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E-mobility service provider Yulu has launched a network of battery charging and swapping stations named ‘Yulu Max Network’ and is in the process of raising funds in Series B round to support the network.
In an earlier interaction with BusinessLine , Yulu CEO Amit Gupta had said the company was looking to raise $40 million for its gig economy-focused Yulu DEX bikes. The company is now expected to raise a much larger round of fund to support the expansion of Yulu Max Network as well.
Starting with 10 Yulu Max stations in Bengaluru, the company plans to open 500 Max stations across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi NCR regions by the middle of 2022. The stations will be located in areas of high movement density. The network is expected to be scaled to more than 2,000 Max stations by the end of 2022.
Artificial intellegience
“We are using artificial intelligence to map which bike’s battery is getting discharged, when it is getting discharged and to direct riders towards the nearest charging stations. The use of AI will also help the company in optimising its operations by understanding the demand for charging stations in each locality, and estimating the area required for each charging station depending on the average footfall in that area,” RK Misra, cofounder of Yulu, told BusinessLine .
However, the battery charging and swapping stations can only be used by Yulu riders as the company has designed separate batteries for its e-bikes. Mishra, however, said the broader vision is that the network will be available for electric vehicles of other brands as well as he envisions that the battery designs across electric vehicles will converge in the future.
The Max Network in Bengaluru is planned to be scaled to 30 by the end of this month, and to 100 within the next three months. These will have the capacity to increase the initial outlay of 10,000 battery swaps per day to 25,000 batteries per day by the end of next quarter in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi NCR regions. By the end of next year, the Max Network is expected to have the capacity for 150,000 battery swaps per day, and will cover electric 2-wheeler users across an area of 750 square km in the three cities
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