Policy Update : Ministry of Power, Government of India recognises Battery Swapping Technology
By Snehil Singh
The Power Ministry recognises the concept of Battery Swapping through an amendment dated 8th June, 2020 to the “Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles — Guidelines and Standards” issued on 14th December,2018. This is a welcome move that is sure to catalyse the rapid adoption of electric mobility in India.
OMI has advocated for battery swapping from the very beginning and has continuously engaged with various stakeholders over the last 12 months through policy submissions, research publications and multi-stakeholder coalitions both at the state and the central level with Ministry of Power, Ministry of Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSME), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways(MoRTH), Department of Science and Technology, Department of Heavy Industries (DHI), Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and NITI Aayog. Few of the notable interventions have been:
A. Provided the evidence on success of battery swapping technology in India via the report, Beyond Nagpur: The Promise of Electric Mobility in India
Ola Mobility Institute’s report provided the blueprint for the acceleration of EV adoption in the country. By studying the operational issues — ranging from vehicle performance, customer charging behaviour, the impact of temperature on charging and battery life, to the integration of renewables at the charging station, among others — OMI presented the learnings from the country’s first multimodal electric mobility project in Nagpur and recommended how India can deploy over a million EVs for everyday commute over the next few years. Notably, Battery Swapping was used in a fleet of e-rickshaws deployed in the city. The success of this charging mechanism encouraged Ola Electric to replicate the battery swapping model elsewhere in India.
B. Developing a first-of-its-kind Shared Resolution on Battery Swapping in India
OMI developed and led the first Shared Resolution on Battery Swapping highlighting its potential to enable India’s ambitions for vehicle electrification, currently endorsed by over 28 leading EV stakeholders, including Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), Centre of Battery Engineering and Electric Vehicles (C-BEEV), BSES Delhi, SUN Mobility, Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. Ltd., Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy, Council on Energy, Environment and Water, Delhivery, Bounce and many more!
OMI has been actively engaging stakeholders in the ecosystem through regular policy dialogues.
Greenlight, OMI’s flagship event for policy discussions, was launched with a multistakeholder conversation on Battery Swapping in India. It was attended by 36 leading players in the EV domain across government, private sector, think tank and academic spheres.
C. Evaluation and Mapping Battery Swapping as a key factor in State EV Policies via the report, EV-Ready India Part 1: Value Chain Analysis of State EV Policies
As states and union territories (UT) in India published draft electric vehicle (EV) policies or notified final policies detailing fiscal, non-fiscal and other incentives to accelerate a value chain of electric mobility activities, Ola Mobility Institute and World Economic Forum collaborated on the report, titled EV-Ready India Part 1: Value Chain Analysis of State EV Policies to analyse the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of state-level EV policies in 10 Indian states and UTs. The report was published in October 2019.
While the legal recognition for battery swapping by the Ministry of Power has come at the right time for vehicle electrification in India, adoption and implementation of battery swapping at the state government level will be critical to EV success in the country. The COVID-19 crisis itself has renewed the focus on building sustainable and resilient cities. An outcome of this will be a growing emphasis on cleaner technologies such as electric mobility across different modes of transportation. The rapid adoption of EVs in India is bound to catalyse new business models including battery swapping technology and battery charging, paving the way for economic growth and job creation.
For more information:
Link to OMI Website — https://ola.institute/
Link to shared resolution — https://medium.com/@mobilityinstitute/a-shared-resolution-on-battery-swapping-in-evs-e76d0abf53c2
