Boost To Electric Mobility: Oil PSU HP Plans To Roll Out Battery Swapping Program For EVs At Its Outlets

The Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), a State-owned public sector undertaking (PSU), is planning a pilot program of for swapping batteries of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers at its outlets by December, reports The Print.

According to the report, the initiative by the oil PSU is aimed at helping the company to maintain its grip on a segment of the mobility market which is rapidly changing to adopt cleaner sources of power, according to the people aware of the matter.

The battery swapping pilot program will reportedly take place in the Thane city of Western Maharashtra. It will allow consumers to replace their depleted batteries with fully charge ones in a few minutes. This will save a lot of time for motorists, who otherwise have no option but to charge the batteries themselves, which can take a few hours.

As much as two-thirds of HPCL’s petrol sales depend on the two- and three-wheelers, which reportedly make up for 80 per cent of all automobiles on the Indian roads.

As per the BloombergNEF’s latest Electric Vehicle outlook, the electric version of these two types of vehicles have achieved parity with petrol vehicles in terms of total cost of ownership and are likely to lead electrification of transport in India.