Bharat Petroleum, Bounce Infinity Partner to Set Up Battery Swapping Stations for 1 Million+ Customers
Mumbai, Bengaluru, 30th May 2022: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a ‘Maharatna’ and Fortune Global 500 company, and Bounce Infinity have joined hands to fortify the Bounce Infinity’s extensive battery swapping infrastructure. Under this partnership, Bounce Infinity will set-up it’s proven and efficacious battery swapping stations across Bharat Petroleum fuel stations in a phased manner. The company aims to set up 3000 scooters across top 10 cities. Consumers looking to swap their nearly drained batteries can search for the nearest swapping location on the Bounce App. The smart framework will cater not only to the company’s retail business, but will also support the interoperable partners (2W’s, 3W’s & other OEM’s) for ease of mobility across geographies and form factors i.e two wheelers & three wheelers. Battery swapping as a solution would also support those 2W’s & 3W’s that have been converted to EV from ICE.
The alliance with Bounce Infinity is a significant step by BPCL in its energy transition journey by creating a formidable solution for the 2 wheeler and 3 wheeler customer segments who have turned out to be the early adopters in electric vehicles and who are today the dominant segments in personal and shared mobility. Having already taken the lead by setting up fast charging highway corridors starting with the 900 Km Chennai-Trichy-Madurai-Chennai route, the alliance with Bounce Infinity will mark BPCL’s strong presence in urban markets with a network of battery swapping stations.
Battery swapping forms an obvious alternative to charging given – quick replenishment of battery charge, relief from domestic charging woes and lower upfront cost of EVs, given that battery leasing replaces battery ownership. Given battery swapping reduces the upfront cost of the scooter by 40-50%, we believe this would accelerate the EV adoption in the country.
The Infinity swapping stations work on similar principles to a fuel station. Here, Infinity battery swapping stations will have charged and ready-to-go batteries that customers can easily swap with their near-empty batteries in under a few minutes. With this infrastructure in place, customers wouldn’t have to wait for the scooter to charge, be anxious about the range or remember to charge it.
Bounce Infinity has so far seen over 1.2M battery swaps on its energy infrastructure; this partnership with Bharat Petroleum, which runs a distributed network of more than 20,000 fuel station reiterates the companies promise of making the swapping network accessible to consumers.
Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Vivekananda Hallakere, Co-Founder & CEO, Bounce, said, “Bounce Infinity has been strategically partnering with prominent industry players to revolutionize the battery swapping scenario. This partnership reiterates our commitment towards a cleaner and pollution-free country by making our network accessible to consumers at the same scale and convenience as refuelling. We look forward to a long-lasting partnership between Bounce Infinity and BPCL”.
Commenting on the partnership, Mr. P.S. Ravi, Executive Director In-Charge (Retail), BPCL, said, “BPCL has always been at the forefront of providing all forms of energy solutions for personal and commercial mobility to our customers. As we pace ourselves for an exciting phase of energy transition towards clean energy, we are delighted to partner with Bounce Infinity, a leading start up offering innovative and state-of-the art smart battery swapping solutions for 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler EV customers.
India’s personal mobility is primarily driven by two-wheelers who form the largest part of our valued customer base and the two-wheeler segment has been the early adopters of electric two wheelers. We are privileged to service over 10 million 2/3-wheeler customers every day in our country-wide network and we look forward to offering our esteemed customers, an efficient battery swapping experience through our partnership with Bounce Infinity especially in the urban markets where quick turnaround of vehicles is a primary customer need for personal mobility, freight and shared mobility segments. Battery swapping with pre-charged batteries from Bounce Infinity will significantly reduce the vehicle downtime adding customer convenience and reducing range anxiety. The interoperability feature offered by Bounce Infinity will help us to serve a larger spread of EV customers and will help in the growth of this important battery swapping segment in the EV space in the country.
This partnership focussed on urban markets complements BPCL’s overall EV charging roadmap of setting up fast charging corridors across major highways in the country inter-connecting major cities and economic centres and will have a network of 7000 conveniently located fast charging stations along with a host of customer amenities in the country in the next 2-3 years.” “
Backed by small local businesses, fuelling bunks, subway stations, cafes and restaurants, Bounce Infinity Swapping network has a distribution of hundreds of smart stations across major Indian cities. These stations, which were installed about 11 months back, have seen over 1.2M swaps translating to over 49M+ EV kms. It’s easy to understand why Bounce has grown in popularity, too. It’s the first in the country to support the transition. The company aims to build an infrastructure to support a million+ scooters in the next 24 months.
The Infinity Swapping Network doesn’t just store energy – it also transmits data. The smart battery and the station carry numerous sensors and IOT that communicate securely with the outside world. This helps the company to scale smartly and distribute the network without creating an imbalance in the grid. For the rider, this smart network ensures a smooth and hassle free experience. Safety solutions powered by smart IOT’s and BMS makes assets safe. The solution supports Bidirectional charging or popularly known as ‘V2G’ (Vehicle to Grid Technology) that goes one step further and allows the charged power to be pushed back to the power grid to balance energy consumption and production variations when necessary.
The Infinity Battery and the swapping station is much more than just a bright battery and a smart station. It’s the base to a concept that every manufacturer can make use of.
