Opel racing legend Volker Strycek explains why the topic of exchangeable batteries in cars has not really taken off yet
It is the great hope for the final breakthrough of electromobility: cars in which the battery can simply be replaced when it is empty. Refuelling” would be even quicker with a standardised system than refuelling in a vehicle with an internal combustion engine.
Motorsport would be very suitable for the development of such systems. However, so far this is grey theory and hardly feasible in practice. Volker Strycek, Head of Technology at the VLN, the organiser of the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS), how big the hurdles are.
“A battery like this is not just put into the car. It is an integral part of the entire construction. It’s necessary for crash reasons alone.” The 1984 DTM champion knows what he’s talking about. After all, he developed the E-Corsa for rallying together with Opel.
The crash structure is not the only obstacle: “We work with high-voltage technology. And there’s a lot more to it than stopping, unplugging and changing a battery. It all has to be considered in the process.” So the motto “open drawer, take out battery, put in battery, close drawer” is far from easy to implement.
There would be a method by which interchangeable battery technology could be tested in motorsport: If electric vehicles were developed on a unit basis. But that would no longer be the task of the VLN, whose regulations are limited to production cars (the regulations for the racing cars are made by the ADAC Nordrhein).
Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that with the rapid development in the battery sector, exchangeable batteries will be used one day. However, this is – at least in Europe – a pipe dream.
This is an excerpt from a long interview with Volker Strycek, which will soon be available in full on . He is currently leading the implementation of electric and hybrid drives in the Nürburgring Endurance Series. In its umbrella organisation VLN, he is the technical director. He also teaches at the Technical University of Berlin in the field of vehicle technology.
