This Project Could Create The Largest Battery-Swapping Network In Africa

• SUN Mobility has just secured investment from African investment firm Helios Climate, with plans to expand its battery swapping service to Africa. 
• The service primarily focuses on three- and four-wheeled auto rickshaws (and two-wheeled scooters).
• SUN Mobility says they’ve averaged 1.4 million swaps per month in its home market of India. 

The reality of the situation is that private car ownership is still a very privileged thing. True, the bar of entry has gone down—it’s not uncommon for a lot of developing countries in Southeast Asia and Africa to get used cars from Japan, Korea, the United States and Canada en masse—but on some level, that’s just kind of porting our leftovers to a new place. The fight against climate change must include all nations; we’ve got to figure out how to get everyone electrified, everywhere.

Here’s an interesting solution. This week, Helios Climate, an Africa-focused investment firm, announced its intention to invest in SUN Mobility, an Indian company focused on battery-swapping infrastructure. Together, the two entities have raised $135 million, which should further the expansion of the swap infrastructure in India, but also launch the tech in Africa.

Now, SUN Mobility isn’t like some other brands; it doesn’t have big swap stations for large luxury cars. Instead, the company focuses primarily on the country’s large segment of three and four-wheel auto-rickshaws, commonly used as delivery and taxi vehicles. These devices are common in India, other parts of Asia and some African countries due to their cost and ease of use.

But they’re also insanely dirty. The Climate and Clean Air Coalition says that India has 22 of the 50 most polluted cities in the world. Combustion-powered auto rickshaw vehicles contribute up to 10% of India’s air pollution. Sun Mobility insists that 5% of Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the same type of auto rickshaws. A new solution is sorely needed.

Photo by: Sun Mobility

These battery swap stations aim to curb pollution from auto rickshaws (and any other two, three, or four-wheeled vehicle compatible with the service), without inconveniencing the taxi or delivery driver who may not have time to stop and charge. It’s the same concept we’ve seen in China from some Beijing-branded taxis, or Nio, Onvo, or Firefly models.

The service has quietly been operating in the background in India. The fleet is small; it only has 900 swap stations and 50,000 vehicles on the roads. Still, it’s managed to turn more than 1.4 million swaps per month, which tells me that those 50,000 drivers are definitely using the service. If SUN Mobility’s numbers are to be trusted, that means each driver does a battery swap about once a day.

People deserve the opportunity to choose cleaner methods of transport, rather than falling into the same combustion-powered woes that brought us to the state of the world we’re in now. 

Contact the author: kevin.williams@insideevs.com