Battery charging and exchange system for electric vehicle

An electric vehicle 1 is powered by at least one cassette-type battery pack 2 (see figure 2) which can be exchanged once it becomes depleted at a battery vending station 300, 300' for fully charged batteries. The battery 2 is returned through port 303 and a fully charged battery is dispensed from port 304 in return for payment, the returned battery is then charged in storage 302. The battery stores information relating to the battery characteristics, its owner and has means (9, figure 2) for displaying this information. Each vending station has a card reader (54, figure 5) to accept the ID card of a battery user and a display to confirm battery rental information all of which is relayed to a central computer (51, figure 5) which arranges for billing.