Battery swapping: Game changer for EVs in India

Shilpi Samantray

India is making a big push for EVs by creating enabling policies and increasing investor's confidence to ensure an inflow of capital for EV-focused startups. Despite these efforts to create a favorable market, the infrastructure to support the EV adoption in the country still remains a big challenge. Indian roads are dominated by small vehicle segments with more than 80 percent of the total vehicles comprising 2Ws.
The Indian market is different when compared to the western countries where a majority of the vehicles are 4Ws. As per the 2019 EV sales figures in India, out of the 7,60,000 EVs that were sold in India, small vehicle segments, comprising 2W and 3W, dominated 99 percent of the share. Therefore, an India-tailored solution is required to accelerate EV adoption. In this particular case, all efforts by the government should be channelized and focused attention should be given to these smaller vehicle segments.
Last year, Ola Mobility Institute studied the country's first multi-modal e-mobility pilot in Nagpur and one of the key findings was that the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) advantages for 4W is still years away. The electrification of 4W requires a significant commitment to infrastructure, thereby making it an expensive prospect overall. This further strengthens the fact that India's priority sequence of EV transition should be 2W and 3W, followed by public and shared transport vehicles including 4W and buses.
The transition from existing ICE vehicles to EVs can be smoothened by finding a solution that can mimic the existing petrol pumps and will make the experience effortless for the end-users. Battery swapping in these segments presents a leapfrog opportunity to achieve India's EV dreams. It is a charging mechanism in which a discharged battery is swapped or interchanged with a fully charged one. The entire process of swapping takes no longer than 2-3 minutes, thereby imitating the experience of a fuel pump. While the industry is looking at charging stations, battery swapping should
be treated as an alternate and promising charging option for 2Ws and 3Ws.
To make the adoption in 2Ws and 3Ws convenient, cost-effective, and seamless for the end-users, we need to make the process as user-friendly as possible. Users would want the benefit of EV but not the inconvenience of refueling. Traditional charging technology today, takes between 2-6 hours to charge the battery.
Taking cue from the somewhat close cousin of EVs - the CNG vehicles (where refueling takes at least 10-20 minutes waiting in line), EV charging experience would be 10 times as inconvenient and equally undesirable. To avoid the same mistakes, the refueling experience should be as convenient as the petrol pump. Enter battery swapping! It will eliminate wait time for charging, make better use of land, reduce the size of batteries in vehicles and will give an increased available run time.
To gain consensus on battery swapping as an alternative for early adoption of e-2Ws and e-3Ws, OMI hosted a policy dialogue. The platform brought together key market actors, thought leaders, influencers to recognize, discuss and align ideas on battery swapping as a viable charging model. Market leaders such as EESL, BSES, Kinetic Green, Exicom, Delhivery, AEEE, and Sun Mobility participated and collectively endorsed India's first 'shared resolution on battery swapping'. The shared resolution highlights battery swapping as a model for charging smaller vehicles, creating favorable economics for consumers, DISCOMs and energy operators.