Go big or go home: Battery swapping is coming to electric trucks

These zero-emission commercial vehicles provide the right use-case for price parity between EVs and internal combustion engines (ICE) once the cost of the battery is removed from the equation, according to manufacturers and domain experts.

As India races to decarbonize its massive freight sector, battery swapping could prove to be the silver bullet for heavy-duty electric trucks. This transition addresses the twin barriers of price parity and operational efficiency that have long stalled large-scale commercial EV adoption, potentially transforming the logistics industry from a top polluter into a leader in green mobility.

Cutting upfront cost and charging time

Battery swapping involves replacing depleted batteries in electric vehicles with pre-charged ones at a swapping station, reducing the time it takes to fully charge an EV. Models compatible with swapping do not come with a battery, making them much cheaper than regular EVs, since the battery generally accounts for nearly half the price of an EV. Heavy electric trucks above 12 tonnes in gross weight cost ₹1-1.5 crore on average, compared to ₹25-50 lakh for their diesel counterparts.

Montra Electric’s chief business officer PV Satyanarayana said the company decided to build electric trucks with swappable batteries to reduce the massive price gap between ICE and EV trucks and to cut charging times for these large, commercial vehicles.

“The more you sweat the asset, the more you lower the TCO (total cost of ownership). That's a very clear game," said Satyanayana. "Sweating" an asset is the practice of ensuring it is working as hard as possible for as long as possible to justify its initial purchase price. TCO includes the upfront cost of the vehicle and the cost of keeping it running. “If I'm able to reduce the charging time, I'll be able to sweat it more and lower the TCO," he added.

Technological advancements have also reduced the time it takes swap stations to recharge used batteries, another reason for the advent of electric trucks with large swappable batteries, he said.

India’s EV battery-swapping industry is growing rapidly. Valued around $10.2 million in 2022, it is expected to touch $61.57 million by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.2%, the think tank Centre for Science and Environment noted in May 2025, citing market intelligence reports. For context, India's overall EV market is expected to double in value from about $55 billion in 2025 to $110 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 19.44%.

Decarbonization potential

While trucks themselves account for about 3% of all vehicles in India, they contribute about 40% of the transport sector’s polluting emissions, according to Narendra Murkumbi, managing director and CEO of Energy in Motion (EIM), a battery-swapping company associated with renewable energy firm Ravindra Energy Ltd. “Compared to two-wheelers and even cars, converting heavy trucks in India to electric will have the largest environmental impact," he said.

E-trucks are a new addition to India's massive freight sector. About 11,000 light, medium, and heavy e-trucks were sold in India in 2025, according to the government's Vahan dashboard. However, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, which are incentivised under the government’s PM E-Drive scheme, accounted for only about 550 of these.

Commercial rollouts and infrastructure

EIM and other operators of battery swapping stations are optimistic that the inclusion of electric trucks will increase the demand for their services. “We have moved past the trial stage to the commercial stage. I can tell you the initial response from customers has been better than I personally expected," Murkumbi added.

To be clear, EIM makes swappable-battery e-trucks in collaboration with Chinese e-truck maker Foton (Beiqi Foton Motor Co. Ltd). EIM has also set up battery swapping stations at Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and in Sonepat in October.

Murkumbi said, “We obviously want to eventually build a nationwide swapping network. In India, swapping is not just a technical solution for fast charging, it is also a financial solution. It allows truck operators to invest only in the vehicle. The batteries are centrally owned and deployed by a network operator like us." He added that the company plans to launch eight more swap stations at ports and in the National Capital Region by March 2026.

Meanwhile, Blue Energy Motors, which makes its 55-ton e-trucks at Chakan near Pune, plans to set up five battery swapping stations along the Mumbai-Pune corridor, said Anand Mimani, CEO of the company’s EV and new-energy business. These stations are a part of its energy-as-a-service business.

He added, “When you put energy-as-a-service and battery swap stations together, you own the charging network and the batteries, so you can sell the vehicle without a battery. This cuts the transporter or logistics company's cost of buying vehicles by almost half, and substantially reduces the price gap between diesel and electric trucks."

Also, it takes a diesel truck about 10 minutes to refuel. “[With a swappable battery e-truck] I'm doing it in 50% of that time," Mimani said, adding that e-trucks can handle cargo for a variety of sectors including fast-moving consumer goods, express cargo, steel, cement and chemicals.

India had about 3,500 battery swapping stations handling roughly 350,000 batteries in early 2025, according to data from the India Battery Swapping Association. Regular EV chargers are more abundant, with about 29,000 public charging stations across India as of August 2025, according to a disclosure by the ministry of road transport and highways in the Lok Sabha in September.

Policy support and incentives

The government has for the first time incentivised both e-trucks and battery swapping stations under the PM E-Drive scheme, with allocations of ₹500 crore and ₹2,000 crore respectively. As per its guidelines, it will cover 80% of the upstream cost of setting up public battery swapping stations. Upstream costs include the cost of connecting the charging or swapping equipment with the power grid.

However, certain conditions in the incentive scheme for e-trucks, such as the requirement to provide a scrapping certificate to claim incentives, have left many manufacturers without government support, Mint reported on 7 September.

The government had previously attempted to standardise batteries, push for more swapping stations and create a battery swapping policy, but this was put on the backburner, Mint reported in January 2025.

Domain experts said the shift towards e-trucks with swappable batteries, the increase in battery swap stations, and government incentives for both of these would accelerate the adoption of electric trucks in India.

“In India, policy is emerging as a critical first driver of the electric truck transition. The central government is beginning to narrow the upfront cost gap through demand incentives and ecosystem support under PM E-Drive, complemented by state EV policies that offer capital subsidies, tax exemptions, and operational incentives," said Deepali Thakur, senior technical manager at Smart Freight Centre India, a think tank.

Limitations and operational challenges

While battery swapping has several benefits, it is best suited for short, fixed, high-utilisation routes, while direct-current fast-charging is essential for longer-haul operations, according to Thakur. A position paper jointly penned by NITI Aayog and the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) in 2022 explained why.

“Swappable batteries are typically smaller than fixed batteries. Swappable batteries are modular by design, usually around 1 to 1.5 kWh in capacity, and weigh about 10 to 12 kg. The smaller batteries result in lower weight of the E2W, and that yields better energy efficiency and greater range on the available charge. An E2W is designed to run with one or two such batteries, whereas vehicles such as e-rickshaws and e-autos can be fitted with two, three, or four such batteries, depending on their energy consumption and range requirement," it said, adding that battery swapping was appropriate for all types of light EVs.

Thakur of Smart Freight Centre India said electric trucks that require high kilometre utilisation and minimal downtime are well suited for battery swapping. "Heavy-duty e-trucks need large batteries, so charging is time-consuming, typically 45 to 90 minutes. Battery swapping takes just 6-10 minutes, decouples vehicle operations from grid constraints, and allows for controlled, off-peak charging," she said.

The key challenge for battery swapping remains the capital expenditure needed to acquire batteries and build high-tech swapping stations. The cost of setting up a 2W/3W battery swapping station, excluding the cost of batteries, is about ₹5-10 lakh, according to industry estimates. However, battery prices have declined 75% since 2015, the International Energy Agency said in its Global EV Outlook 2025.

Also, battery swapping companies, which once needed to have three times as many batteries as the anticipated demand of vehicles because of long charging times, can now make do with far fewer spare batteries thanks to increases in charging speeds, experts said. Satyanarayana of Montra Electric, for instance, said the company plans to build swap stations with only 6-7 batteries that can be used in rotation to revitalise about 150 vehicles a day.