Bengaluru, Dec 22 (Agency) SUN Mobility, a leading provider of electric mobility solutions and services, today announced its plan to roll out 100 battery swapping stations, called Swap Points™, in Bengaluru by the end of 2021. In a virtual event, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri. BS Yediyurappa, formally commenced the commercial launch of SUN Mobility’s swapping network in Bengaluru. As of today, four Swap Points™ are available at IOCL outlets in the city’s densely populated areas of Indiranagar, Jayanagar, Koramangala and HSR Layout.
SUN Mobility also announced its partnership with the City’s MetroRide, a sustainable and environment-friendly shared mobility solution to solve first and last mile connectivity for Metro rails. MetroRide’s fleet of Piaggio Ape E-City electric three-wheelers will make use of SUN Mobility’s Swap Points™ deployed at prime IOCL outlets. Speaking on the occasion, Honorable Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri. BS Yediyurappa said, “The Government of Karnataka has envisaged a systematic growth of Bengaluru, with one of the focus areas being shared mobility. As part of our efforts to make the State and its urban landscapes cleaner and greener, this support and collaboration is a significant step in furthering our vision to establish Karnataka as the EV capital of India. Bengaluru will lead the change with an environment that historically has nurtured innovation. I am excited that we will see innovative technologies and models in shared mobility emerge here, like battery swapping, that can be taken to the rest of India and the world. We look forward to working with various players in the space, and extending all necessary support to make this a reality.” “We realise that good infrastructure is a precursor to enabling a vibrant, clean and shared mobility ecosystem in a city like Bengaluru. A great example of this is the three-wheeler market that has 180,000 three-wheelers, supported by 85 LPG stations. We want to create a similar supporting ecosystem by deploying 100 Swap Points™ that can power and support all forms of shared mobility in the city, including 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, and last-mile delivery trucks,” said Chetan Maini, Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman, SUN Mobility. “Our commitment is to increase adoption of EVs in the shared mobility sector, in Bengaluru, by making refueling faster, cheaper, more accessible and convenient (through swapping),” he added.
“We are pleased to start our EV business in Bengaluru, in association with SUN Mobility and MetroRide. At Piaggio, we always believe in providing best in class solutions to our customers in the last-mile transportation segment. Our Ape’ E-City, with the swappable battery solution, will provide an easy, clean & comfortable metro station commute, which is the need of the hour for a fast, young & cosmopolitan city like Bengaluru. We have delivered the initial lot of vehicles to MetroRide, and will hope to increase the fleet of this unique offering with them. This will in due course of time; transform the metro commute benefiting not only daily commuters, but also provide better earn-ability to the drivers,” said Diego Graffi, Chairman and MD, Piaggio Vehicles Private Ltd. “There is a need for reliable and efficient transport solutions for Metro Rail which can greatly increase its ridership. With our focus on metro riders, the partnership with SUN Mobility will help make last-mile commuting easy, safe and eco-friendly for everyone,” said Girish Nagpal, CEO & Co-Founder, MetroRide.
With the roll out of the 100 Swap Points™, SUN Mobility looks forward to working with infrastructure enablers, BESCOM and BMRC, to enable a robust network of battery swapping infrastructure in the city. This will provide the right impetus to meet the Government of Karnataka’s goal of providing one charging station in a 3km radius grid in Bengaluru, as part of its EV Policy released in 2017.