The government is working on getting industry stakeholders to agree on the standard shape and size of batteries for electric vehicles as it develops norms for its proposed battery-swapping policy, two officials familiar with the developments said.
The Union ministry of consumer affairs and NITI Aayog have called a meeting with companies on 3 January to address their concerns over a uniform battery pack standard and work towards finalizing the draft battery-swapping policy, one of the two officials mentioned above said, requesting anonymity. The policy, which aims to establish mandatory uniform swapping standards for battery packs, is expected to be released in a month’s time, the official said.
“The outer dimension of the battery pack would be fixed. This will mandate the manufacturing of the packs as per the prescribed dimensions. However, the dimensions would only be mandated for those players who would seek to avail subsidy or other benefits under a government scheme. Some players have issues with the fixed dimensions as they have already deployed assets and infrastructure as per their own dimensions,” the official said.
A second official with knowledge of the developments said: “The objective under the policy is to give a standard for the outer dimension only so that a consumer can go for any particular product or brand of choice, and there is no monopoly of any particular battery service provider. There would be no effort to bring uniformity in terms of cell chemistry as innovation needs to be promoted, and standardization of the outer dimension would not hinder innovation.”
Queries sent to the spokespeople for the ministry of consumer affairs and NITI Aayog remained unanswered till press time.
The government would also allow a time period of one and a half years for companies to get their swapping infrastructure and manufacturing facilities adopted to the new standard, the second official said.
