Rapido, one of India's, leading bike, auto and cab aggregators, has partnered IndoFast Energy - a 50:50 joint venture of Indian Oil Corporation and Sun Mobility, to roll out 10,000 of Piaggio’s swappable e-autos – E-city Max – across India in the next 24 months.

The program will start with Hyderabad, Bengaluru and other major cities in southern India. The partnership will add over 1,000 EVs to the country’s public transport system by December 2024.

The partnership between Rapido and IndoFast Energy began with a pilot in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi in 2023, with the aim to integrate IndoFast Energy’s advanced swappable battery technology into Rapido’s platform, enhancing the accessibility, efficiency, and convenience of electric vehicles. 

This builds on the success of the pilot program launched by the two companies, where the collaboration facilitated the establishment of more than 100 swap stations in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, allowing auto captains to swap batteries and minimise downtime. Rapido aims to cater to around 20 percent of its daily rides using swappable electric autos.

Pavan Guntupalli, Co-Founder, Rapido said, "At Rapido, our mission is to provide affordable, convenient, and eco-friendly mobility solutions. This partnership with IndoFast Energy allows us to significantly enhance our EV offerings on the platform, aligning with our commitment to sustainability. By introducing swappable electric autos operated by our Captains, we're not only reducing the carbon footprint but also empowering our drivers with sustainable earning opportunities, setting a new benchmark for the ride-hailing industry.”

Anant Badjatya, CEO, Indofast Energy said, “Our partnership with Rapido marks a key milestone in our effort to make commuting more sustainable and accessible. This joint initiative is a direct result of the success of the pilot we started with Rapido almost a year back. We will now expedite our deployment across India including in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai to make this initiative a great success” 

Diego Graffi, Chairman and MD, Piaggio Vehicles India said, “As pioneers of 3W electric mobility in India, today, we have over 50,000 Ape Electrik vehicles running across the country.  Of these, already over 2,500 Ape Electrik vehicles have a swappable battery solution and many of these have run over 100,000km. We are proud of the performance, robustness, durability, and ease of usage that Ape Electrik provides customers with. By partnering with Rapido and IndoFast Energy, we aim to deploy over 10,000 3W EV swappable battery vehicles in 24 months across India. With negligible down time for EVs, swappable battery solution is cost effective and promising future of EVs. This partnership would be a significant contribution to India’s EV mission as well as a push for the benefits of a swappable battery solution.”

IndoFast Energy’s swap stations are designed for swift battery exchanges, enabling users to swap depleted batteries for fully charged ones in under two minutes. The network of swap stations allows for ‘EV refueling’ faster, cheaper, and more convenient than conventional petrol and diesel vehicles. This solution also works on a pay-per-use model that empowers EV users to pay for only the energy used per swap.

The JV also recently announced its plan to set up 10,000 swapping stations across more than 40 cities in the next 3 years to cater to the rising demand for swappable EVs.  

Rapido along with Indofast Energy is also exploring the introduction of high-speed premium two-wheelers and retrofitted three-wheelers onto its platform to further diversify its eco-friendly ride-hailing offerings. 

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Nawgati has announced the launch of Aaveg Pro, an integrated operations platform for petroleum dealers, at the Petrol Dealers Association Pune (PDAP) Annual General Meeting. The system is designed to digitise fuel station management within the Indian retail ecosystem.

Aaveg Pro serves as a digital operating system to replace manual workflows in fuel retail. The platform consolidates several critical station functions into a single interface:

• Sales and Inventory: Features include shift-level nozzle reconciliation, live inventory tracking and stock variation control.
• Financial Accounting: The system supports VAT, GST, cess and surcharge handling to maintain audit-ready records and real-time balance sheet visibility.
• Fleet and Credit Management: Dealers can manage digital fleet contracts, consolidated invoicing and credit risk monitoring.

The platform is designed to integrate with existing station infrastructure, such as dispensers, CCTV systems, fuel storage compressors and vehicle-tracking systems, to provide operational oversight.

Vaibhav Kaushik, Co-Founder & CEO, Nawgati, said, “The launch of Aaveg Pro reflects our continued commitment to building solutions that solve real operational challenges for fuel dealers. Fuel retail in India still relies heavily on fragmented and manual workflows across accounting, stock monitoring, reconciliation, and customer credit management. With Aaveg Pro, we are bringing these critical functions onto one integrated platform so that dealers can operate with greater visibility, control, and efficiency.”

Aalaap Nair, Co-Founder, Nawgati, said, “Aaveg Pro has been built specifically for the day-to-day realities of fuel retail operations in India. From shift-level reconciliation and stock tracking to consolidated fleet invoicing and live financial reporting, the platform is designed to reduce complexity and improve decision-making at the station level. Our goal is to help dealers move away from manual processes and adopt a smarter, more scalable way of running their businesses.”

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Charge_iN by Mahindra and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) have signed a strategic agreement to develop electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure at HPCL retail outlets across India. The collaboration aims to utilise HPCL’s national fuel station network to increase the availability of public charging points for electric four-wheelers.

HPCL currently operates over 24,400 retail outlets and has installed more than 5,400 charging stations under its HP e-Charge brand. The new stations established through this partnership will exclusively feature 180 kW dual gun chargers, designed for high-speed charging.

The deployment is intended to support the transition to green transportation in India, currently the third-largest automotive market globally. The agreement focuses on building an ultrafast charging network to improve reliability and reduce charging times for EV users.

The partnership aligns with the government's objective of strengthening public EV infrastructure. By integrating chargers into existing fuel stations, the companies aim to provide a platform for nationwide expansion and seamless access for drivers.

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Electric mobility startup Bijliride has detailed plans to expand its franchise network to more than 25 Indian cities. Operating under a Franchise Owned–Franchise Operated (FOFO) model, the company aims to onboard 30 franchise partners by March 2027 and scale its fleet to between 10,000 and 15,000 electric two-wheelers within the next 18 months.

The expansion the startup claims is projected to drive 150 percent growth in fleet operations. Bijliride has identified several urban mobility markets for this phase, including:

• Tier 1 Cities: Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata.
• Emerging Hubs: Hyderabad clusters, Jaipur, Patna, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, and Kochi.
• Logistics Centres: Nagpur, Indore, Surat, and Visakhapatnam.

The strategy targets demand from logistics operators, gig economy platforms and urban commuters.

Under the FOFO structure, local partners own and manage the fleets while Bijliride provides the technology infrastructure. This includes real-time vehicle tracking, battery management protocols, and rental management systems.

The partners have to commit to a minimum of 50 electric two-wheelers to begin with, an initial investment of around INR 1.4-1.6 million, with a projected breakeven in approximately 15 months under stable fleet utilisation. The startup also assists partners with driver onboarding and connects fleets with demand from local delivery businesses and gig platforms.

Shivam Sisodiya, CEO and Co-Founder, Bijliride, said, “Electric mobility demand in India is growing rapidly, particularly among gig workers and last-mile delivery operators. At this stage, our focus is disciplined scale. The FOFO model allows us to grow responsibly by partnering with local entrepreneurs who understand their markets while leveraging our technology platform and operational systems. This structure enables us to expand faster while ensuring fleets are managed efficiently on the ground.”

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It’s been sometime that Donut Lab has been working on producing a battery that will address the challenging needs of EVs better than other batteries have been able to do. Claiming to be the world’s first solid-state battery ready for production vehicles measured in independent testing conditions, the company has released its third test result that dispels any suspicions that the battery would be a supercapacitor rather than a battery.
The results measure the properties of its solid-state battery, evaluating its ability to retain charge when not in use. Available for download on its site, the third and most recent test follows two other tests that looked at charging speed (the test was conducted by Technology Re) using two passive cooling configurations and evaluation of capacity performance of the battery cell in hot conditions (by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland). 
The test measuring the battery’s ability to retain charge even when not in use was carried out using a simple research setup. It was connected at room temperature to the research laboratory’s battery tester, which repeatedly measured the cell voltage every 10 seconds. Like the previous test that measured battery performance at very high temperatures, this test also began with a 1C capacity test, demonstrating that the cell was precisely the same as the other test examples.
 
After the capacity test, the battery cell was charged to approximately 50 percent charge and left connected to the battery tester for ten days. The cell was then discharged to measure the remaining energy capacity. The results show that the battery cell voltage stabilises during the first 10 hours after charging. Over the next nine or so days, the voltage curve continues to stabilise. A capacity test at the end of the test period confirmed that the voltage drop corresponds to the amount of energy in watt-hours.
The Donut Battery behaved in the test exactly as a battery should. If the test had been performed with a supercapacitor, the charge would have fallen linearly much faster during the same time period.
“Since we unveiled the Donut Battery, there has been a lot of speculation and theories about whether it is a supercapacitor. In all its simplicity, this test proves that it is a battery. Supercapacitors charge and discharge quickly, but they also lose their charge quickly when not in use. The Donut Battery behaves like a battery and can maintain a charge for significantly longer,” confirmed Ville Piippo, CTO, Donut Lab.
After the third test mentioned above, Donut Lab has carried out a special test to measure battery performance in a battery pack using the Verge TS Pro motorcycle that charges in less than ten minutes, making it the world's fastest-charging electric motorcycle.
 

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