How Green Is Battery Swapping, Asks Log9 Materials’ Akshay Singhal

SUMMARY

Just because battery swapping provides additional comfort to customers, it is not the ideal infrastructure to support the growing EV ecosystem: Singhal

While Singhal believes that carbon emission is the major disadvantage of the battery swapping technology, the cofounder of Battery Smart sees the upfront capex for setting up a swapping network as one of the biggest problems

A battery-swapping policy to support India’s EV ecosystem was first proposed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during Budget 2022

Amid persisting debates around the true eco-friendliness of electric mobility, which is picking up its pace significantly across the world as every country aims to reach their respective net zero emissions goals, Log9 Materials’ CEO and founder Akshay Singhal questioned the sustainability of battery swapping infrastructure.

Speaking at Inc42’s The Makers Summit 2023, Singhal said, “The primary requirement for swapping network is more number of batteries than the number of vehicles, and if battery is the largest contributor to carbon emission, are we not missing the bus or are we not missing a target in terms of reducing emissions?”

Emphasising that the primary reason for the electrification of vehicles is to reduce carbon emissions, he said if we look at the overall supply chain or the value chain of batteries in EVs, battery manufacturing is the biggest contributor to carbon emissions.

According to Singhal, just because battery swapping works operationally and provides additional comfort to customers, it is not the ideal infrastructure to support the growing EV ecosystem whose core value lies in sustainability.

A battery-swapping policy to support India’s EV ecosystem was first proposed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during Budget 2022. In April last year, the government think tank, Niti Aayog released the draft battery-swapping policy. The main idea behind the swapping infrastructure is to lower the upfront costs of vehicles and reduce vehicle downtime.

However, after the draft policy was introduced, several industry experts told Inc42 about various challenges associated with the infrastructure such as interoperability and standardisation.

While Singhal believes that carbon emission is the major disadvantage of the battery swapping technology, the cofounder of Battery Smart, Pulkit Khurana believes that the upfront capex for setting up a swapping network is the biggest problem.

However, Khurana believes that battery swapping does not add to carbon emissions.

India aims to achieve its net zero target by 2070 and as a result, it is trying to bolster not only EV adoption but also charging and swapping infrastructure to fuel growth. Currently, there are several startups working in the swapping space and a few major names include Battery Smart, Sun Mobility, Esmito, and RACEnergy, among others.