BIS and India’s Push for Battery Swapping — Charting the Course to 2025

In recent years, India has been steadily ramping up its efforts to transition its mobility and energy systems toward more sustainable models. One of the most promising levers in this shift is battery swapping — the ability to exchange a depleted electric vehicle (EV) battery for a fully charged one, rather than waiting for it to recharge. As of 2025, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), along with other government bodies and industry stakeholders, is actively working to create standards, guidelines, and a regulatory framework to make battery swapping a mainstream technology. Here’s a detailed look at what’s going on, why it matters, the opportunities and challenges, and what this could mean for EV users, manufacturers, and the environment.

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What’s the Current Status

• In January 2025, the Ministry of Power officially issued the Guidelines for Installation and Operation of Battery Swapping and Charging Stations. These apply to Battery Charging Stations (BCS), Battery Swapping Stations (BSS), and swappable battery providers.
• Those guidelines are intended to recognise battery swapping — and the Battery as a Service (BaaS) model — as viable alternatives to conventional charging.
• The India Battery Swapping Association (IBSA), which represents over 95% of the swapping industry (in terms of companies active), has welcomed these guidelines. They report there are already over 3,500 battery swapping stations, with ~350,000 batteries in circulation, which are enabling over 7 million e‑km of travel daily.
• In parallel, BIS is working on relevant standards. Minister Piyush Goyal and BIS officials have acknowledged that setting these standards — particularly around battery safety, form factor, connectors, interoperability — is complex and requires broad industry consultation.

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Why the Government & BIS Are Focused on This

Battery swapping holds several advantages in the Indian context:

1. Reduced Downtime – Swapping can be much faster than waiting for charging, especially fast charging, and this is particularly valuable for fleets (delivery, ride‑hailing, public transport).
2. Lower Upfront Cost for EV Buyers – If batteries are swappable and owned or maintained by service providers (BaaS model), the cost of buying an EV drops because the battery — often the costliest component — is not included.
3. Grid & Infrastructure Flexibility – Swapped batteries can be charged during off‑peak hours or even used for battery‑to‑grid (B2G) services, helping with grid stability. The guidelines mention that possibility.
4. Scaling EV Adoption – By solving concerns like long charging time, range anxiety, and infrastructure gaps, swapping could help accelerate achieving India’s EV goals and climate targets.

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Role of BIS & Standards

BIS, as the national standards‐body, has a critical role:

• Developing safety standards for batteries, battery swapping stations, connectors, charging protocols, thermal management etc. This is non‑negotiable, because battery failures can have serious consequences.
• Addressing interoperability: ensuring that batteries from different OEMs or swapping station operators can work together safely and efficiently. The debate is whether to fix form factors/connector specifications or allow flexible, outcome‑based standards driven by the market.
• Ensuring quality control and performance over the lifecycle of swappable batteries. This includes durability, degradation, safety under different conditions, etc. BIS is likely to issue Quality Control Orders (QCOs) for many components of the EV battery ecosystem.

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Key Challenges & Open Issues

Even with these positive developments, several challenges remain:

1. Standardization vs Innovation Tension
   Fixed standards (size, shape, connectors) help interoperability and scale, but risk stifling innovation. BIS and other authorities are grappling with how prescriptive standards should be.
2. Safety & Lifecycle Management
   Batteries degrade over time; swapping means batteries will be used by many users, potentially under varied conditions. Ensuring battery condition, safety, and fair usage (so that swapping doesn’t leave users with very degraded units) needs strong regulation and monitoring.
3. Electric Grid & Infrastructure Capacity
   Scaling up swapping stations (and fast charging) puts more demand on electricity supply, distribution networks, and requires smart systems to handle peak load, interconnection, etc. The grid must evolve in tandem.
4. Business Models & Economics
   The BaaS model and other swapping business models need to be financially viable. Infrastructure investment, land costs, operations, battery inventory management, and customer confidence all factor in.
5. Consumer Trust & Awareness
   Users need to have confidence that swapped batteries will perform reliably, that safety is assured, and that costs are transparent.

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What to Expect Toward End‑2025

Based on what is underway, here are likely developments in the near term (rest of 2025):

• BIS will likely release more detailed draft or final standards on battery swapping, especially around safety (thermal, mechanical), connectors, and testing methods.
• More formal policy support, possibly incentives, will be aligned around battery swapping / BaaS models. For example, tax/GST structure adjustment (lower GST on swappable batteries) may be under consideration. There are already media reports in that direction.
• Expansion of pilot swapping networks (beyond 2‑wheelers and 3‑wheelers) to buses and small commercial passenger vehicles, where the benefits are higher due to higher utilization. The government is working on guidelines for buses and cars as well.
• Increased industry collaboration via IBSA, OEMs, technology providers for interoperability, shared infrastructure and possibly battery lease/rental models.
• Monitoring and evolving guidelines based on experiences, e.g., failures, safety incidents, grid load issues, user feedback.

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Implications for Stakeholders

• For EV Buyers / Fleets: Potentially lower cost of ownership, greater convenience. But will need to understand whether swapping infrastructure is available in their geographic area, whether battery swapping is compatible with their vehicle choice, and whether battery quality is maintained.
• For OEMs / Battery Makers: Opportunity to innovate and design vehicles/packages for swapping, but also challenge to meet safety, durability, and interoperability standards.
• For Policy Makers & Regulators: Need to ensure standards are balanced – safe but not overly restrictive; support infrastructure investment; coordinate across ministries (Power, Heavy Industries, Transport, Standards).
• For the Environment: If done well, swapping can reduce emissions (by enabling more EV use) and improve battery lifecycle via better utilization. But improper discarding or poor battery reuse could undermine these benefits.

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Conclusion

In 2025, India is at a pivotal moment for battery swapping. Thanks to new guidelines from the Ministry of Power and active work by BIS, IBSA, OEMs and others, battery swapping is moving from concept and pilot phase toward becoming part of mainstream EV policy and infrastructure. The road isn’t without challenges — standardization quandaries, safety, business model viability, and infrastructure scale are real tests. But if these are navigated carefully, India could unlock the full potential of battery swapping: faster EV adoption, lower costs, better grid integration, and a cleaner mobility future.