The right push

Draft policy will increase EV adoption

The NITI Aayog last week released a draft battery-swapping policy pertaining to two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and e-rickshaws to address some key concerns within the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem. EV adoption would lower dependencies on fossil fuels and reduce the carbon footprint (assuming India reduces coal-based thermal generation). However, there are related cost and safety concerns. Multiple recent incidents where e-vehicles have caught fire and exploded have created an attitude of risk aversion. EV fires are a serious problem. Short-circuits within the battery are the usual cause and this can occur for several reasons, such as battery overheating due to the weather, or due to high-stress driving, or even the charging of an already heated unit. Fires can even start in an apparently functional battery due to hidden short-circuits.

This issue must be addressed in terms of both technology and public image. Regulatory standards for batteries must improve to eliminate chances of such fires, and police and fire brigade personnel have to be retrained and equipped to deal with these. The public must also be reassured such incidents will not keep occurring to ensure a widespread EV uptake. The draft paper mentions the safety issues more or less in passing in the context of suggesting advanced chemistry cell (ACC) batteries of uniform types be adopted for smaller vehicles. There is already a production-linked incentive scheme favouring ACC manufacturing and several firms have been selected for this Rs 18,000-crore segment. The draft lays out the arguments in favour of adopting a battery-swapping system for smaller e-vehicles. Selling an EV without batteries would substantially reduce the upfront cost. Instead, a battery-as-a-service (BAAS) model, as envisaged in the paper, would involve charging a subscription, entitling the user to swap out an exhausted battery for a freshly charged unit. Alternatively, a system of pay-as-you-go could be devised, with fees charged on swaps.

A battery swap for a small vehicle could only take a few minutes as opposed to a recharge, which takes several hours. Hence, this would be convenient and address what the paper calls “range anxiety” — the fear of running out of power on the road. If batteries are made smaller, as the draft suggests, to enable easier swaps, this would mean changes in vehicle design, which may or may not be cost-effective. In order to be a success, a BAAS scheme will be dependent on the rapid roll-out of a widespread network of charging and swapping stations. Charging and swapping stations may or may not be located in the same place, and could be constructed to different scales, depending on available space and power. The paper suggests authorities may offer land in convenient spots for stations, and also lower tariffs for power used uniquely for EVs. Standardisation would be key to interoperability. Every small EV model should ideally use batteries of the same sizes and specifications, or at the most, there should be only a few sizes and specifications. Laying down such standards would be critical. BAAS is a pragmatic idea and given the right policy incentives, a charge and swap network could rapidly develop. Vast amounts of space are not required and swapping could be popular and successful if all the safety concerns are addressed and if there is a reasonable margin for service providers.