Bharat
Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Bounce Infinity have joined hands to
fortify the Bounce Infinity’s extensive battery swapping infrastructure. Under
this partnership, Bounce Infinity will set-up its 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
company's retail business, but will also support the interoperable partners
(2W’s, 3W’s & other OEM’s) for ease of mobility across geographies and form
factors i.e two wheelers and three wheelers. Battery swapping as a solution
would also support those 2W’s & 3W’s that have been converted to EV from
ICE.
Having
already taken the lead by setting 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.
Battery
swapping forms an obvious alternative to charging given – quick replenishment
of battery charge, relief from domestic charging woes and lower upfront cost of
EVs, given that battery leasing replaces battery ownership. Given battery
swapping reduces the upfront cost of the scooter by 40-50%, the company
believes this would accelerate the EV adoption in the country.
The
Infinity swapping stations work on similar principles to a fuel station. Here,
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. With this infrastructure in place, customers wouldn’t have to wait for
the scooter to charge, be anxious about the range or remember to charge it.
Bounce
Infinity has so far seen over 1.2M battery swaps on its energy infrastructure;
this partnership with Bharat Petroleum, which runs a distributed network of
more than20,000 fuel station reiterates the companies promise of making the
swapping network accessible to consumers
Commenting
on the partnership, Vivekananda Hallakere, Co-Founder & CEO, Bounce, said,
“Bounce Infinity has been strategically partnering with prominent industry
players to revolutionize the battery swapping scenario. This partnership
reiterates our commitment towards a cleaner and pollution-free country by
making our network accessible to consumers at the same scale and convenience as
refuelling. We look forward to a long-lasting partnership between Bounce
Infinity and BPCL”.
P.S.
Ravi, Executive Director In-Charge (Retail), BPCL, said, “BPCL has always been
at the forefront of providing all forms of energy solutions for personal and
commercial mobility to our customers. As we pace ourselves for an exciting
phase of energy transition towards clean energy, we are delighted to partner
with Bounce Infinity, a leading start up offering innovative and state-of-the
art smart battery swapping solutions for 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler EV customers.