Gogoro, Belrise to Bet $2.5 bn on Battery-swapping Infra in Maharashtra: Gogoro, an electric vehicle and infrastructure business with its headquarters in Taiwan, is moving forward with its intentions to set up a battery swapping network in India. The company along with Belrise Industries (formerly known as Badve Engineering) has inked a strategic energy partnership with the Maharashtra government to establish a battery swapping infrastructure. This follows up to Gogoro’s earlier announced partnership with Hero MotoCorp and Zypp Electric among others.
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More About This Agreement:
According to the understanding, Gogoro and Belrise Industries want to invest roughly $2.5 billion (Rs 20,617 crore) over the course of eight years in a 50-50 joint venture to create energy infrastructure throughout the state. The non-binding MoU agreement was signed at the Maharashtra pavilion, World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The battery swapping infrastructure expects to begin deploying across the State of Maharashtra in 2023 which will leverage Gogoro’s smart energy ecosystem including smart battery stations, swapping technologies, network management solutions.
Significance of This Agreement:
The joint venture comes at a time when the government is finalising the draft swapping policy, which is aimed at greater interoperability. By opting for battery swapping rather than paying the full cost of the battery (which makes up 40–50% of the cost of the car), it also aims to lower the initial costs of buying an electric vehicle.
The partners plan to build a smart energy infrastructure in Maharashtra that is open and accessible and establishes battery swapping and smart battery stations as a leading source for mobility and energy storage. The deployment is also expected to accelerate job growth throughout the smart energy, electric vehicle, and sustainability value chain. In addition to the infrastructure, it is also expected to foster smart electric vehicle manufacturing and assembly in the state.