Battery swapping policy may be put in place this year

Mumbai: Battery swapping policy is likely to be implemented later during the current year itself, market sources said. Niti Aayog's CEO is reported to have held an important meeting on Battery swapping and Battery interoperability recently. Key officials from ministries like finance, consumer affairs and road transport attended the meeting

The government wants to come up with a final policy on battery swapping and battery interoperability by the end of the current calendar year. The Aayog has already released a draft policy on the issue on April 20. The last date for submitting the comments on the draft policy & Battery swapping policy was June 05.

Talking to Bizz Buzz, Ashish Deswal, founder Earthron EV, said, "Niti aayog's recently held meeting was to improve interoperability and foster the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) in the two-wheeler and three-wheeler segments."

Sometime back, the Niti Aayog had released the first draft of the Battery Swapping Policy 2022 on April 21. According to Deswal, "This segment, I believe, will be essential in accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles, as battery swapping standards will strive to decouple charging and battery usage, significantly reducing charging downtime and increasing vehicle operations."

Furthermore, business models will be fascinating to observe how many service providers are brought together under a single roof. This policy will promote industry collaboration rather than imposing rigid technical interoperability standards, he said. The recently held Niti Ayog meeting on EV swapping, he went on, and interoperability will help stakeholders to meet the objectives of the

Battery Swapping Policy.

This meeting will give us a clearer picture of how this policy can be executed optimally and how the smaller vehicles can tap the potential benefits of swapping and interoperability.