Indofast to add 10,000 battery swap stations as part of ₹10,000 cr expansion

Indofast Energy is preparing for a significant scale-up of its battery-swapping network, with CEO Anant Badjatya outlining a ₹10,000-crore investment planned over the next three years.

The company, a joint venture between IndianOil and SUN Mobility, currently operates around 1,200 stations across 22 cities. Most of these installations are concentrated in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, markets where high utilisation from delivery fleets has helped the company establish operational density early on.

According to Badjatya, the next phase involves adding 10,000 more stations, with a nearer-term target of 2,750 stations by March 2026. This aligns with the broader long-term goal the company has previously communicated, a nationwide footprint of 10,000 stations across more than 40 cities.

The expansion will prioritise Mumbai, Jaipur and Delhi-NCR and other urban clusters where the company sees higher demand from fleet operators and delivery networks. Indofast has also begun identifying land parcels in petrol pumps and high-footfall commercial zones, leveraging IndianOil’s reach to speed up deployment.

While the number of stations is one part of the story, Badjatya pointed out that capacity at the station level matters just as much. Indofast’s typical swap point is designed to handle 28 simultaneous swaps, supported by fast-charging infrastructure at the backend.

The company uses a multi-battery cabinet system where drained batteries are immediately queued for rapid charging, reducing downtime during peak hours. “The rider should find a charged battery when they arrive, that is the baseline we design for," he said. The company claims that its network has completed over 39 million swaps so far, helping its fleet partners cover more than a billion kilometres cumulatively.

B2B-led today, with B2C in view

Indofast’s current customer base is largely B2B, which includes logistics companies, gig-economy delivery platforms and organised fleets. This allows the company to deploy stations along predictable, high-usage routes where throughput is more uniform throughout the day. Partnerships with delivery platforms also help the company monitor patterns of demand and tailor station placement accordingly.

Badjatya said the eventual plan is to address individual EV users, but added that such a shift depends on network maturity. “Personal riders do not follow fixed routes. B2C only becomes viable when a city has enough stations to make swapping convenient," he said. For now, the company believes fleet-driven demand helps stabilise station economics, while B2C demand will come in once cities reach “comfort-level density".

A growing but evolving segment

Battery swapping continues to gain traction among high-utilisation EV users, particularly last-mile delivery riders who prefer shorter downtime. For these users, the economics are tied to earning time, making swap-based models attractive. However, the model itself is still evolving, with operators balancing station density, battery health management and capital requirements. Nonetheless, battery degradation, utilisation forecasting and inventory rotation remain operational challenges, especially in cities with fluctuating demand cycles.

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