Is your ELECTRIC car giving you range anxiety? You need a Battery Trailer.

French start-up EP Tender believe they have the answer to range anxiety in electric cars with a battery trailer offering added range for long-distance EV drives.

Range anxiety in electric cars still exists, despite the constantly growing EV charging network and bigger batteries delivering ever more range. And that leaves makers of EVs with a bit of a quandry.

Do they shove the biggest battery they can in an EV to deliver a range considered palatable to buyers, despite the cost, or do they go the route of fitting a more modest battery pack to keep costs in check?

Logically, if you live in an urban area and only venture further afield a few times a year, an electric car with a more modest battery is the sensible, and affordable, route to go. And if you go that route, perhaps there is a clever way to travel longer distances with a modest battery than stopping for an hour at a time for frequent charges?

French Start-Up EP Tender thinks they have the answer with a battery trailer for EVs.

The idea is that EV drivers pull up to a trailer station on holiday routes, simply hook up the battery trailer and be gone in a minute or two with enough range – and a trailer battery of up to 60kWh – to get to the next battery trailer stop when they repeat the process. EP Tender reckon they can deliver the trailers on a single-use basis at around £30 a time.

Of course, we’ve already seen something similar in concept – battery swapping – from Better Place, which promised a quick battery swap stop to deliver freshly-charged batteries in just a few minutes. It went bust, not because it didn’t work but probably that car makers, beyond Renault, didn’t sign up to the technology.

It seems likely a similar fate may await EP Tender, although they are talking to Renault about offering the necessary tow fittings on the Zoe to attach the battery trailer, and do say they could fit it to current EVs for around £500.

We wish them luck.