South Asia · E-Mobility & Battery Swapping · 2025
Battery-as-a-Service Swap Model for a 2,400 E-Rickshaw Fleet
A Delhi e-rickshaw fleet operator built its battery-as-a-service business on EcoDyny swappable LiFePO4 packs, decoupling driver cost from battery ownership. The model raised driver daily earnings and gave the operator control over pack health across the fleet.
IndiaCountry
South AsiaRegion
E-Mobility & Battery SwappingSector
2025Commissioned
Client profile
India · E-Mobility & Battery Swapping
An e-rickshaw fleet operator in Delhi running 2,400 vehicles under a battery-as-a-service model with a network of swap points across the city.
Case study
The challenge
E-rickshaw drivers in Delhi operate on thin daily margins, and battery ownership is the largest single barrier to electric adoption. A driver buying a lead-acid traction bank pays upfront for an asset that degrades within a year under daily deep discharge, and then pays again. Charging at home or from roadside points takes eight hours or more, effectively capping the working day, and many drivers lack a safe charging location altogether. The operator's business idea was to sell swaps rather than batteries, but that requires packs that can survive being cycled hard, handled roughly and moved between vehicles. Its first attempt used lead-acid swap packs and failed on economics: packs were heavy, cycle life was short, and there was no way to track which pack was in which vehicle or how many cycles it had absorbed. Drivers also resisted paying per swap when they could not verify they were receiving a healthy pack.
Case study
Our solution
EcoDyny supplied the ED-SW-6035 swap pack, a 60 V / 35 Ah LiFePO4 unit designed for frequent handling, with a reinforced carry handle, an impact-resistant case and an IP65 enclosure for monsoon conditions. Each pack carries a unique identifier and a smart BMS that logs cycle count, cumulative energy throughput, maximum temperature and fault history. Swap stations read the identifier at insertion, so the operator's platform knows exactly which driver holds which pack and charges accordingly, and a pack with an abnormal fault history is quarantined automatically rather than returned to circulation. The BMS also supports a fast-charge profile that brings a pack from 20% to 90% in about 100 minutes on EcoDyny charging cabinets, which is what makes the swap model viable at peak hours. The operator runs a subscription structure in which drivers pay per swap rather than per battery, and the platform tracks earnings, pack availability by station and demand forecasting to plan where to add swap points.
Case study
Results
The operator reached 2,400 vehicles on the platform within 20 months, with 1,900 active packs in rotation. Driver daily earnings rose an average of 27% against the lead-acid ownership model, mainly from converting charging hours into working hours. Average pack cycle life reached 1,850 cycles before retirement to second-life use, against roughly 300 cycles on the lead-acid packs used in the first attempt. Swap availability at peak hours held at 98.6% across 46 swap points. The platform identified and quarantined 118 packs with abnormal fault histories before they failed in service, and the resulting reduction in roadside breakdowns was cited by drivers as the main reason for renewing subscriptions.
Metrics
Measured outcomes
2,400Vehicles on the swap platform
+27%Average driver daily earnings
1,850Average pack cycles to retirement
Drivers do not want to own a battery, they want to work. Once the swap fee replaced the battery purchase, the conversation with drivers changed completely.
— Chief Operating Officer, Delhi
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