Pasadena, CA-based Power Global, a two-year-old startup that is also a client of Amritt Inc., has an innovative idea to disrupt the auto-rickshaw market in India. The company offers a retrofit kit for diesel-powered vehicles and swappable battery packs to transition the more common lead-acid batteries to lithium-ion.
Though many auto-rickshaws in India are already electric, they still tend to rely on lead-acid batteries that need to be replaced every six to eleven months. Its eZee swappable batteries aim to convert auto-rickshaws into zero-emissions electric vehicles.
“We can’t translate petrol or gas solutions and try and make that work for electric, it’s really a whole new thing. Our viewpoint is: a lot of kiosks, a small amount of [battery] modules per location,” said Porter Harris, the company’s founder.
“I’ve been looking at the Indian market now for about five years,” he told TechCrunch in a recent interview. The opportunity is certainly ripe, with some market research firms estimating that the electric rickshaw market in India will grow to $1.3 billion by 2025,” added Harris.
By offering two separate products for diesel-powered or electric rickshaws — the retrofit kit, which Harris said will fit more than 90% of current models, and the eZee swappable battery — Power Global is aiming to capture a bigger chunk of the market. The main source of revenue will come from getting drivers on the energy-as-a-service monthly subscription model via Power Global’s swappable batteries.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
