Ease of Battery Swapping to ‘Go Green’ on Electric Highways: Abhijeet Sinha
Need of a clear Policy on Battery was felt by Industry and diverse range of stakeholders, including battery swapping operators, battery manufacturers, vehicle OEMs and financial institutions for a long time. India’s apex policy arm NITI Aayog also notified draft battery swapping policy in 2022 and finally early in Jan 2025 Ministry of Power notified battery Swapping Policy Guidelines.
This forward-thinking guideline from government of India to extend Ease of Doing Business for stakeholders intending to offer faster, safer and more accessible solutions to power EVs through battery swapping and charging infra is expected to resolve challenges that National Highways for EV (NHEV) was facing to install ‘Battery as a Service’ (BaaS) solutions and commissioning Battery-to-Grid (B2G) deployments on highway charging stations says Abhijeet Sinha, National Program Director, Ease of Doing Business.
This formal guideline from Ministry of Power also paved solid pathway for Budget2025 to emphasise on green energy infra seeking Climate Financing to promote usages of renewable energy in batteries with advanced liquid cooled technologies for buses and trucks from megawatt charging and Battery-to-Grid (B2G) capabilities he further added in substantiating its significance in Electric Highways development.
After getting nod and strong recommendations from parliament in 2024, nations highly awaited e highway upgradation was awaiting this guideline to make its debut this year in India with National Highways for Electric Vehicle (NHEV) pilot project. Intending to upgrade 5500 km Bharatmala & Sagarmala – Golden Quadrilateral routes as E-highways in PPP mode after 3 successful technical trials (Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Jaipur and Chennai-Trichy) on intercity electric cars, busses and trucks to boost interstate freight and electric mobility.
“But to finance these capital-intensive battery backed charging infra for electric trucks and busses, financial institutions needed a clear guideline from government on battery and charging before Budget 2025 to give final push for electric mobility to take-off on highways in PPP mode. ”- Abhijeet Sinha included in his welcome remarks to this recent Ministry of Power Guideline from Govt of India on Battery Swapping, Storage and Charging of EVs.
Budget 2025 was expected to earmark substantial fund to infrastructure in PPP mode to meet such demand outlays and join dots between sustainability and economic growth to accelerate India’s ambitions to upgrade 6000 km freight corridor and expressway in e-highways on Golden Quadrilateral like Germany aims at 4000 km electric corridors by 2030. Without focusing on climate finance previous budget has already indicated ‘Climate Taxonomy’ in July 2024. He further added that “Budget 2025-26 divulge more on PPP infrastructure to channelise capital towards climate-resilient infrastructure and adoptions in mobility, energy, building, logistics, shipping, manufacturing etc. Climate investor prefer to invest in countries with published taxonomies rather than countries with challenging ‘definitions of green’ and cultivate greenwash culture due to pressures from media, shareholders, and ESG compliances.”
Hence EoDB started working with Climate Financing since COP26 with National Highway for EV (NHEV) and Charge Point Operators Society of India (CPOs of India) to extend Ease of Doing Business for Climate Financing Green Infrastructure in PPP mode by offering single window clearances, clear, scientific definitions and guidelines to direct investments towards sustainability.
Now when COP29 turned out to be a global disappointment, left nations with no hope to deliver any global solution. India is among those few nations that holds economic position to aim $ 2 trillion Green Economy by 2030 expected to unveil its stepping stones as Climate Financing in 2025-26 Budget and India Energy Week later this February’ 2025, he added in his remarks.