The country’s largest oil company, Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) has partnered Chetan Maini-backed Sun Mobility, a leading player in EV charging and battery swapping infrastructure, and inaugurated a battery swapping station for electric vehicle at an IOCL fuel station in Chandigarh, through a virtual event.

The battery swapping station was inaugurated by VP Singh Badnore, Governor of Punjab and Administrator of UT-Chandigarh; Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel.

VP Singh Badnore lauded the efforts of MoP&NG and IndianOil towards improving the environment and economic needs through a series of green initiatives. He said battery-swapping technology is one such initiative that offers the best alternative among electric mobility solutions.

Dharmendra Pradhan commended the efforts of IndianOil and Sun Mobility in pursuing the innovative, clean energy solution, thereby contributing to the government of India objective of reducing vehicular emissions. He hoped that the tie-up would energise the EV markets in India. “The EV opportunity is so big that every player in the ecosystem will benefit from it,” added Pradhan.

He said that while the oil marketing companies had worked together to usher in BS-VI fuels across the nation, the time has come to go beyond this and introduce more path-breaking technologies in the business.  It will need the collective efforts of many agencies to make India's commitment towards cleaner mobility possible.

Sanjiv Singh, chairman, Indian Oil, who also spoke on the occasion, elaborated on the various initiatives taken by the Corporation in preparation for the energy transition of the future. These include hydrogen, H-CNG and fuel cells to run vehicles, setting up of a JV for manufacture of aluminium-air based batteries for electric mobility, other energy storage applications, and incorporating EV-charging facilities at Indian Oil's fuel stations network. He said the OMC would consider various aspects of the battery-swapping technology for scaling up its presence in the EV infrastructure business, he added.

Chetan Maini, co-founder and vice-chairman, Sun Mobility said, “As India emerges from the lock-down, the focus should be on creating a conducive, collaborative EV ecosystem to make e-mobility take off in the country. IOCL’s extensive footprint - as the largest oil & gas corporation - will ensure that battery swapping infrastructure is accessible to customers at the same scale and ease as conventional vehicles. We are fortunate to have the support of such a visionary partner, willing to lead this march towards a clean, pollution-free future.”