SUN Mobility joins hands with SmartE to set up battery swap stations for e-vehicles

SmartE will be deploying the battery swapping infrastructure at SmartE parks and charge hubs across Delhi, Gurugram and Faridabad.

Energy infrastructure and services company SUN Mobility has partnered with electric vehicle (EV) startup SmartE to set up battery swapping stations.

The quick interchange stations, which look like lockers and takes less space, like ATMs, will enable electric three-wheeler drivers to swap their batteries in under two minutes. Earlier, drivers had to charge the batteries overnight, said a release.

Commenting about the joint venture, Chetan Maini, Co-founder and Vice Chairman, SUN Mobility, said: “Conventional electric three-wheelers that run on lead-acid batteries usually require eight hours of overnight charging and four hours of opportunity charge during the day. The assets remain idle half of the time and could only cover 60-80 km, which cause a loss of potential revenue. Our solution enables them to realise the full potential of last-mile transport and clock more than 150 km per day.”

The interchange stations are computer controlled and enable 200 swaps a day. The batteries are also IoT-enabled, which help drivers to keep a constant check on the battery vitals, track batteries in real time, enable digital authentication, station operations and ensure service delivery optimisation.

“As a pioneer in the electric mobility service space, SmartE plans to roll out 100,000 vehicles by 2022. At 100,000 vehicles, SmartE will help reduce close to a million tonnes of carbon emissions, equivalent to planting 17 million trees per year,” said Goldie Srivastava, Co-Founder and CEO, SmartE.

SmartE and SUN Mobilty had earlier deployed the solution as a pilot. They found the drivers were able to operate their vehicle for 40 percent longer compared to the conventional Lithium Ion battery-based vehicles, and 80 percent more compared to conventional lead-acid battery-based vehicles.

For now, SmartE will deploy the battery swapping infrastructure at SmartE Park & Charge Hubs across Delhi, Gurugram and Faridabad. In Phase 1, SUN Mobility will provide the battery swapping infrastructure over the next three months to support 500 electric three-wheelers in Phase 1.