Indofast Energy, a battery-swapping solutions provider, and Hala Mobility, an EV-as-a-service platform, announced on Tuesday an expanded partnership aimed at electrifying India's last-mile delivery and gig-economy fleets.
The companies said their existing collaboration has already scaled to 15,000 vehicles in under a year, with operations concentrated in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR and Mumbai. Under the expanded partnership, the two firms are targeting a cumulative deployment of 40,000 vehicles by March 2027 and 100,000 vehicles by March 2028, with new deployments planned for Pune, Chennai and Jaipur in addition to existing cities.
The model relies on Indofast's battery-swapping infrastructure paired with Hala Mobility's fleet operations, allowing riders to exchange depleted batteries for charged ones in about two minutes rather than waiting for a vehicle to charge. The companies said this approach can lower running costs by up to 40 percent compared with petrol-powered vehicles, an advantage that would benefit delivery riders covering 80–100 kilometres a day.
Rajat Malhan, Chief Business Officer at Indofast Energy, said the pace of adoption showed that battery swapping had become the preferred approach for fleet operators focused on uptime and cost efficiency, and that the companies intended to build an integrated ecosystem to support the wider shift toward commercial electric vehicles.
Srikanth Reddy, founder of Hala Mobility, said the partnership was intended to give delivery riders more consistent access to charged batteries and higher daily earnings, and described the scale-up to 15,000 vehicles as evidence that the model could support a broader, more sustainable EV ecosystem in India.
Indofast Energy operates more than 1,900 swap stations across 24 cities, a network the company says supports over 120,000 vehicles and has enabled more than 2 billion kilometres of electric mobility while helping avoid over 97,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The company is a joint venture between Indian Oil Corporation Limited and SUN Mobility.
Hala Mobility describes itself as an e-mobility aggregator platform that uses generative AI to connect fleet operators and riders with EV access, charging and service networks.