CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, Sept 12: Despite the rising numbers of electric scooters in the city in the last few years, the e-commuters in Ranchi are yet to have a battery-swap station for electric scooters. In the current scenario, people tend to charge their e-scooters at home.
According to an official from Pure EV scooters in Harmu Road, one of the reasons for not having battery-swap stations across the city is because different E-scooters have different batteries and are not universal. Therefore, every individual company cannot set up a station unless there is support from the government.
“The battery of our scooters will be different from the XYZ company and theirs will be different from others. So currently, there are no battery-swap stations in the city because every individual company cannot set up a station. There is a proposal by the government and in the next two years most probably we will have a universal battery for all the E-scooters,” the official said.
He added that electric scooter owners are aware of the fact that the range is limited so many riders tend to charge their batteries fully before going out for a ride. There are very few cases or incidents where a rider had to face battery drainage in the middle of the road.
The owner of Abhinav EV, which deals in Okaya electric scooters said that at the time of selling a scooter they charge an amount worth Rs 1,300 for the validity of the battery for a year. There have been incidents where their customers have called and asked them to swap the battery as they could not charge it or drain of battery in the middle of the road. In such situations, they send a person from the showroom with a battery and swap it with the discharged one free of cost.
He added that there are currently more than ten different e-scooter companies in Ranchi, and most use it within a 25 km radius of the city.
