Bengaluru
Japanese auto major Honda Motor will start offering battery-swapping service to electric three-wheelers in Bengaluru by the end of June.
Honda is seeking to test the market in India’s tech capital before entering other cities and the two-wheeler segment with the service. The company will begin with seven stations before scaling up to 50 over the next 18 months, Karnataka’s commissioner for industries, Gunjan Krishna, who led the talks with the company, told ET.
Honda did its proof-of-concept experiment in Mumbai, but has opted for Bengaluru to launch the service, she said.
The network expansion in the Bengaluru city will happen in a phased manner. The company hopes its battery-sharing service will accelerate the penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) as it will address the issues of range anxiety, cost of vehicle and waiting time for charging. The Japanese multinational will initially look at the three-wheeler segment as e-autos are used for short-distance goods transport as well.
Federation of Auto Dealers Association’s Karnataka chapter chairman MP Shyam said without batteries, EVs will be much more affordable as batteries account for about 40% of the cost. Karnataka has been aggressively pursuing EV adoption, and even tweaked its electric vehicle & storage policy a few months ago, to stay competitive with other states about concessions and incentives to investors.
Source: The Economic Times
Image Source: Google Images
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