warn that demand for electric vehicles isn't growing as fast as previously expected due to global uncertainty, according to a recent report from Reuters.
The industry needs to "give people a solution that's economically viable, that actually meets the needs and does not require them to sit somewhere for an hour and a half waiting for the car to charge — that's really what today we're asking people to do," Hassounah said.
Conventional EV charging infrastructure works fine for "rich people in Palo Alto" who might not rely on their cars for everyday transit, Hassounah said, but the system has to work for everybody for it to really work.
Ample already has a dozen of its battery charging and swapping stations installed around the Bay Area which are used by a handful of Uber drivers who use cars that have had Ample's battery packs installed.
The company is focused on commercial fleets for the foreseeable future starting with ride-hailing and car rental businesses. Eventually, the company will expand into last-mile delivery and other corporate vehicle fleets.
While Ample is still investing heavily in building out its infrastructure, Hassounah expects to start reaching profitability across different geographic regions within the next couple of years.
Hassounah and de Souza founded Ample in 2014, nearly one decade ago, but they don't seem to be in any rush for an exit.
"We're kind of non-Silicon Valley in that way," Hassounah said.
He continued that, "very often people have a dream and they go tell the whole world about it. We didn't do that. We said no, no, we're gonna sit in a garage and we're actually going to get it to work. And that's why we took our time making an announcement. But now we are at the point where we feel we've done something that we can scale very quickly ... Then the value will come, right? That's a secondary outcome."
Ample has raised more than $275 million in equity funding, including $50 million in a private equity round from Blackstone and Banco Santander in 2021 that reportedly valued the company at more than $1 billion, according to Reuters. It also raised a $35 million Series B in 2020, followed by a $160 million Series C in 2021.
Its other investors include Moore Strategic Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, New Ground Ventures, Shell Ventures, Transform VC, Rosa Park Advisors and Repsol Energy Ventures.
