Battery swap comes to trucks

Electric truck makers Blue Energy, Montra bet on swapping model to reduce upfront costs, recharge time

- Manas Pimpalkhare

Electric trucks are set to become the latest category of vehicles to benefit from battery swapping, which has until now been largely restricted to twoand three-wheelers.

Pune-based e-truck maker Blue Energy Motors and Murugappa Group's Montra Electric are rolling out 55-tonne e-trucks that are compatible with battery swapping.

These zero-emission commercial vehicles provide the right use-case for price parity between electric vehicles (EVs) and internal combustion engines (ICE) once the cost of the battery is removed from the equation, according to manufacturers and domain experts.

As India races to decarbonize its massive freight sector, battery swapping could prove to be the silver bullet for heavy-duty electric trucks. This transition addresses the twin barriers of price parity and operational efficiency that have long stalled large-scale commercial EV adoption.

Battery swapping involves replacing depleted batteries in electric vehicles with pre-charged ones at a swapping station, reducing the time it takes to fully charge an EV. Models compatible with swapping do not come with a battery, making them much cheaper than regular EVs, since the battery generally accounts for nearly half the price. Heavy electric trucks above 12 tonnes in gross weight cost ₹1-1.5 crore on average, compared to ₹25-50 lakh for diesel counterparts.

Montra Electric’s chief business officer P.V. Satyanarayana said the company decided to build electric trucks with swappable batteries to reduce the price gap between ICE and EV trucks and to cut charging times.