How battery swapping can help in increased adoption of electric buses and trucks in India

Picture this: buses and trucks form about five per cent of the total vehicle population in India but contribute about 50 per cent of the tailpipe emissions. Ninety per cent of the commercial vehicles segment is privately owned, and given this sector is not subsidised, battery swapping can drive an additional 30 per cent increase in EV adoption and play a vital role in achieving India’s goal of zero carbon emissions in heavy commercial vehicles. Electrifying commercial fleets, especially heavy vehicles, is crucial for cutting emissions, improving air quality, and boosting the overall efficiency of the transportation sector.

These observations were made by Ashok Agarwal, CEO- HEV, SUN Mobility and Chetan Maini, co-founder and chairman of SUN Mobility (a major provider of energy infrastructure for electric vehicles) while launching the country's first modular battery swapping technology for heavy commercial vehicles. The company showcased this technology with Veera Vahana, a major bus manufacturer from Bangalore.

SUN Mobility has already tested its Smart BatteryTM solution for light, medium and heavy trucks and buses, ranging from 3-tonne to 55-tonne Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW).
“Battery swapping can really help as charging is not happening on the bus or the truck and is happening outside. This would be very similar to the diesel bus and it will be you pay as you go. We would be doing the entire battery investment and creating the battery charging infrastructure for the same. We would be charging the customer on the per kilometere or the kwh basis. It will help in reducing the overall cost of the vehicle as its cost without a fixed battery will be very similar to a diesel vehicle. We are now selling one million commercial diesel vehicles every year as a country. If the price is same for the battery swapping to the fuel charges then it could lead to increase adoption of electric buses and trucks in the country,” said Agarwal.

He said charging stations will be equipped with different kinds of batteries which could fit in different settings of a bus or a truck. Some vehicles may have a battery area on the roof-top, some on the back of the vehicle, or anywhere in the vehicle. “Wherever the OEM has decided to place the battery we can make the place swappable and can place two or three batteries as per the requirement,” added Agarwal.

Interestingly, SUN Mobility, since its inception in 2017, has onboarded over 26,000 vehicles across two, three and small four-wheeler fleet segments. It has currently more than 630 battery swapping stations across the country and is currently clocking around 1.6 million kilometers and 60,000 battery swaps each day and has marked an 84 per cent increase from last year's utilisation. It recently entered a strategic joint venture with IndianOil, SUN Mobility is leveraging IndianOil’s network of over 37,000 fuel stations across the country clubbed with SUN Mobility’s battery-swapping technology making it as accessible as conventional fuel stations. This is helping to streamline its offering battery as a Service (BaaS) nationwide without concerns of battery cost, battery obsolescence, maintenance, replacement, and charging time.

“Today India is importing $120-130 billion of oil every year. We aim to displace this by battery swapping. So it is a several hundred billion dollar opportunity. We want to take a pie out of that opportunity by battery swapping. We have been very successful in the electric mobility sector, particularly with our solutions for the 2W and 3W segments. I feel that our innovation for HEVs (heavy electric vehicles) will disrupt the commercial vehicle sector and accelerate the electrification of this crucial segment, vital to the cargo and passenger transportation industry,” remarked Maini.