Battery swap infrastructure firm Lithion Power has set sights on boosting its footprint in the national capital and adjoining territories.

“We aim to have 200 battery-swap stations in the Delhi-National Capital Region by December-end. Our focus is on low- to medium- power commercial vehicles such as e-rickshaws and bikes where standardisation can be introduced more comfortably,” Director at Lithion Power, Piyush Gupta, told BusinessLine .

The transition to battery-operated vehicles has seen the emergence of two competing technologies, one where the battery is charged and the other where it is swapped. The present charging technology requires the vehicle to be stationed at a charging station for a few hours to get a full charge.

Competing technologies

Gupta claims that the battery swapping mechanism that his company offers can make the switch to a full battery between two and five minutes.

But, the bigger challenge for the battery swap model to run electric vehicles is that all vehicles need to have a similar, if not the same kind of battery packs. The other assurance that an owner needs is that the battery can be swapped with ease, something that vehicles that rely on charging do not have.

Hoping to address this, Lithion Power has been in talks with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to offer vehicles with similar battery packs. Gupta said, “We are in talks with 6 OEMs, including one European OEM for introducing these vehicles. We aim to begin with Delhi and then emulate this model into tier II and III cities.”

Explaining his business model, Gupta said: “We work on a franchisee model. The stations we offer require around 200 square metres, basically the kind of space where a vehicle can drive in and out. We currently have five charging stations in Delhi which service 25 vehicles that are operating on a commercial trial basis. The batteries we swap run the vehicle for a minimum distance of 75 km at once.”

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