Govt's battery swapping policy for EVs faces resistance from industry

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

The battery swapping policy of the government has hit a major roadblock as the industry has opposed the move over interoperability standards and other related clauses in the draft scheme, The Economic Times (ET) has reported citing people in the know.

What is the battery-swapping plan?

The government looks at the battery swapping policy as a way to reduce the long-charging time and make electric vehicles as efficient as fossil fuel-powered vehicles by swapping the drained battery in a vehicle with a fully charged one.

However, for the plan to work, the batteries of all vehicles from different brands have to be compatible with each other and this will require some degree of standardisation in the electric vehicle industry.

Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman first talked about the battery-swapping plan in her Budget speech in February 2022. Subsequently, a draft policy was released by the NITI Aayog in April of the same year.

What did the draft policy talk about?

The policy talked about the standardisation of battery dimensions and other specifications, primarily for those used in two- and three-wheelers.

Moreover, the draft policy also touched upon points relating to battery safety requirements, a unique identification number for each battery, recycling, and refurbishing of batteries, along with a possible subsidy mechanism, the ET report said.

What does the industry think about the plan?

Given that companies have already established their manufacturing facilities for battery production and new regulations will require them to overhaul their existing infrastructure, companies have lobbied against key interoperability proposals of the scheme.

Moreover, industry insiders said that it was not technically possible to make such standardised batteries that can perform on all vehicles. Batteries need to be designed specifically to work with a vehicle and have unique dimensions, hardware, and software.

Apart from this, companies are also worried that making standardised batteries could easily turn them into commodities and companies would lose their competitive advantage, the ET report said.