Among the public sector petroleum enterprises, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has shown itself to be nimble to adopt to the emerging EV ecosystem. The Fortune Global 500 company, which has already committed itself to setting up over 7000 charging stations across the country, has also sewn up strategic alliances with Hero MotoCorp and MG Motor India.
Now, the 'Navaratna' company has joined forces with Bounce Infinity to set up the latter's battery swapping stations across Bharat Petroleum fuel stations in a phased manner. The company aims to set up 3000 stations across top 10 cities.
Consumers looking to swap their nearly drained batteries can search for the nearest swapping location on the Bounce App. The smart framework will cater not only to the Bounce's retail business, but will also support other interoperable partners.
BPCL has already set up fast charging highway corridors starting with the 900 Km Chennai-Trichy-Madurai-Chennai route, the alliance with Bounce Infinity will mark BPCL’s strong presence in urban markets with a network of battery swapping stations.
BPCL-Bounce partnership focused on urban areas
Battery swapping forms an alternative to charging as it offers quick replenishment of battery charge, relief from domestic charging woes and lower upfront cost of EVs, given that battery leasing replaces battery ownership. Battery swapping as a solution would also support those 2W’s & 3W’s that have been converted to EV from ICE. India’s personal mobility is primarily driven by two-wheelers, and the two-wheeler segment has been the early adopters of electric two wheelers.
The Infinity swapping stations work on similar principles to a fuel station. Infinity battery swapping stations will have charged and ready-to-go batteries that customers can easily swap with their near-empty batteries in under a few minutes. Bounce Infinity has so far seen over 1.2 million battery swaps on its energy infrastructure.
The alliance with Bounce Infinity is a significant step by BPCL in its energy transition journey by creating a formidable solution for the 2 wheeler and 3 wheeler customer segments who have turned out to be the early adopters in electric vehicles.
BPCL said the partnership with Bounce Infinity was especially focused on the urban markets where quick turnaround of vehicles is a primary customer need for personal mobility, freight and shared mobility segments.
Battery swapping with pre-charged batteries from Bounce Infinity will significantly reduce the vehicle downtime adding customer convenience and reducing range anxiety, it added. Bounce Infinity Swapping network has a distribution of hundreds of smart stations across major Indian cities. These stations, which were installed about 11 months back, have seen over 1.2 million swaps translating to over 49 million+ EV kms.
The Infinity Swapping Network doesn’t just store energy - it also transmits data. The smart battery and the station carry numerous sensors and IOT that communicate securely with the outside world. This helps the company to scale and distribute the network without creating an imbalance in the grid. The solution supports bidirectional charging or popularly known as ‘V2G’ (Vehicle to Grid Technology) that goes one step further and allows the charged power to be pushed back to the power grid to balance energy consumption and production variations when necessary.
Last December, Bounce announced the launch of its consumer electric scooter EI and battery swapping network under the brand name - Bounce Infinity.
