SUN Mobility, a leading provider of electric mobility solutions and services, today announced its plan to roll out 100 battery swapping stations, called Swap Points™, in Bengaluru by the end of 2021. Four Swap Points™ are available at IOCL outlets in the city’s densely populated areas of Indiranagar, Jayanagar, Koramangala and HSR Layout.
SUN Mobility also announced its partnership with the City’s MetroRide, a sustainable and environment friendly shared mobility solution to solve first and last mile connectivity for Metro rails. MetroRide’s fleet of Piaggio Ape E-City electric three-wheelers will make use of SUN Mobility’s Swap Points™ deployed at prime IOCL outlets.
Sun Mobility have already installed their battery swap stations in cities like Chandigarh, NCR, Trivandrum, Calicut among others.
Chetan Maini, Co-founder of Sun Mobility, said
"These battery swap stations will available for all forms of shared mobility including e-rickshaws, bikes, and will be available for food and courier delivery riders too"
The Ape E-City electric 3 wheeler, which will use Sun Mobility's battery swapping stations will be manufactured in the Piaggio Group’s Baramati facility, in the state of Maharashtra, and is available on the Indian market at a price in line with that of the fueled model.
Diego Graffi, Chairman and MD, Piaggio Vehicles Private Ltd. said "Our Ape’ E-City, with the swappable battery solution, will provide an easy, clean and comfortable metro station commute. We have delivered an initial lot of vehicles to MetroRide, and hope to increase the fleet of this unique offering with them. This will, in due course of time, transform the metro commute, benefitting not only daily commuters but also providing better earnings to the drivers."
With the roll out of the 100 Swap Points™, SUN Mobility looks forward to working with infrastructure enablers, BESCOM and BMRC, to enable a robust network of battery swapping infrastructure in the city. This will provide the right impetus to meet the Government of Karnataka’s goal of providing one charging station in a 3km radius grid in Bengaluru, as part of its EV Policy released in 2017.
Sun Mobility have already installed their battery swap stations in cities like Chandigarh, NCR, Trivandrum, Calicut among others.
Chetan Maini, Co-founder of Sun Mobility, said
"These battery swap stations will available for all forms of shared mobility including e-rickshaws, bikes, and will be available for food and courier delivery riders too"
The Ape E-City electric 3 wheeler, which will use Sun Mobility's battery swapping stations will be manufactured in the Piaggio Group’s Baramati facility, in the state of Maharashtra, and is available on the Indian market at a price in line with that of the fueled model.
Diego Graffi, Chairman and MD, Piaggio Vehicles Private Ltd. said "Our Ape’ E-City, with the swappable battery solution, will provide an easy, clean and comfortable metro station commute. We have delivered an initial lot of vehicles to MetroRide, and hope to increase the fleet of this unique offering with them. This will, in due course of time, transform the metro commute, benefitting not only daily commuters but also providing better earnings to the drivers."
With the roll out of the 100 Swap Points™, SUN Mobility looks forward to working with infrastructure enablers, BESCOM and BMRC, to enable a robust network of battery swapping infrastructure in the city. This will provide the right impetus to meet the Government of Karnataka’s goal of providing one charging station in a 3km radius grid in Bengaluru, as part of its EV Policy released in 2017.
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PluginIndia's Take
All of us here at PluginIndia regard Chetan Maini as a true visionary. All of us have driven electric cars - Reva and the e2o, which are made in India, due to his vision.
With Sun Mobility Chetan Maini is trying to solve three problems
Sun Mobility's battery swap technology would be perfect for the Delhi-NCR area. NCR has over 100,000 e-rickshaws that use lead-acid batteries, which take 6-8 hours to charge. These only go 70km a day, and weigh over 30kg. Sun Mobility's swappable batteries weigh 13kg, can be swapped in the middle of the day, and ride up to 140km per day, potentially doubling their income.
Shared mobility is a huge opportunity for Sun Mobility. This also includes food and goods delivery. It’s becoming very big in India, and companies like Flipkart, Zomato and Swiggy want to move a large chunk of their deliveries to EVs. A delivery person should not wait for hours in the middle of the day to charge their EV. These swap stations will be used extensively by businesses using commercial EVs.
If we look at the OEM's to partner with Sun Mobility, we only see Ashok Leyland and Piaggio. We need to see more OEM's to create EV's that would be compatible with Sun Mobility's battery swapping stations. Then we will see rapid demand for these swap stations.
We look forward to seeing these Battery swap stations all over India and wish the team the best of luck.
All of us here at PluginIndia regard Chetan Maini as a true visionary. All of us have driven electric cars - Reva and the e2o, which are made in India, due to his vision.
With Sun Mobility Chetan Maini is trying to solve three problems
- Reduce cost of an electric vehicle by not selling it with a battery.
- Ensure EV's can be quickly 'refueled' by using battery swapping technology. This quick 'recharging', is crucial for people using commercial vehicles.
- Improve the life of the batteries, as these batteries are charged in air-conditioned swap stations, rather than inside a hot vehicle.
Sun Mobility's battery swap technology would be perfect for the Delhi-NCR area. NCR has over 100,000 e-rickshaws that use lead-acid batteries, which take 6-8 hours to charge. These only go 70km a day, and weigh over 30kg. Sun Mobility's swappable batteries weigh 13kg, can be swapped in the middle of the day, and ride up to 140km per day, potentially doubling their income.
Shared mobility is a huge opportunity for Sun Mobility. This also includes food and goods delivery. It’s becoming very big in India, and companies like Flipkart, Zomato and Swiggy want to move a large chunk of their deliveries to EVs. A delivery person should not wait for hours in the middle of the day to charge their EV. These swap stations will be used extensively by businesses using commercial EVs.
If we look at the OEM's to partner with Sun Mobility, we only see Ashok Leyland and Piaggio. We need to see more OEM's to create EV's that would be compatible with Sun Mobility's battery swapping stations. Then we will see rapid demand for these swap stations.
We look forward to seeing these Battery swap stations all over India and wish the team the best of luck.
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