VoltUp ties up with BSNL to set up electric vehicles battery swapping stations

Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) startup VoltUp on Wednesday informed that it has partnered with BSNL to set up electric vehicles battery swapping stations across the country. In the first phase, battery swapping stations will be set up in four locations across Gurugram, with infrastructure of over 150 charging docks. It will then be further extended to 30 locations across Haryana and other cities by the end of the year.

In a later phase, the partnership will be expanded to major cities with high automobile density as well as to encourage last-mile connectivity agents to adopt electric two- and three-wheelers in their daily use. “In cities, space is a big constraint and availability of charging points can be challenging for e-two-wheelers and e-three-wheelers," said VoltUp Circle Business Head, Nikhil Mathur.

With the addition of new battery swapping locations in Gurugram, VoltUp now has over 110 swapping stations with over 1,300 charging docks across ten cities and eight states. By the end of 2024, the company aims to take the number of stations to around 2,000.

Battery swapping is seen as a better alternative to EV charging stations as it consumes less time and also overcomes the challenge of space constraint. Battery swapping can also be seen as a solution to EV battery fire.

In case of battery swapping, the EV battery can be cooled down when it’s charged outside of the vehicle while charging the battery inside the vehicle reduces the chance of cooling down significantly. Thermal irregularities like higher temperature can be one of the causes of fire involving an electric vehicle. In such cases, battery swapping can be the answer to EV fire.