Hero MotoCorp's first electric scooter to use swappable batteries

Hero MotoCorp, which is set to launch its first electric vehicle – the e-scooter called Vida – on October 7, has revealed in a Twitter post that the upcoming eco-friendly two-wheeler will feature swappable batteries.

The post on VidaWorld’s official Twitter account is accompanied by the caption ‘New Vida uses a modular charging system with portable batteries so you can power up whenever you want, wherever you are.” This confirms that the soon-to-be-revealed electric scooter will come with a battery swapping feature, much like the Bounce Infinity E1.

In April 2021, Hero MotoCorp had announced a strategic partnership pact with Taiwan’s Gogoro under which the two companies were to set up a battery swapping JV (with Hero as the majority partner) to bring Gogoro’s battery swapping platform to India. In addition, Hero MotoCorp was to launch electric vehicles using Gogoro’s technology. The move to use swappable batteries in the Hero Vida e-scooter is in line with that.  

The benefits of removable or swappable EV batteries is that they enable quick and easy exchange of a depleted battery for a fully charged one at a battery swapping station, with the whole process taking a few minutes. This results in massive time-saving, as the average electric scooter with a non-swappable battery takes hours to fully recharge.

Among other things, expect the Hero Vida e-scooter to be a mass-market offering with a price of Rs 100,000 or lower. The model is expected to be commuter-focused like the TVS iQube and not performance-oriented like the Ather 450X.

As the launch date draws closer, expect more details of the Hero Vida e-scooter to filter through.

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