VoltUp, a start-up which provides lithium-ion battery swapping solutions for two-wheelers and three-wheelers, on Monday said it has partnered with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) to open battery swapping centres across India.
As part of the partnership the company unveiled two such centres in Jaipur, Rajasthan, while announcing plans to open 50 battery swapping solutions centers in the next six months.
“The lack of charging infrastructure, high cost of adoption and long charging time for electric vehicles have been the hurdles towards adoption of electric mobility in India. To plug these gaps, VoltUp and HPCL have come together towards setting and scaling up infrastructure – bridging the gap for network, energy and technology,” the company said in a statement.
It added that the partnership aims at leveraging the country wide network of HPCL and technological advancements of VoltUp in the field of battery swapping technology.
The swapping stations will be fire and safety compliant with wallet-based payment systems, it said, adding that battery swapping will be done in less than two minutes.
Siddharth Kabra, CEO VoltUp, said, “VoltUp’s entire operations is backed with high-end tech stack providing real time information and thus convenience and transparency to all stakeholders. With our deep understanding and expertise in solar, we intend to integrate green energy for charging batteries and thus providing a complete green solution to the EV industry.”
Rajnish Mehta, ED- CSP & BD, HPCL, “There is an industry consensus that the Indian EV market will be dominated and driven by the two-wheeler and three-wheeler commercial segment. For this segment, battery swapping offers the best alternative to slow charging and helps the drivers to make optimum use of their operational hours.”
However, Mr Mehta, added that to make battery swap successful, a dense and thick network is essential, so that consumers feel confident about the availability of swaps.
Yuthika Bhargava
The Hindu
