Over the next two decades, India’s vehicle stock is set to double to over 550 million. Along with it, oil demand from these vehicles, and carbon emissions are also expected to double. In India, two and three wheelers are routinely identified as having the highest potential to be a frontrunner in vehicle electrification, but commercial fleet operated vehicles spend most of the day in motion. Slim margins mean that drivers cannot afford to spend too much time charging during the day. Ashwin Shankar, the Founder and CEO of BatteryPool, provides battery swapping solutions for EV fleets. In our interview, he explains how he identified vehicle electrification as a major pollution-tackling opportunity for India’s cost-conscious society, and how fast the landscape has changed over the past five years. Given the challenges of managing capital risk in an environment with hardware inventory and rapidly evolving battery technology, Ashwin tells us how BatteryPool has pivoted from vehicle ownership to selling to fleet operators. This episode was recorded in December 2021.

Further reading:

1. BatteryPool: http://batterypool.com/
2. Global Electric Vehicle Outlook 2022, IEA 2022: https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2022
3. Global EV Policy Explorer, IEA 2022 https://www.iea.org/articles/global-ev-policy-explorer
4. Net Zero by 2050, IEA 2021: https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050
5. ETP Clean Energy Technology Guide, IEA 2021: https://www.iea.org/articles/etp-clean-energy-technology-guide
6. India Energy Outlook 2021: https://www.iea.org/reports/india-energy-outlook-2021

This episode is hosted by Siddharth Singh and Simon Bennett. It was produced by Rakesh Kamal (Suno India) and Mariam Aliabadi. Additional production help was provided by Rob Stone and Allison Leacu.