Vitol invested in SUN Mobility in 2021, and has successfully deployed a network of about 500 battery swap points, catering to roughly 20,000 electric vehicles.
SUN Mobility is a battery swapping solution provider that seeks to make electric mobility more affordable and more accessible to a mass audience.
In India, where SUN Mobility has started its full-scale operations, a lack of physical space outside high-rise apartments to facilitate home charging, insufficient grid and real estate infrastructure to deploy an adequate public fast charging network, and a price-elastic mass user base. This exacerbates EV adoption issues of high up-front costs, range anxiety and long charge times.
These issues are addressed by battery swapping, where the battery is separated from the vehicle (thereby materially lowering the up-front cost), and where the swap process itself takes less than 2 minutes. This is faster than ordinary gasoline refuelling and is better suited for public access.
SUN Mobility primarily caters to livelihood vehicles, including two-wheelers, three wheelers, buses and cargo vehicles largely catering to last-mile connectivity applications. In India alone, there are over 200 million of these vehicles which cover over 80% of all new vehicle sales annually. Vitol invested in SUN Mobility in 2021 and as of today, SUN Mobility has successfully deployed a network of almost 500 Swap Points catering to roughly 20,000 electric vehicles and is looking to expand into other fast-growing markets and sectors. Its additional factory opened in November 2022 in Bangalore right next door to its existing headquarters, significantly increasing its battery manufacturing capacity.