Scooters India considers tieup with oil PSUs for battery charging

Kolkata, Aug 10: Scooters India Ltd (SIL) is considering a tie-up with public sector oil companies like Indian oil corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) for setting up charging stations at petrol pumps for its battery driven three-wheeler vehicles.

The company, which was also holding talks with Exide Industries for supply of batteries, may tie up with IOC or HPCL for setting up charging stations prior to the commercial launch of the environment-friendly Vikram EV model, SIL sources said.

“Ideally, there should be one charging station for every vehicle sold. But, given the space constraints, we may look for arrangements, where the battery chargers will be property of the petrol pumps and the customers will have to become members of the charging stations,” the sources said.

The tie-ups with oil PSUs and Exide would pave the way for the commercial success of the zero emission vehicle, since otherwise, the high cost of batteries and chargers could prove to be a deterrent to prospective customers.

Currently, the company was placing chargers at its dealers’ shops for about 250 three-wheelers plying on the roads of Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Agra and Kolkata on an experimental basis.

The sources said while talks with Exide were already on, the company was yet to approach IOC and HPCL on the matter. The arrangement of charging stations prior to the commercial launch was necessary as the vehicle would require to recharge its battery after every 120 km. That is one of the reasons why SIL was focussing only on three-wheeler segment, which normally has a ’definite route’. For long distances, however, the concept of ’hybrid’ engine vehicle needed to be introduced on Indian roads, the sources said.

“The hybrid type has both a petrol or diesel engine as well as a battery. But that will cost more,” they said, adding there was no immediate plan to go for such a variant. While the hybrid version is quite common in foreign countries, in India the major hurdle would be the high cost. “A typical four-wheeler model costing about Rs 3 lakh, if transformed into hybrid version, would cost over Rs 6 lakh,” the sources said.

-- PTI