While battery swapping has struggled to take off in much of the world, Canadian auto parts giant Magna International believes the model could work at scale in India, where millions of two- and three-wheelers and a fast-growing delivery economy create a different set of economics.
And it’s placing that bet on Yuma Energy, a Bengaluru-based firm that operates a battery-swapping network for electric two- and three-wheelers. Yuma, which spun out of Indian mobility startup Yulu in early 2023, has completed more than 60 million swaps to date and now has about 100,000 batteries deployed across its network.
Magna is now investing another $35 million in Yuma, increasing the auto supplier’s stake from the 51% it took when the joint venture was formed, Yuma managing director Muthu Subramanian said in an interview. As a result, Yulu’s 49% stake will be diluted. Subramanian declined to disclose the new ownership split.
Yulu and Yuma are Magna’s only startup investments in India, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. In 2022, Magna committed a combined $77 million to the two businesses, with $25 million going to Yulu and $52 million to the battery-swapping joint venture.
Betting on India’s gig economy
Magna’s latest investment hinges in large part on India’s growing gig economy.
Delivery riders can lose valuable time, and revenue, while charging their EVs. Subramanian estimates that only about 10% to 15% of vehicles used by gig workers in India are electric today, leaving considerable room for operators such as Yuma if more of those riders switch from gasoline-powered vehicles.
“With Indian gig workers’ high runtime on a daily basis, an EV makes absolute sense in terms of cost of ownership,” Subramanian told TechCrunch. “Uptime is important.”
Yuma is targeting those high-mileage riders, arguing that swapping is more practical than fast charging. A battery, Subramanian said, can be exchanged in under two minutes, while even a 20- or 30-minute fast charge takes a rider off the road and requires more space and power to serve multiple vehicles at once.
However, building that convenience is expensive, as Yuma has to keep its batteries and swapping infrastructure ready before enough riders arrive to fully utilize them. “It’s a capital-intensive business, and the unit economics will play out at scale,” Subramanian said.
Yuma is not profitable yet, though some of its older swapping stations are already EBITDA-positive, Subramanian said. The firm operates more than 400 stations with over 2,500 charging units and ended the financial year in March 2026 with about ₹1 billion (about $10.5 million) in revenue. It is targeting EBITDA break-even within the next two quarters, Subramanian told TechCrunch.
Getting there will still require Yuma to build ahead of demand. The firm plans to use the bulk of Magna’s investment to expand its swapping infrastructure and double its fleet of about 100,000 batteries over the next 12 to 18 months.
Yulu still accounts for the vast majority of Yuma’s 60 million lifetime swaps, though that dependence has started to ease as about 15% to 20% of swaps in the latest quarter came from customers other than Yulu, Subramanian told TechCrunch.
Beyond Yulu, Yuma now serves more than five fleets and has integrated its batteries with more than 10 vehicle platforms, including models from Kinetic Green, Motovolt, BGauss, and Quantum Energy. The firm expects non-Yulu customers to account for about 25% of its swaps within the next two years, Subramanian said.
Earlier this month, Yulu raised $93 million to grow its electric two-wheeler fleet. Yuma will therefore need to expand its network to keep pace with its largest customer and accommodate newer fleets using its batteries.
Yuma operates its battery-swapping network across 18 Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and the Delhi region, as well as Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Coimbatore, Kochi, and Kolkata. With the fresh capital, the firm plans to expand into Chennai and Pune in the coming quarters while adding more stations in cities where it already operates.
India will remain Yuma’s focus for at least the next 12 to 18 months. However, Subramanian told TechCrunch that the firm plans to take the model overseas as part of its longer-term roadmap. Southeast Asian markets including Vietnam and Thailand, as well as parts of Africa, could be attractive because of their large two-wheeler markets, he said, though Yuma has yet to begin discussions about entering them.
Unlike operators that simply run swapping networks, Yuma designs and manufactures its own battery packs and charging units. The firm makes battery packs at its facility in Chennai and charging units in Bengaluru, giving it control over both the hardware and the network that manages them.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
