The Indian State of Maharashtra announced a strategic energy partnership with Gogoro Inc. and Belrise Industries (erstwhile known as Badve Engineering Ltd) to establish an unprecedented battery-swapping infrastructure. Gogoro, a global technology leader in battery swapping ecosystems that enable smart sustainable mobility solutions for cities, and Belrise, a leading automotive systems manufacturer based in India, plan a joint 50-50 partnership to invest approximately US$2.5 billion over eight years with the Maharashtra government to build energy infrastructure across the state.
The non-binding MOU agreement was signed at the Maharashtra pavilion, World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The companies plan to build a smart energy infrastructure in Maharashtra that is open and accessible and establishes battery swapping and smart battery stations as a leading source for mobility and energy storage. The deployment is also expected to accelerate job growth throughout the smart energy, electric vehicle, and sustainability value chain. In addition to the smart infrastructure, the partnership is also expected to foster smart electric vehicle manufacturing and assembly in the state.
“It is indeed a remarkable moment for the State, this will perhaps be the largest green partnership of this nature worldwide,” said Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
“As a national leader in sustainability, it is important for the State of Maharashtra to embrace new technologies that are open, accessible and enable dynamic solutions that can accelerate the transition to smarter sustainable cities and set an example that other states in India can follow,” said Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, adding that, “We are partnering with Gogoro and Belrise to deploy the world’s largest and most innovative smart energy infrastructure to utilize battery swapping for solving the unique and distributed energy challenges we face daily. This project will enable new alternatives to the fossil fuels solutions many of our residents use today.”