BENGALURU: To promote green energy, the Bengaluru Division of South Western Railway Zone is all set to launch electric vehicle battery-swapping kiosks at four of its major railway stations.
Apart from benefiting public who use two-wheeler and three-wheeler EVs, it will offer an additional source of non-fare revenue for the Railways. It will be open to the general public and not merely for passengers or visitors to the stations.
The kioks are set for launch at KSR Bengaluru City (Third entry), Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal, Banaswadi and Yelahanka within a week.
Krishna Chaitanya, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Bengaluru Division, said each site will be spread over 250 square feet and will have four swap stations, each of which has 14 batteries. This setup can serve over 800 vehicles each day.
Sun Mobility Pvt Ltd has been awarded the contract for a three-year period with a licence fee of Rs 22 lakh to be paid annually to Railways. The operations would be run by Indofast Energy, a 50-50 joint venture of IndianOil and SUN Mobility.
Currently, Indofast Energy operates 850+ battery swapping stations across 22+ cities in India, facilitating over 1.2 million swaps monthly, with plans for further expansion in the coming months.
“The charge for users is around ₹42 per kWh.. For a user swapping his fully discharged battery on his two-wheeler, which is typically 1.5KW, the cost would be Rs 56. If the battery is only 50% discharged, only 50% of the cost would be collected, he explained.
For an e2W user with a 2.10 kWh battery, if they use 85% before swapping, they would pay approximately ₹70 for around 70 km of travel (₹1/km). Users are charged only for the energy consumed, making the service highly flexible and cost-efficient.
“There is no separate parking space allotted for EVs here. Vehicle users just need to approach these kioks and exchange their present batteries for the fully-charged ones within five minutes here,”said another official.
Chaitanya added, “The use of EV vehicles is on the rise and hundreds of passengers and auto-drivers use them. These EV battery swapping stations will not only help them, but also other EV users who can locate these kiosks on their apps and exchange their batteries.”
Urban transportation expert Sanjeev Dyammanavar, said it was a welcome move. “It will be very useful to visitors particularly in KSR Bengaluru and SMVT station which have high footfalls,” he added.