Startup Circle: How is Battery Smart the answer to the rising needs in EV infrastructure?

Battery Smart is setting up one of India’s largest networks of battery swap stations. The startup aims to cater to all forms of electric vehicles. Battery Smart users can go to any Battery Smart swap station and exchange their discharged batteries with charged ones and pay for the batteries as they use. The startup was founded by Siddharth Sikka and Pulkit Khurana, who are colleagues from IIT Kanpur. They come with vast experience across consulting, mobility and startups.

Pulkit and Siddharth realised that two million electric vehicles in India (80% of all EVs) that are lead acid-based e-rickshaws were facing a huge loss of earnings due to downtime required for charging the batteries. Accordingly, they began offering Li-ion batteries for these vehicles on pay per use, which can be swapped within less than two mins. Thereby, their unique offering solves battery ownership and charging-related issues without hassle. Read the interaction with the founders who explain how the startup is disrupting the EV infrastructure.

Who are your consumers? How are you changing the mobility sector?

Our consumers are electric vehicle users with a focus on 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler owners. They do not want to worry about charging hassles or about the performance of batteries. So, they subscribe to Battery Smart and get swappable batteries as a service. This enables them to run their vehicles more and also earn extra without becoming dependent on any particular fixed point to charge these vehicles.

The biggest bottleneck in the adoption of EVs has been the worry about battery performance and range anxiety. A dense network of battery swapping systems that provides batteries on subscription resolves both issues. Simultaneously, it reduces the upfront investment required by users in transitioning to EVs. Backed by a large network of Battery Smart stations, we will be providing this offering to all EV users.

Amid COVID, has there been a sectoral push for electric mobility? How has 2020 changed Battery Smart?

Operationalized in June 2020, Battery Smart has been witnessing 40% m-o-m growth. More than 50,000 battery swaps have happened on the network. There is a huge demand for such an offering. Battery Smart also has a long waitlist of drivers wanting to get on board the network. COVID has had a financial impact on many e-rickshaw drivers and they do not wish to invest in buying new batteries every 7-8 months when they can simply subscribe to Battery Smart without the hassle of a capital expense, especially in these times.

What are your expansion plans, partnership and investment strategies?

Battery Smart aims to open 10,000 swap points across 25 cities within the next three years to make this a valuable offering for every EV user.  The Company is investing in improving the technology that powers the Battery Smart network and optimises utilisation of assets deployed on it. Partnerships are growing across battery manufacturers to deploy batteries on our network stations, OEMs who want to offer this service to their end-users especially in commercial use cases and also across large and medium fleet operators who are realising that besides being more economical, it is helping them earn more, thanks to almost zero downtime.

Are you an auxiliary service provider for core EV providers? Is this a backdrop to the EV partner ecosystem?

Battery Smart is a platform for EVs and is aiding the players across the ecosystem to grow. Battery manufacturers have the opportunity to deploy batteries at a large scale via a single channel while vehicle manufacturers can reduce upfront costs to customers and drive more sales. Moreover, by delinking their vehicle and battery, vehicle makers are indemnified from battery performance-related concerns. Battery Smart opens all its network stations in partnerships with local businesses, helping them with an additional earning opportunities.

Funding

Battery Smart raised their seed round led by Orios Venture Partners. Faad Network also participated in this round.