Magna adds $35 million to Yuma, doubling down on battery swapping in India

Magna deepens its stake in Yuma

Canadian auto parts giant Magna International has invested a further $35 million in Yuma Energy, the Bengaluru-based operator of a battery-swapping network for electric two- and three-wheelers. According to TechCrunch, the deal increases Magna's holding beyond the 51% stake it took when the joint venture was created, diluting the 49% held by mobility startup Yulu, from which Yuma was spun out in early 2023. Yuma managing director Muthu Subramanian declined to share the new ownership split.

The two companies are Magna's only startup investments in India, the firm confirmed to TechCrunch. In 2022 it committed a combined $77 million to them, with $25 million going to Yulu and $52 million to the swapping venture.

The case for swapping in India

Battery swapping has struggled to gain traction in most of the world, but Magna is wagering that India's economics are different: millions of two- and three-wheelers plus a fast-growing delivery sector. For gig riders, every charging stop is lost income. Subramanian estimates that only 10% to 15% of vehicles used by gig workers in India are currently electric, leaving a large pool of gasoline vehicles to convert.

"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."

A battery can be exchanged in under two minutes, he noted, whereas even a fast charge takes 20 to 30 minutes, pulls the rider off the road and requires more space and power to serve several vehicles at once.

Building ahead of demand

That convenience is expensive to provide. Yuma must keep batteries and swapping stations ready before enough riders arrive to use them. "It's a capital-intensive business, and the unit economics will play out at scale," Subramanian said. The company is not yet profitable, though some of its older stations are already EBITDA-positive, and it closed the financial year ending March 2026 with roughly ₹1 billion (about $10.5 million) in revenue. It is aiming for EBITDA break-even within the next two quarters.

Yuma currently runs more than 400 stations with over 2,500 charging units across 18 Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and the Delhi region. It has completed over 60 million swaps to date and has about 100,000 batteries deployed. The bulk of Magna's money will go toward expanding that infrastructure and doubling the battery fleet within 12 to 18 months, alongside entry into Chennai and Pune.

Loosening the Yulu dependency

Yulu still accounts for the vast majority of Yuma's lifetime swaps, but the reliance is starting to ease. Between 15% and 20% of swaps in the most recent quarter came from other customers, and Yuma now serves more than five fleets with batteries integrated into more than 10 vehicle platforms, including models from Kinetic Green, Motovolt, BGauss and Quantum Energy. Subramanian expects non-Yulu customers to account for about 25% of swaps within two years.

The expansion has a deadline of sorts: Yulu raised $93 million earlier this month to grow its own two-wheeler fleet, and Yuma's network has to keep pace with its largest customer while accommodating newer fleets.

Unlike pure network operators, Yuma designs and manufactures its own hardware, building battery packs in Chennai and charging units in Bengaluru. India will remain its focus for the next 12 to 18 months, but Subramanian pointed to Vietnam, Thailand and parts of Africa — markets with large two-wheeler populations — as possible longer-term destinations, though no talks have started.

Why it matters

A second major cheque from one of the world's largest auto suppliers is a clear vote of confidence in battery swapping, a model that has repeatedly faltered elsewhere, particularly for passenger cars. India's small-format vehicles and wage-driven delivery riders invert the usual problems: batteries are cheap enough to pool, utilization is high, and downtime translates directly into lost earnings. The coming 12 to 18 months will test whether that thesis holds commercially, as Yuma doubles its battery fleet and chases break-even. If it works, Magna and Yuma will have a template for other two-wheeler-heavy markets — and India's gig economy will have one more reason to move off gasoline.