Will battery swapping catapult EVs into the mainstream?

In August last year, when the government announced the sale of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers without a factory-fitted battery, industry and consumer alike were left a little perplexed. Fast forward to now, we realise that the government was acting with a forethought.

And in October this year, the Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari told a conclave that 80% of two-wheelers and 30% of private vehicles will be electric by 2030.

Battery price makes up as much as 50% of an electric vehicle’s cost. An emerging trend to tackle the problem of high cost of EV adoption is battery swapping technology.

Reliance BP Mobility signed an agreement with Mahindra and Mahindra earlier this month, which among other things, will explore battery swapping. The deal came at a time when two of India’s biggest state-owned fuel retailers, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum, announced their plans to offer charging stations at 17,000 petrol pumps.  

But some believe that battery swapping is the better alternative to battery charging for a country like India. The biggest worry for any EV buyer is range anxiety or the worry that the battery will run out of power before a charging point is reached. And also the time taken in charging them.

Battery swapping is designed to eliminate range anxiety as it is easier to set up a dense network of swapping stations even in urban areas. Not just this, electric charging takes time and Indian cities do not have physical spaces that can accommodate hundreds of vehicles when EVs become mainstream. Swapping addresses that problem too.

Bengaluru-based scooter rental startup Bounce has launched an electric scooter without a battery pack that’s priced at just Rs 45,000. This model comes with a subscription to the company’s battery-as-a-service product. Customers can stop at any battery swapping station in Bounce’s network and instantly replace their depleted batteries with fully-charged ready-to-go batteries.   

Bounce co-founder and CEO Vivekananda discussed with us the merits of battery swapping as compared to charging

With big players like Reliance Industries, BP and Mahindra moving into this space in India, we can expect standardisation to evolve soon. Further, several states including Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra are providing incentives and subsidies to set up battery swapping stations. 

In China and in the US, some companies have already set up automated swapping stations for cars, which is particularly useful for commercial fleet operators. As for Bounce, it is competing with companies like Ather Energy and Ola Electric, both of which depend on charging networks. Bounce’s first electric scooter will hence serve as a test case for the promise the battery swapping technology holds. 

Just like the e-rickshaws, we may see the proliferation of electronic scooters and three-wheelers in the days to come. And the battery swapping technology will only make the transition smoother. 

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