SUN Mobility which is a 50:50 joint venture between Virya Mobility 5.0 and SUN New Energy Systems specializing in electric mobility, has planned to invest Rs 16.7 billion in setting up EV charging infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh.
This infrastructure would be for public transport such as buses, three-wheelers, four-wheelers and intra-city cargo vehicles. The investment is focussed on setting up first-class charging/swapping infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh. It has been planned that a pilot will be done first in Visakhapatnam and then would be penetrating other cities in Andhra Pradesh. The infrastructure of the stations would be in an open infrastructure model which would allow multiple vehicles to charge simultaneously.
In 2017, SUN Mobility entered a strategic alliance with commercial major Ashok Leyland to develop electric buses with swap-and-charge battery technology. The partners have developed Circuit S, India’s first electric bus equipped with swappable batteries. The fully-charged batteries, which can power the bus for 50-60 km, take less than four minutes for swapping.
SUN Mobility aims to work in tandem with state transport undertakings, fleet operators, shared mobility providers, and automotive manufacturers across all platforms, including, buses, three-wheelers, four-wheelers and two-wheelers in order to build a state-of-the-art EV ecosystem in the future.
