2-minute battery swapping schemes propel India's shift to e-scooters

tech.hindustantimes.com:

For time-pressed delivery drivers in Bengaluru, replenishing the batteries of the electric auto rickshaws increasingly being used to ferry everything from people to groceries around India’s teeming tech hub can now take just a matter of minutes. 

Sagyarani, a 38-year-old e-shuttle driver for MetroRide, pulls up to one of startup Sun Mobility’s 14 automated orange-and-black booths, taps her authentication key to open a vacant compartment, inserts a drained battery and pulls out a fully powered pack. That means more hours on the road transporting commuters to metro stations, MetroRide’s main business. Another bonus: it costs just 50 rupees (67 cents) to swap out a single fully discharged battery, which is about half the price of 1 liter (¼ gallon) of gasoline. 

Battery swapping, a relatively new technology pioneered in China, has been transformative for Sagyarani, who goes by only one name. She has to recharge three lithium-ion batteries -- which give a combined range of 80 kilometers (50 miles) -- in her auto rickshaw twice every five-hour shift.

“Swapping is best because I’m back on the road in five minutes,” said Sagyarani. “I don’t have to worry about how much charge is left,” she said, though the 13 kilogram (29 pound) batteries are heavy to lift. Recharging the rickshaw at a charging station would keep her off the road for up to three hours, or more than half her shift. 

Beyond its obvious benefits for drivers like Sagyarani, battery swapping is now being seen in India as a way to help electrify what is the world’s largest fleet of two- and three-wheel vehicles, a crucial step if the country wants to reduce emissions in some of the planet’s dirtiest cities and meet its goal of becoming net carbon zero by 2070. But the