At the Union Budget 2022 session, Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said that considering the constraint of space in urban areas for setting up charging stations, a battery swapping policy will be brought in, and interoperability standards will be formulated. She added that the private sector will be encouraged to develop sustainable and innovative business models to improve efficiency in the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem.
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Even though battery swapping could be a lengthy process for cars, the move is expected to provide financial efficiency for two-wheelers and even three-wheelers. Battery swapping will help convert the most expensive component in the EV – the battery into an operational cost, thus significantly reducing the price of the vehicle and also making it at par with the fossil fuel alternatives.
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The estimated cost of a battery swapping station is Rs 8-9 lakh excluding the battery costs and that makes it a viable and low-cost venture. A policy on battery swapping will help in wide scale adoption of batteries as a service. This will reduce upfront ownership costs of electric vehicles and link that cost to vehicle running. Since the cost of running electric vehicles is cheaper, the overall running cost with battery service will work out to be very economical.
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