Canadian auto parts company Magna continues to increase its investment in India's electric vehicle battery swapping market. According to TechCrunch, Magna has made an additional investment of $35 million in Bangalore-based battery swapping company Yuma Energy to expand its battery swapping network for electric two-wheeled and three-wheeled vehicles.
Yuma initially split off from the Indian travel company Yulu and was established at the beginning of 2023. The company claims to have completed over 60 million battery swaps in total, with approximately 100,000 batteries currently in use across its network. With this new funding in place, Magna's stake in the joint venture will exceed the previous 51%, while Yulu's stake will be diluted, although the latest equity ratio has not been disclosed.
Funds continue to be invested in battery swapping expansion.
Magna has previously made arrangements in India for Yulu and Yuma. In 2022, this Canadian company committed a total of $77 million in investments to the two companies, of which $25 million was directed towards Yulu and $52 million towards the battery swapping joint venture where Yuma is involved.
After this additional investment, Yuma plans to use most of the funds for expanding the battery swapping infrastructure and aims to double the current capacity of about 100,000 batteries within the next 12 to 18 months. The company also plans to enter Chennai and Pune in the coming quarters and continue to optimize the site layout in the cities already covered by its services.
Targeting high-frequency delivery riders
The core customers of Yuma are high-mileage operational vehicles, especially riders in the delivery and gig economy. The company believes that such users have long daily operating hours and are more sensitive to downtime, therefore a battery swapping model is more suitable than fast charging.
According to the company, a battery swap can be completed in just two minutes. Even fast charging, which takes 20 to 30 minutes, will cause riders to temporarily stop operating, and it also places higher demands on the facilities and power capacity. Yuma believes that this is precisely why the two-wheeled and three-wheeled electric vehicle market in India is suitable for the battery swap model.
Revenue has increased, but profits have not yet been achieved.
Yuma has not yet achieved overall profitability, however, the company stated that some of the earlier-built battery swapping stations have already achieved EBITDA. For the fiscal year ending March 2026, the company's revenue was approximately 1 billion Indian rupees, which is about 10.5 million US dollars.
Currently, Yuma operates over 400 charging stations and more than 2,500 charging units, covering 18 cities in India, including Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and the Delhi region. The company expects to achieve break-even in the next two quarters.
Yulu remains the largest customer of Yuma, accounting for the majority of its cumulative battery swapping volume. However, this reliance is declining. The company stated that in the most recent quarter, approximately 15% to 20% of the battery swapping demand came from customers other than Yulu. Yuma currently serves over 5 fleets and has integrated with more than 10 vehicle model platforms. It is expected that in the next two years, the proportion of non-Yulu customers will rise to around 25%.
Additional information:Yulu also completed a $93 million financing earlier this month to expand its electric two-wheeler fleet, which means that Yuma needs to simultaneously increase the capacity of its battery swapping network to match the expansion pace of its largest customers.
