In order to create an unheard-of battery-swapping infrastructure, the Indian State of Maharashtra on 18th January announced a strategic energy cooperation with Gogoro Inc and Belrise Industries (formerly known as Badve Engineering Ltd.). In a joint 50-50 partnership with the State of Maharashtra, Gogoro, a global technology leader in battery swapping ecosystems that enable smart, sustainable mobility solutions for cities, and Belrise, a major automotive systems manufacturer based in India, intend to invest roughly US$2.5 billion over eight years in the construction of energy infrastructure throughout the state.
The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, hosted the signing of the MOU, which has no legal force. A smart energy infrastructure that is open and accessible and establishes battery swapping and smart battery stations as a top source for mobility and energy storage is what the companies hope to construct in Maharashtra. Along the value chain for sustainable transportation, electric vehicles, and smart energy, the deployment is anticipated to hasten the rise of jobs. The agreement is anticipated to promote smart electric vehicle manufacture and assembly in the state in addition to the smart infrastructure.
By utilising Gogoro’s smart energy ecosystem, which consists of smart battery stations, swapping technologies, and network management solutions, the battery swapping infrastructure is anticipated to start rolling out across the State of Maharashtra in 2023. This will result in a number of innovations for the state in the areas of smart city design and development, energy storage stations & systems, smart mobility sharing, smart electric vehicles, demand response services, and distribution.
Maharashtra is the most populous and industrialised State in India, with more than 120 million citizens. Maharashtra’s total domestic product, at more than 450 billion US dollars, represents 16% of India’s industrial production.
The infrastructure rollout will be the biggest portable energy system with a sustainability focus ever installed. It will concentrate on providing open access for a range of applications, including as battery swapping, intelligent electric vehicles, mobility sharing, demand response services, distributed energy storage, intelligent agriculture, and others.
A critical component of a smart grid, the Gogoro Network is a new kind of distributed smart energy infrastructure that is optimised for swappable battery recharging and designed for intelligent bidirectional demand response and energy storage.