- Honda, Hindustan Petroleum commences battery swapping
- Currently available to rikshaw drivers
- May extend to electric two-wheelers
Honda Power Pack Energy Limited – a Honda company that has been launched for battery swap service in India and Hindustan Petroleum have commenced battery swapping services in India.
Through this alliance, auto-rickshaw drivers will be able to swap batteries for fully charged ones. These swapping stations are situated at HP petrol pumps situated in Bengaluru. The number of these stations is expected to go to 70 in the next 12 months. Depending on the success of these swapping stations, the alliance will expand its service to other cities.
These batteries are the Honda Mobile Power Pack ones and will be recharged and kept ready for the drivers. There’s no information about the cost involved but we expect the drivers will need to pay some charges for the services used.
This interesting alliance could eventually be used for electric two-wheelers. There will be a lot of lessons that will be learned and can be adapted to accommodate two-wheeler EV charging. This focus also suggests that Honda could launch an electric scooter with a swappable battery feature.
