E-Mobility, all charged up

At least 100 charging stations, kirana chargers, battery swap points and more. After years of talk, an ecosystem for electric vehicles is finally taking shape in Bengaluru

Long before electric cars sparked a green buzz around the world, the ‘Made in Bengaluru’ Reva defined e-mobility. The massive interest triggered by that boxy two-seater should have spurred the creation of an enabling ecosystem here. It did not, but to make up for that missed opportunity, 2021 offers a big second chance.

Eco-friendly, cheap to operate and easy to drive, the Electric Vehicle (EV) remained good on paper. But ‘range anxiety,’ that fear of running out of battery, left many wary, reluctant to make that green plunge. The New Year could change all that, a big network of charging stations ready to take shape.

Multiple e-mobility firms, shared mobility startups, and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have now teamed up to align, network and shape an electric ecosystem that could actually work. The city could have at least a hundred charging stations, battery swap points, and kirana chargers by the year-end.

Tech, brick and mortar

It is also about marrying technology with simple brick and mortar. Take, for instance, the Kirana Charzer, an Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled charging station. This can be set up in a roadside shop, giving EV-users a higher density of plug points, while offering the shopkeeper a new avenue to generate an additional income.

All that the EV-user / driver needs to do is this: Download a Mobile App, locate the nearest Charzer and get recharged quickly. This works for electric scooters, cars and autorickshaws. This could be quickly scaled up, provided the shop has adequate parking space when the charging is on.

Consumer openness

“We are at a very interesting juncture. A lot of OEMs, who have been in conversation for years, are now putting things and money, and this is a very positive sign. Besides, the pandemic has made consumers more open to these sustainable choices,” notes Nilay Chandra, Director of Marketing and Charging Infrastructure at Ather Energy.

Active for two years in the Bengaluru market with its 450 and 450X range of e-scooters, Ather has a fair idea of the EV usage trends and how the charging infrastructure should keep up. “We understand that the dominant charge, more than 90-95% is done at homes and workstations. But to build the category, we continue to build the charging infrastructure,” Nilay informs.

Multi-tasking

The charging stations are installed at places where consumers go anyway for multiple reasons. “It could be a café or a mall. Since the bulk of the charging would have been done at home / workplace, these stations act like an insurance cover.”

But range anxiety can be addressed in another innovative way: Swappable batteries. Simply put, the batteries could be swapped just like you do in a torch. So, when an e-auto driver sees his batteries drying out on a dashboard, he heads to a Swap point, swaps the cells with fully charged ones. The process is completed in two-three minutes, a far cry from the three-four hours that charging takes.

Swappable batteries

Pioneering the technology from Bengaluru, SUN Mobility has proposed to install 100 such Swap Points in the city by end of 2021. Four of them are already in place at Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) outlets. But most EVs are not powered by swappable batteries, and this is where the deals struck between EV collectives and OEMs can make a difference.

In the shared mobility space, many players are going full electric. Self-ride two-wheeler rental service VOGO, for instance, is switching to electric scooters in a big way this year. The platform has more than 500 docking stations in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and these could easily morph into charging points.

Tesla’s entry boost

Electric car major, Tesla registering the company in Bengaluru recently could further boost the city’s green mobility, say experts. Tesla India Motors and Energy Private Limited now has a registered address on Lavelle Road in the heart of the city. Things are definitely looking up for e-mobility. But analysts rue the big list of lost opportunities in the last few years. Although the State Government had formulated an EV Policy in 2017, implementation of the stated objectives remained poor. The GST for EVs came down to 5%, but it remains a high 18% for batteries and charging. More concessions might just add to the new year spark.