cKers Finance, an NBFC focused on financing sustainability and clean energy in India has provided a debt financing facility to EV firm SUN Mobility. The capital being provided to SUN Mobility will be used to accelerate the deployment of EVs integrated with the company's swappable batteries as part of its MaaS (Mobility as a Service) model.
As part of the partnership, SUN Mobility has already started deploying hundreds of high-capacity Piaggio Ape e-Xtra electric three-wheelers with third-party logistics (3PL) service providers. It has launched e3Ws that offer them a high payload (500 kg+) and unlimited battery range (2-minute swaps).
The MaaS model allows customers to procure EVs with no upfront capital cost or need to own the vehicle. Customers, instead, can pay a monthly rental for the vehicle provided to them with unlimited battery swaps, extending the vehicle range and operating hours. This way, fleet operators can scale up their business in an asset-light manner with the lowest cost and highest uptime 2-minute battery swaps.
Chetan Maini, co-founder, and Chairman, SUN Mobility said, "We are currently engaged with several OEMs, fleet operators, finances, and end consumers to develop a robust EV ecosystem in India. Our technology solution addresses the key challenges such as high upfront cost, range anxiety, battery life along with providing maintenance and insurance bundled in our MaaS offering".
"Our swappable battery technology developed over years of R&D guarantees a stress-free ride to our driver-partners, this technology coupled with tie-ups with reputed OEMs are designed to address the end-user hindrances which in turn will enable a smoother and faster transition to EVs. We are targeting to deploy over a million EVs by 2025, towards achieving this goal. We are excited to partner with cKers' to enable deployment of electric vehicles in India", he added.
Speaking about the partnership, Deepak Gupta, Business Development Head at cKers said "We are excited to have partnered with SUN Mobility, which shares our vision of promoting sustainability in transportation. The last-mile delivery segment is poised to see significant deployment of eSCVs (Electric Small Commercial Vehicles) fleets over the next 3 years given the strong operating cost advantage".
"cKers has been investing in EVs for over 2 years now and has already committed lines enabling the deployment of over 2,500 e2Ws and 1,000 electric e3W-loaders by the end of the current financial year, giving it a head start in financing clean mobility. cKers is bullish about the evolution of a strong EV ecosystem and the growth that it will create for the Indian economy", noted Gupta.
The demand for last-mile delivery decarbonization is driven by e-commerce companies who are opting to replace their existing fossil fuel-based last-mile delivery fleets with EVs with a cumulative target of deploying over 50,000 EVs in the next 3 years.
cKers is a clean energy-focused financier which is leveraging its understanding of the clean energy ecosystem and technology to develop credit risk underwriting frameworks for assessing viability and risk monitoring for the vehicles being deployed while offering a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and low carbon alternative to end customers.
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