Taiwan based EV battery swapping company, Gogoro has signed a strategic energy partnership with the Maharashtra government along with Belrise Industries (formerly known as Badve Engineering) to establish a battery swapping infrastructure.
As per the understanding, Gogoro and Belrise Industries are planning a 50-50 JV to invest around $2.5 billion (Rs 20,617 crore) over a course of eight years to build energy infrastructure across the state.
The non-binding MoU agreement was signed at the Maharashtra pavilion, World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
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 sustainable value chain. In addition to the infrastructure, it is also expected to foster smart electric vehicle manufacturing and assembly in the state.
Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister, Maharashtra said, “It is indeed a remarkable moment for the State, this will perhaps be the largest green partnership of this nature worldwide.”
Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister, Maharashtra said, “As a national leader in sustainability, it is important for the state of Maharashtra to embrace new technologies that are open, accessible and enable dynamic solutions that can accelerate the transition to smarter sustainable cities and set an example that other states in India can follow. We are partnering with Gogoro and Belrise to deploy the world’s largest and most innovative smart energy infrastructure to utilize battery swapping for solving the unique and distributed energy challenges we face daily. This project will enable new alternatives to the fossil fuels solutions many of our residents use today.”
Horace Luke, Founder & CEO, Gogoro said, “The future of smart sustainable cities and countries is not about a single company or government but about a community coming together to instill a new way of thinking and a new way of utilizing sustainable energy in an open and accessible way.”
“This partnership represents the future and this new way of thinking – not just about sustainable transportation, but about an entirely new system. That is why we truly believe in building open and accessible infrastructure that will uplift the entire ecosystem. Together, the State of Maharashtra, Belrise Industries and Gogoro plan to shift energy usage and establish this new sustainable economy that will encourage jobs creation, establish new technical and sustainable industrial capabilities, and ultimately increase state exports.”
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, and network management solutions.
Shrikant Badve, MD, Belrise Industries said, “Clean energy is the future, and now is the time for Indian businesses to begin their transition to a new model of sustainable operations. As a manufacturing leader in India’s transportation industry, we are embracing this for our own businesses, customers, and communities. Today we are partnering with Gogoro, a global innovation leader in smart sustainable energy and India’s most industrious state of Maharashtra to deploy the largest portable battery swapping infrastructure of its kind to enable a new generation of products and services that Maharashtra’s residents can embrace.”