IOC pact gives us access to 37K retailers, 13K LPG distributors

Much before the Teslas, Athers and Olas of the world, CHETAN MAINI, now chairman of battery-swapping major Sun Mobility, co-founded Reva - India's first electric car company in 1994. The world was then busy guzzling diesel and warming the earth. But Reva remained a trial for customers, before Maini sold it to Mahindra. The Stanford alumnus moved on to start a battery-swapping business in 2017, again a bit early for its time. Maini has now roped in Indian Oil as an equal partner. That involves setting up battery-swapping stations (BSS) at IOC's fuel outlets. In an interview, Maini spoke to S Dinakar in Chennai to explain what this new tie-up means for both companies, and for battery swapping. Edited excerpts:

- CHETAN MAINI

Can you elaborate on the Indian Oil-Sun Mobility tie-up?

They've invested ₹655 crore in Sun Mobility, the parent, and committed ₹1,800 crore over three years into the 50:50 BSS joint venture (JV) we have formed. This partnership allows us to access IOC's 37,000 retail outlets and 13,000 LPG distributors, and they have a very strong brand presence. The JV will focus on micro mobility, which is two-wheelers, three-wheelers and small four-wheeler delivery vehicles like Tata ACE (under 2 tonnes). These vehicles are almost 80 per cent of all vehicles sold in India.

Bosch bought a stake.

You have about 650 BSS in 20 cities. With this JV you have plans to increase that to 10,000.

Will your existing assets be transferred to the JV?

All our assets are being transferred to the joint venture. So, all the batteries we have, all the stations we have and all our customer contracts, are being transferred to the joint venture.

How did you tie up with IOC?