Kinetic Green and BPCL announce partnership 

To revolutionize EV sector with nationwide battery swapping network

Kinetic Green and BPCL announce partnership 
(L-R) D Rajkumar, C&MD, BPCL, Professor Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIT Madras, Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Founder and CEO, Kinetic Green and P S Ravi, Executive Director, BPCL Retail.

Chennai: Kinetic Green Energy and Power Solutions Limited, India’s leading manufacturer of electric vehicles and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), the public sector Oil and Gas giant in the Oil & Gas, have signed an agreement for the launch of “e-Drive” initiative – a ground-breaking electric vehicle mobility solution based on swappable battery technology.
 
Under the alliance, a range of Electric three wheelers, specially designed for facilitating swappable battery and a 2-minute battery swap will be deployed by Kinetic Green and BPCL, with support from IIT Madras, will provide smart Lithium – ion batteries and set up battery swapping stations across the country. The Kinetic-BPCL solution has already been implemented on a fleet of Kinetic Green E3W at Kochi and Lucknow. The vehicles under the swappable platform are deployed near the high traffic metro stations and offer last mile connectivity to passengers at just Rs. 10!  The operation runs from 6 am to 10 pm and drivers can opt for 1 or multiple swaps per day. The partners will now expand the alliance to cover many more cities across the country over next few months.
 
This model is designed to address some of the critical concerns and deterrents faced by the drivers for owning and operating electric three wheelers. Due to separation of battery from the EV, initial EV cost is halved and brought below price of ICE counterparts. Range Anxiety is eliminated as drivers need not worry about range anymore, and they can always swap their battery for a new one, if they need to go longer distance. Re-charging time is eliminated as battery swapping takes only 2 minutes. The alliance facilitates a convenient battery network as BPCL can leverage its existing 12,000 gas stations to erect the battery swapping stations, making it very convenient for passengers to access them.
 
Inaugurating this initiative in Chennai on Monday, Ms. Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Founder and CEO, Kinetic Green Energy and Power Solutions Ltd. said, “Kinetic Green is extremely happy to partner with BPCL to bring this ground-breaking innovative solution for its customers of “EV with Swappable Battery Technology”. This solution reduces upfront cost of EV by 50%, and customers never have to worry about battery charging and replacement. We are confident this solution will revolutionize the EV industry in India, especially for intra-city and last mile transport. It will not only pave way for rapid electrification towards cleaner air and affordable mass transport; but also create large scale self- employment.”
 
Speaking about the association with Kinetic Green, Shri D Rajkumar, C&MD of BPCL said, “With e-Drive, we strive to create a new ecosystem with active collaborations and technological interventions”. He further observed that “We are very excited about this new initiative which heralds the opening up of a new revenue stream and potentially a new line of business for BPCL.”