Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has announced plans to begin a battery sharing service for electric tricycle taxis or rickshaws as they are called in India, in the first half of 2022, using the Honda Mobile Power Pack e: (“MPP e:"), Honda’s all-new portable and swappable batteries.
As per Honda, electrified mobility products currently available in the market are facing three issues: short-range, long charging time and high cost of batteries. In order to contribute to India’s effort to accelerate electrification and expand the use of renewable energy, Honda will work to eliminate these three issues through the use of swappable batteries and by sharing such batteries. To this end, Honda will start a battery sharing service for electric rickshaws, using MPP e: in the first half of 2022.
In consideration of this new business, Honda began demonstration testing in India in February 2021, with 30 units of electric rickshaw taxis driven for a total of more than 200,000 km in operation. Through this testing, Honda identified issues to be addressed and verified business viability.
Honda’s battery sharing service will enable rickshaw drivers to stop by at the nearest battery swapping stations being set up in the city and swap a MPP e: with a low remaining charge for a fully-charged MPP e:. The use of this service will significantly reduce driver concern about running out of batteries as well as the risk of losing business opportunities with customers while waiting for rickshaw batteries to be charged.
To begin this service, Honda will establish a local subsidiary in India to conduct a battery sharing service business. The subsidiary will install a number of Honda Mobile Power Pack Exchanger e: as battery swapping stations and conduct battery sharing services in the city. Honda will work with electric rickshaw manufacturers and begin the service in selected cities first and then expand to other areas in stages.
Honda Mobile Power Pack e: (MPP e:) is a portable and swappable lithium-ion battery capable of storing a large amount of electricity, more than 1.3kWh, which is an increase from the previous version of the MPP. The MPP e: also features a body and handle designs. In addition to mobility products, MPP e: can be utilized as a power source for a broad range of compatible devices.
Honda says that by considering heat dissipation during continuous discharging, deterioration due to high temperature is prevented, and sufficient water resistance, vibration resistance and shock resistance are ensured under the expected normal operating environment. Additionally, the built-in control unit recognizes the conditions of the MPP e: and records the occurrence of all events. This data will be collected through the connector while MPP e: is charging and then utilized for the battery sharing operation and other secondary uses.
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In India, as the economy continues to grow, energy demand is increasing, and air pollution is worsening. To address these issues, country-wide efforts are being made to expand the utilization of renewable energy and to actively pursue electrification of the transportation sector, which accounts for approximately 20% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. There are more than 8 million units of auto-rickshaws in India, and they have been an essential means of daily transportation for people. In urban areas, these rickshaws are powered mainly by CNG (compressed natural gas) and have been a key challenge for electrification.
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