Battery swapping may have stalled in most of the world, but Canadian auto parts giant Magna International is betting that India's millions of two- and three-wheelers and booming delivery economy make it the perfect place for the model to actually work. And so it's doubling down on Yuma Energy, a Bengaluru-based firm that runs 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 has about 100,000 batteries deployed across its network. Magna is now investing another $35 million in Yuma, increasing its stake from the 51% it took when the joint venture was formed, as Yuma managing director Muthu Subramanian told TechCrunch. Yulu's 49% stake will be diluted, though Subramanian declined to disclose the new ownership split.

Magna's latest bet hinges on India's growing gig economy. Delivery riders lose valuable time and revenue while charging their EVs, and Subramanian estimates only 10% to 15% of gig workers' vehicles in India are electric today, leaving plenty of room for growth. "With Indian gig workers' high runtime on a daily basis, an EV makes absolute sense in terms of cost of ownership," he said, adding that "uptime is important." Yuma targets those high-mileage riders, arguing that swapping is more practical than fast charging: a battery 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.

Building that convenience is expensive, however, as Yuma must 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. 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 targets EBITDA break-even within the next two quarters.

Getting there will 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: about 15% to 20% of swaps in the latest quarter came from customers other than 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. It expects non-Yulu customers to account for about 25% of swaps within two years.

Earlier this month, Yulu raised $93 million to grow its electric two-wheeler fleet, so Yuma will need to expand its network to keep pace with its largest customer and accommodate newer fleets. Yuma operates across 18 Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Coimbatore, Kochi, and Kolkata. With fresh capital, it plans to expand into Chennai and Pune in the coming quarters while adding more stations in existing cities.

India will remain Yuma's focus for at least the next 12 to 18 months, but Subramanian said the firm plans to take the model overseas in the longer term. Southeast Asian markets like Vietnam and Thailand, as well as parts of Africa, could be attractive due to their large two-wheeler markets, 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, making packs at its facility in Chennai and charging units in Bengaluru, giving it control over both hardware and network.