Oye! Rickshaw launches battery swapping platform, aims to deploy 10,000 lithium-ion batteries

New Delhi: Electric mobility start-up Oye! Rickshaw on Wednesday announced the launch of its battery swapping platform targeting to deploy 10,000 lithium-ion batteries by the end of this year.

The company, which started a battery swapping pilot project in December 2020, said it has crossed 1 lakh swap kilometres in under three months.

Commenting on the launch of the platform, Oye! Rickshaw Founder Mohit Sharma said, “By introducing swapping, we are significantly reducing downtime of our e-rickshaws and thus adding more commute hours for customers and more money into the pockets of our driver partners. This marks the beginning of a journey towards becoming a major connected electric vehicle player focused on mass micro mobility.”

According to the company, swapping leads to zero down-time for the rickshaws as opposed to 8-10 hrs daily downtime with traditional charging, meaning more monetisable hours.

“The increased earning potential due to the extra kilometres provided per day and savings in cost translate to a 60 per cent increase in net take home for Oye”s driver partners,” the company added.

Stating that India”s e-rickshaw energy market is expected to reach more than USD 4 billion by 2025, growing at 25 per cent during 2020-2025, the company said it aims to play a leading role in this transformation through its distributed battery swap network while delivering broader socio-economic impact.

The company said it is targeting to deploy 10,000 lithium-ion batteries by December 2021 and plans to cross 10 million swap kilometers by March 2022.