Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and VoltUp, a two- and three-wheeler battery swapping service provider, today announced their partnership under which the two have set up two EV battery swapping stations in Jaipur. The two have also announced that a total of 50 such stations will be set up across cities in India within the next six months. With this tie-up, VoltUp aims at providing infrastructure for instant swapping to end consumers, last-mile delivery, shared mobility providers, OEMs, and logistic players.
The partnership aims at leveraging HPCL’s country-wide network, and VoltUp’s battery swapping technologies. The swapping stations will be fire- and safety-compliant with wallet-based payment systems.
VoltUp aims to speed up the adoption of electric vehicles in India by setting up an EV battery-swapping network, promising less than two minutes to swap and be on the road. The service networks will provide complete maintenance and service support to all-electric vehicles.
Advanced lithium batteries will be provided as a subscription to lower the initial investment for an electric vehicle owner.
There is an industry consensus that the Indian EV market will be dominated and driven by the 2-3-wheeler commercial segment. For this segment, battery swapping offers the best alternative to slow charging and helps the drivers to make optimum use of their operational hours, Rajnish Mehta, ED- CSP & BD, HPCL, said.
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“However, to make battery swap successful, a dense and thick network is essential, so that consumers feel confident about the availability of swaps. HPCL is doing its part in making this market thick on the supply side by means of its wide network of retail outlets which are the natural energy refueling points for all consumers, he added.
This tie-up with HPCL will accelerate the need for safe, sustainable smart urban mobility while impacting positively the lives of future generations with cleaner air. This will enhance our network of smart swapping stations bringing smiles to owners of electric vehicles, Siddharth Kabra, CEO VoltUp, said.
