India's Maharashtra enters $2.5 bln partnership for EV battery-swapping stations

Gogoro

17/01/2023 18:05

Jan 17 (Reuters) - India's Maharashtra has entered a
$2.5 billion partnership with Taiwan's Gogoro Inc  GGR.O  and a
local automotive systems supplier to build electric vehicle (EV)
battery-swapping and charging stations in the state, the parties
said on Tuesday.
    The Indian company, Belrise Industries Ltd, and Gogoro will
form an equal-stakes joint venture and invest the amount over
eight years with the Maharashtra government.
    U.S.-listed shares of the Taiwanese charging services
company were up 3% in afternoon trading.
    The Indian government has been looking to cut emissions and
pollution in major cities while reducing its oil import bill. It
has offered companies millions of dollars in incentives to build
EVs and their parts locally.
    Electric models make up less than 1% of total car sales in
the country, and the sector is gaining momentum, but the market
share remains far short of the government's lofty target of 30%
by 2030.
    Devendra Fadnavis, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra,
said the partnership will see Maharashtra deploy the "world's
largest" smart energy infrastructure and "enable new
alternatives to the fossil fuels solutions many of our residents
use today".
    Under the non-binding agreement, the project's deployment
will begin this year, with plans to adopt the solutions into
adjacent areas such as energy storage and agriculture.    
    Battery-swapping, which involves electric vehicle owners
swapping their batteries for a fully-charged one at a utility
station, is fast emerging as a key approach to EV charging.
Venture capital firms have poured millions of dollars into
Indian startups such as Sun Mobility and Battery Smart, which
are in the early stages of deployment.
    While battery-swapping helps reduce long charging times, the
lack of standards for batteries across vehicles is hurting mass
adoption.
 (Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika
Syamnath)
 ((yuvraj.malik@thomsonreuters.com;))