NEW DELHI: A joint venture agreement has been signed between Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and Sun Mobility Pte Ltd Singapore on Wednesday. As per an exchange filing by the Indian Oil Corporation, the joint venture company will do battery swapping business in India as a private limited company with a 50:50 collaboration.
Battery swapping, an alternative to charging the electric vehicle, involves exchanging discharged batteries for charged ones. The joint venture will carry out deployment and operation of Battery-as-a-Service solution (BAAS) for two-wheeler, three-wheeler, and four-wheeler vehicles, each with a gross vehicle weight lower than 2 tonnes (Small Format Electric Vehicle – SFEV).
The joint venture will retrofit to convert to SFEV using docks and batteries to enable their functioning as electric vehicles for SFEV-BAAS over a network of swap points, including those of Indian Oil retail outlets. The initial paid-up share capital of the joint venture shall be Rs 2 lakh comprising 20,000 equity shares having a face value of Rs 10 each to be contributed equally by both partners.
Among others, the joint venture will undertake and operate battery battery-swapping business related to the deployment and operation of BAAS for SFEVs in India. Whether the acquisition would fall within related party transactions and whether the promoter/ promoter group/ group companies have any interest in the entity being acquired, the exchange filing noted that “The JV agreement would not fall within related party transactions.”
Consolidated revenue of Indian Oil is Rs 881,235 crore and Sun Mobility Pte. Ltd. Singapore (SMS) is USD 11.524 million for the financial year 2023-24.
Explaining the rationale behind the formation of this new venture, they said battery swapping technology is expected to be one of the prominent energy dispensing technologies in the electric vehicle ecosystem. The shares of Indian Oil Corporation on Wednesday closed at Rs 159.25, up 3.07 per cent. (ANI)