Battery swapping is the way riders exchange a flat battery for a full one at a station in a minute or two, paying per swap or monthly instead of owning the battery. It is used mainly for electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers whose riders earn by the trip, so that waiting hours to charge costs them income.
Consider a grocery delivery rider in Indore. His scooter's battery is down to 10 per cent. He rides to a swapping station near a mall. The station reads the flat battery's identity and its health from its battery management system. The rider takes it out, puts in a full battery from the station's shelf, and rides away. The whole stop takes a minute or two. The app charges him ₹50 for the swap, or the monthly plan of ₹2,500 covers it.
Swapping changes who owns the battery. The rider buys only the scooter, which is cheaper to buy because the battery is the most expensive part. The station company owns the batteries, keeps them charged, checks their health and replaces them when they age. The rider pays for the energy and for the use of the battery. If a battery is faulty, it is the company's problem and not the rider's.
Behind the shelf, the station charges the flat batteries. A swap station does this slowly and at the time when electricity is cheap. EV charging management software runs the station like a network of chargers. The station can also sell its flexibility to the grid through a virtual power plant (VPP), because it holds many batteries that can be charged at a time of choice.
Swapping needs a standard battery. Every scooter model that uses a station must fit the same battery, which is why it works best with one company's vehicles, or with one shared standard, as in micromobility. The scooters come from makers of electric two-wheelers. Cheaper sodium-ion batteries may suit swapping later.