Industrial Automation Magazine India

Kinetic Green and BPCL in partnership for Battery Swapping Network for EVs

Published on : Thursday 20-02-2020

Chennai, February 3, 2020: Kinetic Green Energy and Power Solutions Limited, India’s leading manufacturer of electric vehicles and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL),

the public sector Oil and Gas giant in the Oil & Gas, have signed an agreement for the launch of “e-Drive” initiative – a ground-breaking electric vehicle mobility solution based on swappable battery technology.

Under the alliance, a range of Electric three wheelers, specially designed for facilitating swappable battery and a 2-minute battery swap will be deployed by Kinetic Green and BPCL, with support from IIT Madras, will provide smart Lithium – ion batteries and set up battery swapping stations across the country. The Kinetic-BPCL solution has already been implemented on a fleet of Kinetic Green E3W at Kochi and Lucknow. The vehicles under the swappable platform are deployed near the high traffic metro stations and offer last mile connectivity to passengers at just Rs 10!  The operation runs from 6 am to 10 pm and drivers can opt for 1 or multiple swaps per day. The partners will now expand the alliance to cover many more cities across the country over next few months.

Inaugurating this initiative in Chennai, Ms Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Founder and CEO, Kinetic Green Energy and Power Solutions Ltd. said, “Kinetic Green is extremely happy to partner with BPCL to bring this ground-breaking innovative solution for its customers of “EV with Swappable Battery Technology”. This solution reduces upfront cost of EV by 50%, and customers never have to worry about battery charging and replacement. We are confident this solution will revolutionise the EV industry in India.”

Speaking about the association with Kinetic Green, Shri D Rajkumar, C&MD of BPCL said, “With e-Drive, we strive to create a new ecosystem with active collaborations and technological interventions”. He further observed that “We are very excited about this new initiative which heralds the opening up of a new revenue stream and potentially a new line of business for BPCL.”

Kinetic and BPCL have developed the solution in association with IIT Chennai for a comprehensive IoT based system, a lock smart battery with VBCC protocol for charging, and host of safety features.