Ample, a San Francisco-based developer of swappable electric vehicle batteries, has raised $160 million in a new funding round, the company said on Thursday.
The company has developed a battery for EVs and an automated process for quickly swapping out depleted batteries for newly charged packs, according to founders Khaled Hassounah and John de Souza.
The Series C round brings to $230 million the total raised by the seven-year-old startup, which plans to expand testing and deployment to New York City, then Madrid and Singapore, Hassounah said in an interview.
“We’ve been saying for the past few months that this technology is ready for prime time, so now we intend to prove it” by expanding the fledgling service to more cities and drivers, he said.
Long charging times that are common at most public and commercial charging stations have dampened consumer and fleet demand for electric vehicles.
