Earlier this month, Bounce, a Bengaluru-based electrical mobility startup, launched its first client electrical scooter, Bounce Infinity E1, which comes with a novel function. This is India’s first e-scooter that doesn’t essentially include batteries and thus wants no charging. Offered with a ‘battery as a service’ choice, this e-scooter can be accessible to customers at Rs 45,099 (Delhi ex-showroom), whereas they’ll pre-book it for a refundable quantity of Rs 499. Deliveries are slated for March 2022 by its dealership community and its on-line platform.
But what does a ‘battery as a service’ choice entail? The Better India spoke to Vivekananda Hallekere, the CEO and co-founder of Bounce to know this distinctive function.
“The recently launched Bounce Infinity E1 offers a unique ‘Battery as a service’ option – the first-of-its-kind in the Indian market. Here, customers have the choice of acquiring the Bounce Infinity E1 at an affordable price with ‘battery-as-a-service’ and using Bounce’s battery swapping network instead. Customers pay for battery swaps, whenever they swap an empty battery with a fully-charged one from Bounce’s swapping network. This pushes the running costs of the scooter down substantially, by as much as 40% compared to conventional scooters,” he claims.
So far, the startup claims that its battery-swapping station community has a distribution of near 200 stations in main Indian cities like Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru which have accomplished over 500,000 swaps and enabled over 2 crore EV kilometres.
“Bounce is set to invest over USD 100 million across manufacturing of e-scooters and expanding the battery swapping infrastructure over the next 12 months. We’ve been setting up a wide battery-swapping network through prominent partnerships, which will serve both its retail customers and its successful ride-sharing business. The ambition is to build the world’s largest and densest battery swapping platform to support India’s transition to clean mobility, and offer a swapping facility within one-kilometre distance for its customers,” he provides.
The startup has partnered with varied manufacturers like Nobroker, Park+, Readyassist, Helloworld, Kitchens@, Goodbox, and many others. to strengthen the electrical mobility ecosystem throughout the nation by organising greater than 3,500 battery swapping stations throughout 10 cities.
“This smart framework will be available at locations like residential societies, key parking spaces, malls, corporate offices, etc. for customers to find the nearest swapping station on their Bounce App. The best part of the ‘battery as a service’ option is that anyone can partner with us and become battery swapping partners. It can be the local mom and pop store or you could host a couple of batteries from your home. If they can’t host space then people can just invest and get a fixed return on the investment they make. We call this ‘Bounce Power’, which will empower the common man to be part of this transition to clean energy,” he explains.
Partnership with Park+ is to strengthen the EV ecosystem throughout the nation by organising over 3,500 battery swapping stations throughout 10 Indian cities. This good framework can be accessible at areas like residential societies, key parking areas, malls and company places of work for purchasers to search out the closest swapping station on their Bounce App or Park+ app, claims Vivekananda.
With Battery and Charger
However, the Bounce Infinity E1 may also be provided with the battery, which could be faraway from the scooter and charged by prospects at their house or workplace or wherever handy, and a charger as effectively. Priced at Rs 68,999 (ex-showroom), the Infinity E1 is powered by a 2kWh lithium-ion battery pack that gives a licensed vary of 85km on a single cost. Using any common electrical energy socket this battery takes about 4 to five hours to completely cost.
Meanwhile, different key options of the Infinity E1 with battery and charger embody a high pace of 65 kmph, 0-40 kmph in 8 seconds, and a torque output of 83Nm.
Consumers can trip this e-scooter in two using modes, Power and Eco, whereas it’s constructed on a tubular body and options hydraulic telescopic entrance suspension and two shock absorbers within the rear. Going additional, it additionally comes with disc brakes at each ends with an digital braking system and in addition possesses the regenerative braking know-how function. Finally, this e-scooter may also come geared up with a complete guarantee of three years or as much as 50,000 km.
Developing the Infinity E1
Bounce began engaged on EVs and its swapping community in late 2019. They first labored with a contract producer and co-developed a mannequin which is deployed on its fleet. Subsequently, in early 2021, it acquired an EV OEM firm and labored on launching Bounce Infinity E1 throughout December, together with integrating the swappable battery, sturdy chassis and many others.
“We strongly felt that fleet owners like us will be first movers and can take the advantage of better economics on EV and at the same time build infrastructure that can be passed on to consumers. For its mobility business, Bounce wanted to move towards EVs for ease of operations and better economics. However, it was initially unable to find any form factor that could be readily used primarily due to the lack of reliability and durability of the scooters available in the market. In addition to this, the range anxiety and downtime that comes with a fixed battery (charging) was not viable for a fleet operator like us,” explains Vivekananda.
Hence, Bounce invested closely in R&D with an in-house car engineering workforce to switch a number of the current fashions and in addition to design and develop a brand new mannequin from scratch, particularly engaged on a detachable battery and swapping community. Having invested and developed type elements which are appropriate for the Indian situations, “it made sense to manufacture and sell this to the consumers, in a market starved for good electric two-wheelers”.
“So we started with a small project to build an electric scooter that works for India and the journey got us here. We have done over 2 crore km on battery and the battery swapping station built with the power of mom and pop stores. The company firmly believes that India is at the dawn of an EV revolution and Bounce is committed to taking up all challenges to bring India on to the world map of electric mobility adopters,” he claims.
![Swapping the old battery instead of charging](https://en-media.thebetterindia.com/uploads/2021/12/Bounce-Battery-Swapping-1639817500.jpg)
Standing out from the gang
The majority of two-wheeler house owners in India shouldn’t have entry to devoted parking for his or her autos. Even individuals who have entry to devoted parking don’t essentially have entry to charging at a given parking spot. The incapacity to cost a two-wheeler has been the largest obstacle to EV adoption in India.
“Infinity E1 is the first and only scooter in India to provide both options – to swap batteries from the Bounce network as well as charge-at-home. This not only addresses the charging problem but also mitigates the need to invest in batteries — the customer can pay per swap for battery usage. This pushes the running costs of the scooter down substantially,” says Vivekananda.
He goes on to elucidate a number of the extra distinctive and engaging options on the Infinity E1 are as follows:
Remote Applications- It could be tracked remotely with a battery cost standing additionally accessible.
Drag Mode- This mode permits the scooter to maneuver alongside at strolling pace in case you’ve got a puncture and wish to push it.
Reverse Mode- This permits you to transfer the scooter backwards for ease in getting out of tight parking spots.
Cruise Control- This function retains the scooter working at a gradual pace, no matter the situations and the terrain.
Anti-Theft- The Infinity E1 senses vibrations when left parked and might perceive if it’s being tampered with. It locks its rear wheels in response to motion and makes it more durable to maneuver.
Tow Alert- The Infinity E1 alerts you if it strikes out of its parking lot and will get towed. The notifications alert the proprietor and monitor your car too.
Unlike different EV producers, Bounce isn’t merely launching a car, however constructing a complete ecosystem together with it. Whether this succeeds or not stays to be decided, however one can’t fault the imaginative and prescient at play right here.
(Edited by Yoshita Rao)