Sun Mobility to roll out 100 EV battery swap stations in Bengaluru
The battery swap stations, called Swap Points, will help ease concerns over limited-range issues that EVs face, make up for inadequate charging infrastructure and help increase adoption of green transport mobility solutions that would help bring down costs and carbon footprint.
PremiumBengaluru: Electric vehicles (EV) mobility solutions provider Sun Mobility on Tuesday said it will roll out 100 battery swapping stations called Swap Points across Bengaluru.
The swap points will help ease concerns over limited-range issues that EVs face, make up for inadequate charging infrastructure and help increase adoption of green transport mobility solutions that would help bring down costs and carbon footprint.
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“As part of our efforts to make the state and its urban landscapes cleaner and greener, this support and collaboration is a significant step in furthering our vision to establish Karnataka as the EV capital of India. Bengaluru will lead the change with an environment that historically has nurtured innovation. I am excited that we will see innovative technologies and models in shared mobility emerge here, like battery swapping, that can be taken to the rest of India and the world," B.S. Yediyurappa said in a statement.
Karnataka has announced an EV policy through which it aims to bring in more investments into green vehicular technology and help increase adoption. The government has set a target of one charging station in a 3km radius grid in Bengaluru, as part of its 2017 EV policy.
Sun Mobility has partnered with Metroride, a sustainable transport provider, to solve first- and last-mile connectivity for Metro rails.
Metroride’s fleet of Piaggio Ape E-City electric three-wheelers will make use of Sun Mobility’s swap points deployed at prime Indian Oil Petrol bunks in various parts of the city.
Shared mobility like bike rentals are increasingly becoming a large part of the urban commute to complement the existing—or inadequate—mass transit infrastructure.
Companies like Ola, Uber, Bounce, Vogo and several others are looking at increasing EVs in their respective fleets to bring down capital and operational expenditure for service providers, reduce cost per km for users and help bring down pollution by keeping out smoke-emitting gasoline vehicles off the road.
“We realize that good infrastructure is a precursor to enabling a vibrant, clean and shared mobility ecosystem in a city like Bengaluru. A great example of this is the three-wheeler market that has 180,000 three-wheelers, supported by 85 LPG stations. We want to create a similar supporting ecosystem by deploying 100 Swap Points that can power and support all forms of shared mobility in the city, including 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, and last-mile delivery trucks," Chetan Maini, co-founder and vice-chairman of Sun Mobility, said in a statement.
EVs account for less than 1% of India’s enormous automobile market that leaves room for automobile makers to explore the largely untapped market.
Ola is investing ₹2,400 crore to set up a two-million per annum EV plant in Tamil Nadu. The Karnataka government on Monday said that it has approved investments of ₹22,419 crore in three different proposals involving EV and lithium-ion battery manufacturing that has the potential to create nearly 5,000 new jobs.
Two proposals of Elest Pvt. Ltd, of ₹14,255 crore and ₹6,339 crore, and ₹1,825-crore project by Hyunet Pvt. Ltd were cleared by the chief minister-led State High Level Clearance Committee (SHLCC).
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