Indian EV infrastructure leader SUN Mobility, co-founded by the Maini Group and SUN Group, raised $135 million in funding over the past year in order to execute a considerable global expansion. The recent round led by Helios Climate, Africa’s climate targeted investment platform, already partnered with the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) to support the establishment of Africa’s biggest battery swapping network while also driving domestic growth in India for SUN Mobility.
SUN Mobility currently runs over 900 stations with more than 50,000 electric vehicles (EVs) in India, completing over 1.4 million battery swaps every month.
Why Africa? Growing Demand and Urbanization
Rapid urbanization and a greater reliance on two and three wheelers for transportation along with the increased focus on sustainable modes of transport, make Africa a promising market for SUN Mobility’s expansion. SUN Mobility’s differentiated battery ownership model or Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS), significantly lower EV upfront cost, addressing affordability and range anxiety issues.
This model is anticipated to positively impact sustainability initiatives within Africa, where small format vehicles are responsible for 5% of total CO₂ emissions. The segment is expected to achieve annual sales of 1.9 million units by 2030. The network will include rapid interchange stations and battery supply chains in both Africa and Southeast Asia.
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Global Impact and Vision for the Future
Along with their primary investors including IOCL, Bosch and Vitol (parent of Vivo Energy), SUN Mobility has already completed 20 million swaps, facilitated 465 million electric kilometers and helped avoid more than 60,000 metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
Chairman Chetan Maini said, “We are excited to replicate our proven battery swapping business in Africa and bring scalable, affordable clean mobility solutions.”
