JOIN USDo not rush with interoperability: Gogoro India GM
Taiwanese battery-swapping giant Gogoro is planning to launch its first pilot in India this month. While the world's fourth-largest automobile market is counting on swappable batteries to electrify its fleet vehicles, Indian policymakers are yet to finalise the battery-swapping standards. In an exclusive conversation, Gogoro's general manager for India, Kaushik Burman, told DH's Prathik Desai why the government needed to rethink its interoperability strategies. Edited excerpts.
What do you think about interoperability and standards that the government is working on?
We are very concerned with the fires that have happened in India and the precious lives lost. We have shared our thinking with policymakers to increase safety standards. The point to be underscored here is if the fires continue and lives are lost, then it will be a Herculean effort required from the government to shift from ICE to EV. Once you lose customer confidence in a product, even if I am a rider or a gig worker, life is priceless.
So, what we are trying to explain to the regulatory bodies is that do not rush into making interoperability the way you are defining it, because if there is a fire hazard, then in terms of traceability you will never be able to get that person accountable. Because a fire can happen at a swap station or in a vehicle or the fault might be in a battery.
For people who try to oversimplify this discussion to an LPG cylinder, my humble submission is that an LPG cylinder has a uniform composition of propane but for batteries, you have multiple cell chemistries. So, if a lithium-phosphate battery catches fire in someone's swap station, then how will you drive traceability?
What is the rationale behind your recent pilot in the Delhi NCR?
We have launched the pilot with the aim to learn about B2B, last-mile and logistic segments. Our focus is going to be around getting this pilot operational and learning from the market.
What are you trying to gauge through this pilot?
This pilot will serve multiple use cases. We are going to learn about hyperlocal, food delivery and e-commerce segments. We will also learn which products are working well in the market, the experience of the riders and their pain points. We will talk to as many fleet owner-operators and understand their needs from the market. The market teaches us a lot. The riders will teach us a lot. Then we will figure out how to tweak the battery management systems to suit the Indian climatic conditions and even the network design, given the duty cycle of B2Bs. There are so many learnings from just one pilot.
How different is India from other battery-swapping markets?
Typically, battery-swapping infrastructure is all about asset utilisation. The second key differentiating factor on a battery-swapping network is the inventory of batteries. The secret sauce is ‘which technology allows the battery swap operator to minimise that inventory holding’ because that is a huge capex. In markets like India where there are dense cities and huge demand, one needs to have a battery-swapping network such that the inventory of batteries is minimal, and your technology needs to be sustained and scalable such that your inventory ratios are minimal, and thirdly you need to have enough data points to design the network in an optimal manner, so that your assets are utilised to near 100%.
Why did you take so long to come to India?
Gogoro has been in existence for the past 10 years. It takes time to do well in one market, which is Taiwan, and do this in a manner, which is on scale and in a safe manner. Today, we have 1.2 million unique batteries in circulation and half a million subscribers. That’s a big deal because you learn from the scale. You develop products and are thinking around 'now I am ready to expand in other markets'. In a complex and vast market like India, one has to come prepared. Now, we are preparing ourselves for the India launch. We have to be very mindful of what the customer needs are, what are the regulatory needs within that market and how do you work with the government and other partners on the ground to develop this ecosystem.