India’s electric mobility sector is entering a defining phase, and a few companies are leading this charge. Founded in 2019, the Gurugram-based Battery Smart began by addressing everyday charging issues for e-rickshaw drivers and today operates a battery-swapping network of over 1,600 stations across 50 cities, serving more than 90,000 active users. The platform has enabled 95 Mn swaps to date and contributed to INR 2,800 Cr in cumulative driver earnings.

To understand the potential of India’s battery-swapping market, and where Battery Smart stands in this equation, we spoke with cofounder Pulkit Khurana, who broke down why India’s battery-swapping opportunity is far larger than current projections.

He also shed light on the early inflexion points that shaped Battery Smart. He talked about scaling Battery Smart and the role of technology in building a reliable, high-density network.

Besides, Khurana talked about The Battery Smart’s Impact Report 2025. The report highlights that by facilitating over 95 Mn battery swaps and enabling more than 3.2 Bn emission-free kilometres for electric two and three-wheelers, Battery Smart’s network has helped the country avoid the release of over 2.2 Lakh tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions.

Here are the edited excerpts from our interaction with Pulkit Khurana…

Inc42: India’s battery swapping market is projected to cross $68.8 Mn by 2030. How do you view this trajectory?

Pulkit Khurana: The projected $68.8 Mn battery swapping market size by 2030 significantly underestimates the true potential. As this is still a nascent category, most existing studies rely on limited historical adoption patterns rather than real growth signals from the ecosystem.

In fact, Battery Smart alone is on track to exceed this number within the next 12 months, clearly indicating that the market opportunity is far bigger than what current forecasts suggest.

Today, we serve only about 4% of the existing addressable user base. Even at current penetration levels, the battery swapping opportunity exceeds $2 Bn and is growing at more than 60% CAGR.

As EVs move from early adopters to mass-market users, swapping will shift from being a convenience to a core pillar of India’s electric mobility infrastructure.

Three forces are already accelerating this shift:

The coming decade will reward solutions that reduce friction, strengthen commercial viability and scale responsibly. Battery swapping is uniquely positioned to do all three, and today’s growth is only a preview of what lies ahead.

Inc42: Looking back to 2019, what were the early inflexion points that convinced you that the swapping model could scale in India?

Pulkit Khurana: The first inflexion point came from simply understanding the scale of the problem. In 2019, more than 1.5 Mn e-rickshaws were running on lead-acid batteries that were expensive, short-lived and required 12 to 16 hours of charging every day. Drivers were losing income due to daily downtime and repeatedly paying for replacements. It became evident that a charging-led ownership model was neither sustainable nor economically viable for high-utilisation mobility.

The second turning point was witnessing how dramatically swapping improved the driver economics. A two-minute swap eliminated the need to purchase a battery, reduced the upfront vehicle cost by up to 40% and removed charging delays entirely. The impact was immediate — drivers could stay on the road for longer, earn more and operate without worrying about battery degradation or unpredictable performance. Adoption grew organically because the model solved real friction.

The third validation came through our partner-led station model. Allowing local entrepreneurs to operate swap stations enabled........

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