SUN Mobility, a global leader in energy infrastructure and battery-swapping solutions for electric vehicles, showcased the world's first Modular Multi-Battery Swappable Solution under its Heavy Electric Vehicles (HEV) business with the Tata Starbus 12m EV platform on 9 July 2026 at Prawaas 5.0. The event, India's largest bus and mobility exhibition, took place at the Helipad Exhibition Centre in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, and aims to decarbonize India's $12 billion commercial bus market at scale.
Inauguration and Key Participants
The breakthrough solution was inaugurated by Mr. Amrendra Singh Kishore (IOFS), Director, Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. The ceremony was attended by Anand S, Vice President and Business Head, Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles; TV Srinivas, Head, Product Planning, Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles; Chetan Maini, Co-founder and Chairman, SUN Mobility; and Ashok Agarwal, CEO, SUN Mobility - HEV Business. The exhibition, held from 9th to 11th July, brought together prominent bus and car operators, vehicle OEMs, and policymakers.
Addressing Key Barriers to Fleet Electrification
SUN Mobility Heavy Electric Vehicles (HEV) developed this modular multi-battery swapping solution to address key barriers to fleet electrification, including high upfront vehicle costs, charging downtime, operational inefficiencies, and limited scalability. India's electric bus market is at an inflection point, with previous policy mandates like FAME II and current initiatives such as PM E-Drive and state-level procurement targets accelerating adoption. Battery swapping is emerging as a valuable addition to the electrification toolkit, enabling rapid energy replenishment, reducing vehicle downtime, and lowering the cost of electrification for both low- and high-utilization operations.
Industry Leaders' Perspectives
Chetan Maini, Co-Founder and Chairman of SUN Mobility, stated, "When we founded SUN Mobility, our vision was to make electric mobility as convenient, scalable, and economically viable as conventional transport by reimagining energy infrastructure. The unveiling of the world's first Modular Multi-Battery Swappable Solution demonstrated with Tata Starbus EV at Prawaas 5.0 marks a defining milestone in that journey." He added that this solution can unlock large-scale electrification across the commercial vehicle ecosystem and position India as a global leader in next-generation electric mobility solutions.
Ashok Agarwal, CEO of SUN Mobility HEV, commented, "The next phase of electrification will not be defined solely by vehicles, but by the energy ecosystems that power them. Our showcase of the world's first Modular Multi-Battery Swappable Solution on the Tata Starbus EV platform demonstrates how one battery swapping platform can serve staff, city transit, and intercity fleets alike, without compromising on affordability or operational reliability."
Technical Specifications of the Modular Multi-Battery Swappable Solution
At the core of the showcase is SUN Mobility HEV's AIS-038 certified Modular Multi-Battery Swappable Solution, integrated into the Tata Starbus EV platform. The architecture allows two batteries to be swapped simultaneously, with the full process completed in under five minutes. This cuts turnaround time and provides operators with significant gains in uptime and flexibility. The modular design supports both 100 kWh and 50 kWh battery configurations and works across vehicle segments ranging from 3T to 55T GVW. A single underlying architecture serves multiple use-cases, allowing end users to choose the battery pack according to their operational requirements.
Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) Model
Under SUN Mobility HEV's Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) approach, the battery is decoupled from the vehicle, so operators pay only for the energy consumed rather than the upfront cost of a battery pack. This shifts the burden of battery replacement, performance, and obsolescence from the customer to the swap operator, lowering the risk of switching to electric and bringing financing solutions at par with ICE vehicles.
Scalability and Connectivity
As the battery, vehicle, and swap station architecture is common across staff, city transit, and intercity use cases, fleet operators and city administrators can expand deployment without re-engineering the underlying system. Every swappable EV runs as a connected node on SUN Mobility HEV's intelligent network, sending back data on battery health, location, driver behavior, energy use, and predictive maintenance alerts, with Over-the-Air update capability. The system is underpinned by SUN Mobility HEV's proprietary Digital Twin platform, a live virtual replica of every battery pack and swap event that enables predictive degradation modeling, remote fault diagnosis, optimized swap scheduling, and carbon accounting at the level of a single vehicle.
Made in India, Built for the World
The Modular Multi-Battery Swappable Solution marks a significant milestone for India's commercial EV ecosystem, underscoring the importance of indigenous, OEM-agnostic energy infrastructure. Built on more than 275 patents developed entirely in-house, the technology embodies SUN Mobility HEV's ambition to create solutions made in India and built for the world. Backed by SUN Mobility's credibility and proven success in electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and small commercial vehicles, the HEV business extends this technology to buses and trucks. The integrated ecosystem combines modular smart batteries, high-throughput Quick Interchange Stations (QIS), and a cloud-based Smart Network to enable buses and trucks to replenish energy in minutes, eliminating charging downtime, reducing range anxiety, and improving fleet productivity. The platform supports buses from 7 to 13.5 meters and trucks from 3T to 55T GVW, allowing operators to deploy multi-OEM fleets on a common energy infrastructure.
About SUN Mobility
SUN Mobility is a global pioneer in battery swapping technology, offering faster, more affordable, and highly convenient energy solutions that accelerate electric vehicle adoption and support the transition to a zero-emission future. Founded in 2017 by Chetan Maini (Maini Group) and Uday Khemka (SUN Group), SUN Mobility has emerged as India's foremost provider of open architecture battery swapping solutions. The company has strengthened its global presence in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Philippines. Backed by investors including Bosch, Vitol, Helios Climate, and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), SUN Mobility enables seamless energy refueling for electric two-, three-, and four-wheelers, as well as heavy electric vehicles, through its Swap Point infrastructure. To accelerate nationwide deployment, SUN Mobility formed IndoFast Swap Energy, a 50:50 joint venture with IOCL. The company has deployed 1900+ Swap Points across 23+ cities, powering over 70 million battery swaps and enabling 465+ million electric kilometers, eliminating more than 100,000 metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions to date.
