Abstract:

This work explores the emerging landscape of battery swapping for electric two-wheelers (E2Ws) in India. There are clear benefits to battery swapping, a plug-and-play solution for charging the battery of an electric vehicle, and it takes just a few minutes to charge an E2W. Because battery-swappable E2Ws are sold without a pre-fitted battery, their upfront cost is significantly lower than those that include a battery, and this can be an important consumer benefit in a price-sensitive market like India. The study conducted a quantitative analysis of the impact of various parameters on vehicle total cost of ownership (TCO). Results show that TCO per kilometer (km) for both conventional two-wheelers and E2Ws is lowest when they are used for commercial operations with higher daily utilization rates such as e-commerce deliveries and shared mobility. For E2Ws this is largely because of the avoided opportunity cost of charging, and the figure below illustrates this for the ride-hailing use case.