Govt To Notify EV Battery Swapping Policy In 15-30 Days

To boost the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in India, the government may notify EV Battery Swapping Policy in the next 15 to 30 days. The development comes at a time when EV sales are seeing a rise in India and the industry is working on introducing technologies to make EVs more affordable for consumers.

As the public consultation process has been completed and the final comments from stakeholders have also been received, the nodal ministry will soon give final touches, ET Now reported.

The government think-tank NITI Aayog released a draft battery swapping policy for the EV industry in April. 

The policy would support the vision of catalysing large-scale usages of EVs. To promote this, adoption of battery swapping technology to be implemented via Battery as a Service (BaaS) business models to ensure lower upfront costs, minimal downtime, and lower space requirements, NITI Ayog said in the draft.

Battery swapping technology enables users to exchange discharged batteries for charged ones, providing flexibility to charge them separately. By delinking charging and battery usage, it keeps the vehicle in operational mode with negligible downtime.

In the final version of the policy, a few changes will be made to the draft policy released by NITI Aayog. Moreover, the policy will be released at one go, rather than in phases, as envisaged earlier.

For better traceability and monitoring of batteries, every swappable EV battery will be given a Unique Identification Number (UIN). Besides, UIN will also be provided to battery swapping stations.

The report also added that Battery Management System (BMS) testing is likely to be made mandatory during manufacturing.

Considerably, during the budget for FY 23, the government had announced plans to introduce a Battery Swapping Policy and interoperability standards, with the intent of building and improving the efficiency of the battery swapping ecosystem.

Further, EV registrations rose in June after a decline in May. It saw 10% month-on-month growth from 65,879 units in May to 72,416 units in June, as per the Vahan data.

The Indian EV market is estimated to reach $15.4 Tn by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 47.09% during 2022-2027, according to a Mordor Intelligence report.