Battery swapping policy for EVs on backburner

A federal policy to encourage battery swapping for electric vehicles may go on the backburner, two people aware of the matter said, in the backdrop of industry fears that forcing common standards is not practical and will hurt innovation.

- Dhirendra Kumar & Rituraj Baruah

NEW DELHI:

Swapping drained batteries for new ones is seen as an idea to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles, since batteries take much longer to charge than filling up at a fuel station. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the plan for a battery swapping policy in the budget for FY23 and policy think tank Niti Aayog released a draft policy on battery swapping in April 2022.

"Currently, we are not advancing with battery swapping as a broader policy. Changing the battery is also a very challenging task. Different vehicles have their batteries in various positions, which makes the process more complicated," one of the two people cited above said on the condition of anonymity.