[Aditya]

Sun Mobility, a provider of electric mobility solutions and services, has announced that it plans to create 100 battery swapping stations for electric vehicles, called Swap Points, in Bengaluru by the end of 2021. These Swap Points will support all forms of shared mobility including 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, and last-mile delivery trucks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M08w...ature=emb_logo

The Government of Karnataka has a goal of providing one charging station in a 3 km radius grid in Bengaluru, according to its EV Policy released in 2017. Sun Mobility's 100 Swap Points will help the government to meet this goal.

Sun Mobility also announced a partnership with the City’s MetroRide, a shared mobility solution, to solve first and last mile connectivity for Metro rail. MetroRide’s fleet of Piaggio Ape E-City electric three-wheelers will make use of Sun Mobility’s Swap Points. As of today, four Swap Points are available at IOCL outlets in the Indiranagar, Jayanagar, Koramangala and HSR Layout areas of the city.



The partnership between Sun Mobility and MetroRide is expected to increase the metro rail's ridership as it will help make last-mile commuting easier.

Link to Team-BHP News Article

[saikarthik]

Originally Posted by Aditya

Sun Mobility, a provider of electric mobility solutions and services, has announced that it plans to create 100 battery swapping stations for electric vehicles, called Swap Points, in Bengaluru by the end of 2021. Sun Mobility's 100 Swap Points will help the government to meet this goal.

Link to Team-BHP News Article

This is a brilliant move. This is a proven and effective solution in Taiwan for 2 wheelers. Gogoro is a two-wheeler company, who introduced the battery swap solution like an ATM along with its scooter.



Some key features of swap solution of Gogoro:

• No need to pay for battery, it is a subscription,
• Simple and ergonomic design with 2 batteries per scooter offering 100 km range.
• Swap in 6 seconds (as per the company), and you have 100 kms range.
• Just put 2 batteries into the machine and 2 charged batteries will pop-out, no hassle of payment, pin-codes or opening a door to get batteries.
• Available all around the city and marked clearly in maps with maximum reach.

They command 20% market share in scooters after they launched with this solution.

Hope Sun mobility will taste similar success

Source: https://www.gogoro.com

[srishiva]

Looks like a decent solution with of course good backing from Industry veterans. If batteries can be used as rent and can be swapped it will be very useful for at least 2 wheelers. Drop your used ones into the slot and get a new one and move on.

Like the idea in the above photo. Pay, get one battery released and do it yourself like an ATM

Should help to bring down the cost of the vehicle for the owners too with battery not being part of the vehicle.

Ather for some reason discontinued their subscription service ? They should re-design their vehicles and maybe patch up a partnership to enable this.

Hope Ola comes up with such a method for its new e-scooters.

[COMMUTER]

Finally someone is bringing out some practical solution instead of getting fixated on quick charging for overcoming the hindrance of charging time.

Lets hope that the costs work out for them because they need to factor in battery waste and other heads. This is the real cost of EVs.

[DarthVeda]

Originally Posted by saikarthik

This is a brilliant move. This is a proven and effective solution in Taiwan for 2 wheelers. Gogoro is a two-wheeler company, who introduced the battery swap solution like an ATM along with its scooter.

They command 20% market share in scooters after they launched with this solution.

Hope Sun mobility will taste similar success

Source: https://www.gogoro.com

This is the model which Ather 450x should have gone with, they got the subscription part right but not the execution.

[Ford_Prefect]

For the uninitiated, which vehicles in India support swappable batteries?

[GTO]

In the mid-90s, my Ericsson GH337 had swappable batteries. Reason, back then, some cellphone batteries would only last 4 - 5 hours. That's not the case today and - in my opinion - it will be the same with EVs. Battery tech is fast progressing and two things are certain:

1. Range will either be "very acceptable" or "more than you need"

2. Charging will be FAST.

Hence, I see battery swapping as a business with very limited long-term prospects. Once long range batteries become commonplace and fast charging is everywhere, no one will need to swap their batteries anymore.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by Ford_Prefect

For the uninitiated, which vehicles in India support swappable batteries?

The current implementation by Sun Mobility posted here is for 3 wheelers. They want to take care of last mile connectivity and are working with MetroRide. The govt is also giving 45K as subsidy for such 3 wheelers !

[Ford_Prefect]

Originally Posted by srishiva

The current implementation by Sun Mobility posted here is for 3 wheelers. They want to take care of last mile connectivity and are working with MetroRide. The govt is also giving 45K as subsidy for such 3 wheelers !

Very cool, thanks. I googled based on the information you posted here and apparently MetroRide will use a fleet of the Piaggio Ape E-City three-wheeler with a 4.7kWh Li-ion battery with a estimated range of 70-80 kilometers.

[alpha1]

For battery swapping to work - there should be uniform standards either Govt stipulated or Industry body.
Are there any?

When Govt (announced) allowed the sale of EVs without Battery (which would require standardization of batteries) - a sizable few of our esteemed forum members were quick to pull trigger and claim that it would kill innovation, lead to safety hazards: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...batteries.html (Govt allows sale & registration of electric 2 & 3 wheeler vehicles without pre-fitted batteries)
(None of which I personally believe - since the uniform standards especially by International standards bodies e.g IEC, ISO etc aim to precisely address all this)

[saikishor]

I have one major concern regarding swappable batteries, and that has to be regarding the battery’s health. Given Indian usage cycles, how could one guarantee that he gets the newest battery or the battery which has the best condition of all the other batteries? Will these batteries be serviced or be looked upon by the firm? If they have a solution for this, then I feel this is a win-win situation for both the company and the consumer.

[MOUNTAINMAN]

Originally Posted by saikishor

I have one major concern regarding swappable batteries, and that has to be regarding the battery’s health. Given Indian usage cycles, how could one guarantee that he gets the newest battery or the battery which has the best condition of all the other batteries? Will these batteries be serviced or be looked upon by the firm? If they have a solution for this, then I feel this is a win-win situation for both the company and the consumer.

Yes it is a concern to swap battery of your newly purchased bike with another used battery, but the success of this program will depend upon how the service provider is able to ensure that the batteries do have at least 80% charge health.
Zoom car & Revv has been able to keep their fleet in good condition, so it is doable at a slight premium cost.
Mind set change is required, our red domestic gas cylinder also gets replaced once its empty. Although we prefer keeping a fresh looking cylinder but we are still happy if the replacement cylinder weighs correct as we can tuck the cylinder somewhere in the corner of the kitchen.

I wonder how practical it would be for cars to have a replicable battery given its size and weight.

[frewper]

Originally Posted by GTO

Hence, I see battery swapping as a business with very limited long-term prospects. Once long range batteries become commonplace and fast charging is everywhere, no one will need to swap their batteries anymore.

Agreed. Battery swapping has failed miserably in the US. Tesla did an excellent effort to make it main stream and no one used it. Because the battery range itself even then was so good that no one cared. Additionally the logistics involved in getting your battery back was complicated.

Its enough of a POC failing to conclude that swapping is not required.

Gorogo can be considered as an exception, because it addresses a very different problem. Problem being Taiwan. Taipei very densely populated city with an acute problem in housing and others. Maybe thats why it works there.

Lets consider charging on a case by case basis.
1. Cars
2. Rickshaws and Two wheelers.

Cars are expected to have good range and people should be able to charge their cars at home. For those parking on the streets will have to work something out so that they can charge their cars with the premises of their building or home.
Taxi drivers who park on the street may not have an option to park even near their house. Ex. Mumbai/Pune. They will most probably end up charging from public stations.

Rickshaws and two wheelers.
Lets assume these will always come with less than 150kms of range. This may work for two wheelers but may not for rickshaws. In these cases if the batteries are removable like the ones from Gorogo, then one can just carry the battery home in the evening and put them in a corner for charging. A 5amp socket is all one will need.
This might work in Mumbai, given the higer cost of charging outside, people will always prefer to charge at home if the battery capacity is good enough.

Battery swapping tech may seem useful for emergency situations, but then there will be never enough of them when one needs it.

[AVIS]

This addresses key challenges that limit EV adoption.
Significantly lower EV price as costly batteries don't need to be purchased. Customers don't need to be concerned about owning dated battery technology.


"Million mile batteries" should probably be in the market in the next few years. This should further enable shared mobility applications, making them more profitable for service providers. It would also allay customer concerns on condition of swapped battery.


These charging stations could pose a fire hazard - and provision for fire extinguishers, adequate open space etc. is critical. Automatic fire control (smoke sensor) would be ideal.

[Quinn]

A good experiment probably if no hiccups of malfunctioned batteries or not working swap points. In the long run, I think battery tech should move towards charing-on-the-drive where in the automobile has a redundant unit getting charged while the primary is discharged and seamless switchover happens. I think people can live with batteries aging out and replacing if the costs are not bombing.