Amazon, SUN Mobility to expand deployment of EVs with battery swapping tech

New Delhi, March 31 Amazon India and SUN Mobility on Thursday announced that they are working together to expand the deployment of EVs integrated with battery swapping technology for its transportation and logistics services. These EVs will contribute to Amazon India's commitment of adding 10,000 electric vehicles in its India delivery fleet by 2025, announced in 2020.

The company continues to work with local OEMs like SUN Mobility to build its EV fleet.

"With the government also encouraging the development of sustainable and innovative business models for 'Battery or Energy as a Service', we are committed to supporting India's progress in the e-mobility industry to achieve its environmental sustainability goals," Abhinav Singh, Director - Customer Fulfilment, Supply Chain and Global Specialty Fulfilment, Amazon India said in a statement.

Currently, SUN Mobility is setting up its swap points across its customer locations including Amazon warehouses in major cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Hyderabad.

With battery swapping technology, the discharged battery of EVs can be rapidly swapped for a fully charged unit, removing the delay involved in recharging. This helps to address issues such as range anxiety and the requirement of setting up dedicated charging infrastructure which is constrained by space and cost.

"We believe that this deployment will enable us to tangibly impact the rapidly growing e-commerce and delivery segment by making fuelling of electric vehicles faster, cheaper and more convenient for fleet operators," Chetan Maini, Co-Founder, and Chairman of SUN Mobility added.

SUN Mobility had already successfully deployed over 100 loaders powered by swappable batteries with Amazon India's delivery network partners for rapid deliveries, which the two companies now plan to replicate in more metro cities and in other operational areas.

In addition, SUN Mobility aims to onboard over a million vehicles by 2025, the accomplishment of which will be accelerated through its MaaS offering. It has already commenced the deployment of its solutions to eCommerce and goods delivery players across major cities such as Delhi NCR, Bangalore, and Chandigarh and plans to further expand to other cities across the country.