Bharat New-Energy Company (BNC) debuts its in-house battery – Etrol 40

· AIS-156 Amendment 3 Phase 2 certified

· Best-in-class safety, standard 5-year warranty

· Setup production capacity of 100k per year, with 5x expansion planned within a year

June 2023: Bharat New-Energy Company (BNC), a leading Indian electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, announced the launch of its in-house developed battery – the Etrol 40.

“The primary driver for us to develop this battery has been safety. Even though there are 100+ battery manufacturers in India, there is an absolute shortage of good-quality vendors. We want to ensure first and foremost that there is zero probability of safety-related issues with the battery and that is exactly what we have accomplished” said Mr. Anirudh Ravi Narayanan, CEO, Co-Founder, BNC.

The Etrol 40 is certified to the latest standards: AIS-156 Amendment 3 Phase 2. The battery is tested to safety requirements beyond even the latest norms including nail penetration, crushing, thermal testing to 400 C, and continuous operations at >45 C. Multiple redundancies are built-in for every possible failure to ensure there is no possibility of safety incidents.

The Etrol 40 is a 2.1 kWh battery pack that can be used by 2Ws, 3Ws, and light vehicles. The battery is removable/swappable and comes with a portable charger that can be plugged into a standard 3-pin 6A socket and charged the battery in 4 hours. The company is also working on a portable fast charger that can plug into a standard 3-pin 16A socket and charge the battery in 2 hours. The fast charger will be an optional additional purchase. On average, the battery can cover 90+km* in eco mode. The battery is IP67 waterproof and dustproof. It is modular and can be paralleled as required to increase capacity.

The battery is the most important component of the electric vehicle and plays a huge role in the lifetime value and experience of the vehicle. The Etrol 40 will offer a standard warranty of 5 years and 60k km per battery. Vehicles that use two batteries will therefore have a standard warranty of up to 120k km, which is best-in-class in the industry.

The company has set up a separate plant within its Coimbatore facility capable of manufacturing 100k batteries per annum, with extensive capital investments right from individual cell level characterization and capacity grading to complete battery pack functional and capacity testing. Further investments are planned in automation and increasing capacity. BNC envisions a 5X increase in production of its 200MWh batteries by the end of the current fiscal.

BNC also plans to market the battery more broadly – not only for internal consumption. Commenting on this, Mr. Anirudh Ravi Narayanan, CEO, Co-Founder, BNC, said “We are very proud of the battery we have built and believe it is best-in-class by any objective measure – safety, longevity, lifetime cost. We believe opening up our technology for usage by others will benefit the eco-system, and hence plan to market this broadly”.

In the future, as and when the Battery Swapping Policy is implemented, the company plans to set up a swapping network based on the Etrol battery. “With this battery, the customer will be able to swap and go in a minute, like refueling traditional petrol-based vehicles – except without the pollution. We await the Battery Swapping Policy to be implemented so we can begin to roll out this benefit to our customers” said Mr. Anirudh Ravi Narayanan, CEO, Co-Founder, BNC. The electric vehicle battery market in India is currently valued at USD 4.3B as of 2022. The market is at a CAGR of 22.1% and is expected to grow to 25.3B by the end of this decade.