BaaS (Batteries as a Service)

The electrification of Indian mobility is happening at a remarkable pace—the India Energy Storage Alliance IESA) projects that the electric vehicle EV) market in India is expected to achieve a CAGR of 49 per cent in the 2021-2030 period. But these projections could remain just on paper if policymakers do not actively take steps to overcome the roadblocks on the electric highways. In this article, Dhruv Verma says that if executed well, battery swapping can be the greatest impetus to EV adoption, benefitting manufactures, consumers, and the environment.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are heralded as the reliable future of mobility. It is widely anticipated that this is just the start of the expected growth, with estimates predicting that we will have 45–50 million EVs within the next decade from 1.5 million currently, mostly twowheelers. But, these projections could remain just on paper if policymakers do not actively take steps to overcome the roadblocks on the electric highways.

The lithium-ion cell is embedded into the heart of these growth barriers, bearing nearly half the cost of the vehicles in production. Scientific efforts to increase performance or transition towards solid-state technology have been undertaken, but a major logistical hurdle in actually powering them still remains.

India has 5000 public chargers compared to 150,000 in the US and 1.15 million in China. Range anxiety is therefore a massive limiting factor in the traffic and long-commute plagued country. But contrary to public belief, range is not the issue. Standard Indian two-wheelers can travel beyond 100 km in city conditions, and cell performance will only get better as we learn to harness the power of the nascent technology. While currently a qualm, range is very unlikely to remain a show-stopper in the long run.