03:30 26-12-2025

Ample's Chapter 11 marks the end of its EV battery-swapping bet

The electric-vehicle battery-swapping venture backed by Stellantis has been shut down just six months after launch. The U.S. startup Ample has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Ample proposed an alternative to conventional charging: drivers would pull into a dedicated station and swap a depleted pack for a fully charged one in about five minutes. The model also envisioned selling cars without a battery and offering the pack on a subscription basis.

Stellantis considered the technology for car-sharing and planned to deploy it in the Free2Move fleet using Fiat 500e electric cars. But the market moved in a different direction. The rapid spread of high-power fast chargers has enabled many EVs to replenish a substantial share of their range in around 20 minutes, dampening interest in a swapping system that is expensive and complex to operate. A five-minute swap sounds compelling on paper, yet the momentum has clearly tilted toward ever-faster plug-in charging.

Customer demand fell short of expectations. Additional subscription fees and concerns about the wear of the packs being received eroded trust in the service. Over its run, Ample raised roughly $330 million in investment but accumulated about $100 million in debt. The company’s assets are valued at $10–50 million.

The pullback wasn’t limited to the United States. In Spain, an Ample station opened in the fall has already been dismantled. Experts note that as charging infrastructure matures, city-focused EVs increasingly do without such alternative solutions. The outcome underscores a familiar theme in urban mobility: simplicity and predictable infrastructure tend to outlast more intricate propositions.