Electric Mobility Sector Welcomes NITI Aayog's Battery Swapping Policy Draft

The government think-tank NITI Aayog released a draft battery swapping policy aimed to prioritise the development of a battery swapping network under the first phase. The draft policy suggests all vehicles with swappable batteries will be sold without one in order to lower the acquisition cost for EV owners. Moreover, the draft policy encourages individuals or entities to set up battery swapping stations. It also suggests reducing the GST slab on lithium-ion batteries that's currently 18 per cent and 5 per cent on electric vehicle supply equipment. The draft policy also proposes the same incentives to EVs with swappable batteries that are currently offered on EVs with fixed batteries. The policy aims to make EVs with swappable batteries more accessible to the end-user and the same has been welcomed by the Indian electric mobility sector as well. Here's how the industry players reacted to the draft policy.

Also Read: Niti Aayog Releases Draft Battery Swapping Policy

Chetan Maini, Chairman & Co-Founder, SUN Mobility, said, "It is encouraging to see that rather than mandating a rigid set of technical and operational requirements to foster interoperability, this policy will allow for multiple distinct interoperable solutions to arise, which would encourage market-led innovation in terms of products and services. This draft policy will bolster the creation of a level playing field that spans the business models involving the sale of EVs with fixed or swappable batteries. Mandating BIS or other government agencies to work on safety standards and a single-window portal for the battery swapping ecosystem are steps in the right direction and would go a long way in making incidents like the recent spate of electric scooters catching fire a thing of the past. Emphasis on the end-of-life disposal management of used batteries is another welcome step towards a cleaner and sustainable environment. We feel issues like range per charge criteria (as swap batteries, by definition, are smaller and with less range) and immediate announcement of fiscal benefits will help the industry work in tandem to facilitate the country's transition to an EV-based ecosystem"

Bounce is currently setting up its battery-swapping network for its electric two-wheeler, Infinity E1

Vivekananda Hallekere, CEO & Co-Founder - Bounce, said, "We are completely aligned with the government on the need to establish standards to promote interoperability of the swapping infrastructure. However, we would humbly request the government to form these standards and policies only after testing them on ground and not limiting the assessment to only to lab tests. Technology around battery and battery infra is fast evolving and the policies and standards should not bottleneck innovation. We urge the government to kindly consider the above points before the policy and standards for battery swapping is formalised."

Sohinder Gill, CEO - Hero Electric, said, "The battery-swapping policy along with interoperability standards for EV ecosystem introduced by Niti Aayog backs the fiscal incentives promised by the Finance Minister in her budget speech. It would foster an integrated EV ecosystem wherein multiple stakeholders like battery providers, battery OEMs and financing partners are able to collaborate and partner efficiently. Guidelines on battery data sharing will provide more room for safety and performance improvement of advanced cell chemistry. The life of the batteries and the safety aspects can be better handled in a swap station than inside the E scooters as the swap stations can deploy pre/post charge cooling and regulated charging in a better manner. The concept of interoperability using the standardised battery needs to be debated in greater detail as there could be technical challenges as well as revenue sharing model will have to be worked out carefully to assure ROI to the investments done by the companies."

Maxson Lewis, Founder and Managing Director - Magenta Power, said, "The good thing about the policy is that it sets itself out to standardise, which is one of the big issues, both in terms of standardisation and testing certification. There happens to be a common identification number for batteries which helps in the battery ecosystem together. Instead of having independent players all the players can come together on a single platform. So yes, I think it's a first step towards it. However, the second point being is about the fact that now standardisation will allow operators to invest heavily into the infrastructure. What is missing, is the fact that the technical standardisation is slightly open at this point in time and it is with reference to the AIS 138. But batteries can typically be of different standards, socket points and capacities. That element of standardisation is lacking within this policy. Hence I am assuming this policy will soon take the shape of a notification and during that time we can hope to see specifics but at least at this point of time, it is a good step towards standardisation but is not a complete step. A couple of steps are still missing."

Honda Mobile Power Pack Energy enters the battery swap segment in May with its first swapping station to be launched in Bengaluru

Kalyan C Korimerla, MD & Co-Promoter, Etrio said "As a manufacturer of electric vehicles for cargo applications, Etrio believes that the draft Battery Swapping Policy released by Niti Aayog is a step in the right direction to alleviate range anxiety of customers for certain applications in order to fulfill the broader mission of decarbonising transport and logistics through large scale adoption of electric vehicles. Along with the technology based-solutions such as fast charging, allowing interoperability between swappable batteries offers more choices to our customers as the Battery-as-a-Service will improve the economics of owning and operating an electric vehicle. However, as an OEM that is focused on delivering electric vehicles that address the needs of our customers, we are open to both fast-charging and swappable batteries based solely on our customers' requirements. While there is room for both these models to work, we believe that the market will ultimately decide what it wants."

Battery maker Log9 Materials has also issued a statement. It's Co-Founder & CEO Akshay Singhal said, "The Battery Swapping Policy touches all the key aspects of Battery as A Service (BaaS) from the fixed battery perspective as well as from the swappable battery perspective. Also, the UIN for batteries is an extremely intelligent idea to drive consistency, reliability and accountability of battery solutions being put forward in the market. Going forward, we at Log9 would like to see incentives linked to longevity of battery life, as a longer life on battery means lesser imports, less wastage, less carbon emissions from battery manufacturing and more peace of mind for customers."