Bangalore-based Sun Mobility, a leading provider of e-mobility solutions and services has announced its plan to set up 100 battery swapping stations, christened ‘Swap Points’ in Bangalore by end-2021.

In a virtual event, the chief minister of Karnataka, B S Yediyurappa, formally commenced the commercial launch of Sun Mobility’s swapping network in Bangalore. As of today, four Swap Points are available at Indian Oil outlets – Indiranagar, Jayanagar, Koramangala and HSR Layout.   

Sun Mobility also announced a new partnership with MetroRide, a first- and last-mile shared mobility solution company for Metro rails.  The company’s fleet of Piaggio Ape E-City electric three-wheelers will make use of Sun Mobility’s Swap Points deployed at the Indian Oil outlets.

Speaking on the occasion, chief minister of Karnataka, B S Yediyurappa said, “The government of Karnataka has envisaged a systematic growth of Bangalore, with one of the focus areas being shared mobility. As part of our efforts to make the state and its urban landscapes cleaner and greener, this support and collaboration is a significant step in furthering our vision to establish Karnataka as the EV capital of India. Bangalore will lead the change with an environment that historically has nurtured innovation. I am excited that we will see innovative technologies and models in shared mobility emerge here, like battery swapping, that can be taken to the rest of India and the world. We look forward to working with various players in the space and extending all necessary support to make this a reality.”

Chetan Maini, co-founder and vice-chairman, Sun Mobility: “We realise that good infrastructure is a precursor to enabling a vibrant, clean and shared mobility ecosystem in a city like Bangalore. A great example of this is the three-wheeler market that has 180,000 three-wheelers, supported by 85 LPG stations. We want to create a similar supporting ecosystem by deploying 100 Swap Points that can power and support all forms of shared mobility in the city, including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and last-mile delivery trucks. Our commitment is to increase adoption of EVs in the shared mobility sector, in Bangalore, by making refuelling faster, cheaper, more accessible and convenient (through swapping).”

Diego Graffi, chairman and MD, Piaggio Vehicles: “We are pleased to start our EV business in Bangalore, in association with Sun Mobility and MetroRide. At Piaggio, we always believe in providing best in class solutions to our customers in the last-mile transportation segment. Our Ape’ E-City, with the swappable battery solution, will provide an easy, clean and comfortable metro station commute, which is the need of the hour for a fast, young and cosmopolitan city like Bangalore. We have delivered the initial lot of vehicles to MetroRide and will hope to increase the fleet of this unique offering with them. This will in due course of time transform the metro commute benefiting not only daily commuters, but also provide better earn-ability to the drivers.”

Girish Nagpal, CEO and co-founder, MetroRide: “There is a need for reliable and efficient transport solutions for Metro Rail which can greatly increase its ridership. With our focus on metro riders, the partnership with Sun Mobility will help make last-mile commuting easy, safe and eco-friendly for everyone.”

With the roll out of the 100 Swap Points, Sun Mobility say it aims to work with infrastructure enablers, BESCOM and BMRC, to enable a robust network of battery swapping infrastructure in the city. This will provide the right impetus to meet the government of Karnataka’s goal of providing one charging station in a 3km radius grid in Bangalore, as part of its EV Policy released in 2017.