Cell-level repair of tired e-scooter and e-rickshaw battery packs, done legally
TL;DR Packmend takes worn lithium packs from e-scooter fleets, e-rickshaw owners and repair garages, tests every cell, rebuilds the pack from matched good cells and sends the dead ones to a registered recycler. Fleets pay per rebuilt pack. As a registered refurbisher it can also earn EPR certificates that battery producers buy.
The lithium pack is the priciest part of a small EV, and it rarely dies all at once. A handful of weak cells drag the whole pack down.
Global pack prices averaged US$115 per kWh in 2024, about ₹11,100[1], so a fleet replacing packs on thousands of vehicles faces a big bill for packs that are mostly still usable.
The cheap alternative is the roadside shop that swaps cells by eye, and that's how fires start. One large EV maker recalled 1,441 scooters in 2022 after a fire in Pune[2]. India's battery rules also expect used packs to be refurbished or recycled through registered entities, and an unregistered garage is neither[3].
What it does, in regulatory terms: battery refurbishment under the Battery Waste Management Rules 2022, registered with the State Pollution Control Board. Packmend repairs and re-conditions used packs for a second life. It does not recycle chemistry in-house, and dead cells go to a registered recycler.
A pack arrives from a fleet depot. It gets discharged and opened, and every cell is tested for capacity and internal resistance. A grading model, trained on the test results and on the pack's history from the fleet's battery system where that's available, predicts which cells will age together. Matched cells are rebuilt into packs with a fresh BMS check, welded, load-tested and sent back with a short warranty and a test report.
The research is encouraging but early. In one study 75% of recovered cells passed screening, capacities ranged from almost nothing to full, and matching by capacity and resistance made better packs[4]. Those were static tests only.
I narrowed the seed. Full lifecycle management for every micro-mobility battery is a game for recyclers with big plants, and pack repair for fleets is a smaller, faster wedge.
Shared and delivery EV fleets come first - the largest shared operator alone runs about 50,000 vehicles and swaps batteries through its own joint venture[5]. E-rickshaw owners and multi-brand garages are a second segment, reached through dealers. Battery producers are a third payer, buying the EPR certificates that refurbishers generate[3]. The price per rebuilt pack is my assumption to test against what a new pack costs.
The rules now pay for this work. Since 2022, producers can meet their battery obligations with certificates from registered refurbishers[3]. A March 2024 amendment set a price band for those certificates at 30–100% of the environmental compensation for non-compliance[6]. EV battery recovery targets rise to 90% from 2026-27[3].
I found no published count of worn micro-mobility packs in India, and nothing on the size of the pack-repair trade. The firmest numbers are fleet sizes, such as the largest shared operator's 50,000 vehicles[5].
The adjacent figure - the PM E-DRIVE dashboard showed roughly 16.3–16.7 lakh vehicles sold under the scheme when I checked, across all categories[7]. Each of those packs will need repair or recycling within a decade.
Second-life battery startups build modules and storage systems from used batteries[8]. Lithium recyclers break packs down to black mass and helps producers with EPR compliance[9]. Big shared fleets manage their own batteries in-house[5].
The gap is a registered, testing-led repair shop that fleets without their own battery team can send packs to.
| Difficulty | Hard (60/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹1.1–2 Cr |
| Time to launch | 8–12 months |
Safety is the hard part. You're opening charged lithium packs, so you need fire-rated storage, trained technicians and a pollution board registration before the first job. Every pack design is different, which means tooling and BMS work repeat for each fleet. And getting fleets to share battery data takes trust you don't have on day one.
Yes. A battery refurbisher can't legally open a customer's pack without registration.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Never let a model clear a pack as safe on its own. A technician signs off every rebuild after a load test, because a wrong call here starts a fire.
Want to work out the AI layer for Packmend? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I'd back a founder with battery engineering or EV service experience who doesn't mind compliance paperwork. If you're a software founder hoping AI does the hard part then skip it, because the grading model only matters once the workshop is safe.
Prove first that rebuilt packs from one fleet give at least 80% of a new pack's range for six months at under half its price.
Plan for roughly ₹1.1–2 Cr, mostly on test equipment, fire-rated storage, welding gear and trained technicians.
Yes. Refurbishers register with the State Pollution Control Board under the Battery Waste Management Rules 2022 and file quarterly returns. The workshop also needs a fire NOC.
Yes, wherever small EV fleets are growing. Battery waste and fire safety rules differ by country, so start with your environment regulator.
The free Packmend validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the battery-rules and fire-safety checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for fleets and garages, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Packmend or something close to it? The make-or-break work is a fire-safe workshop and a first fleet willing to put rebuilt packs on the road, and that's where I can help you plan. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.