SUN Mobility, in partnership with Veera Vahana, showcased India’s first modular battery-swapping technology for Heavy Electric Vehicles (HEVs) at an event in Chennai. The fully integrated mobility solution was designed to electrify bus and truck fleets, highlighting the need to electrify commercial fleets, especially heavy vehicles, which are crucial for cutting emissions, improving air quality, and boosting overall transportation efficiency. The technology solution attracted over 10,000 inquiries for buses and focused on bus operators in Tamil Nadu.
SUN Mobility signed MOUs with several leading bus operators in the region, emphasising the potential of battery-swapping technology in heavy-duty vehicle electrification. The modular swapping technology offers a practical, cost-effective solution that boosts efficiency and lowers operational costs for operators. Battery swapping will bring down the upfront cost of buses by 40 per cent, making it comparable to the upfront cost of traditional ICE buses. This coupled with easy access to financing will break the entry barrier for adoption of EVs by fleet owners. Additionally, it reduces operational costs of fleet operators by up to 20 per cent, increasing uptime and higher utilisation of buses due to the swift swapping process of under three minutes.
Battery swapping is essential to democratising the usage of electric buses and can help promote the adoption of EVs. In the fleet categories of two, three, and small four-wheelers, SUN Mobility has boarded more than 26,000 vehicles since its founding in 2017. The firm has more than 650 battery swapping stations nationwide and performs around 1.6 million kilometers and 60,000 battery swaps per day, which is an amazing 84 per cent growth over last year’s use.
