Hasta La Gadget!

India is introducing a battery swapping policy as part of a push to boost EV sales, Reuters has reported. “Considering the constraint of space in urban areas for setting up charging stations at scale, a battery swapping policy will be brought out,” said India’s Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman. 

The idea is change out depleted batteries for freshly charged ones, potentially saving time compared to charging. You may have first heard about the idea when Tesla launched battery swapping stations in 2014, then quietly dropped the idea due to lack of use.

India plans to reduce “interoperability standards,” presumably so that battery-swapping tech can be used between different EV makes and models. “The private sector will be encouraged to create sustainable and innovative business models for battery and energy as a service, improving the efficiency of the EV ecosystem,” said Sitharaman. 

India’s Sun Mobility and Honda recently set up a battery sharing service in India, starting with three-wheelers, but it’s still in a very early phase. The idea has gained some traction elsewhere with scooters from Gogoro, which recently launched its battery swapping tech in China. Gogoro reportedly plans to enter the Indian market in partnership with the country’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp. 

India’s push for EVs is a key component of its Paris agreement commitment to reduce carbon emissions by up to 35 percent by 2030. It plans to give $6 billion worth of incentives to companies that build clean vehicles and produce batteries locally. The country has nearly 975,000 registered EVs, but only 1,028 public charging stations, according to the Hindustan Times. 

Meta is ending its Express Wi-Fi program designed to provide low-cost internet in developing countries through partnerships with local communities, mobile operators and businesses. Launched in 2016, it wasn’t free like Meta-owned Facebook’s failed Free Basics program, struck down by Indian courts for violating net neutrality. Instead, it was designed to be inexpensive, starting at around 15 cents for 100MB or $5 for 20GB. 

Facebook partnered with satellite companies, ISPs and others in places like India, South Africa and the Philippines. Retailers were able to sell hotspots at reasonable rates decided by them and the operator, rather than Facebook. Meta would benefit, of course, by gaining access to new customers it no doubt hoped would create Facebook accounts. As with Google, most of the company’s recent growth has come from developing countries where people are getting online for the first time. 

Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that glitches in Meta’s free internet services were creating unwanted charges for users in countries like Pakistan. Meta was also reportedly favoring its own content on its free-data Discover service to the detriment of other sites. 

Meta said that while it’s winding down Express Wi-Fi, it’s focusing on other projects around internet access. “While we are concluding our work on this program to focus on developing other projects, we remain committed to working with partners across the telecom ecosystem to deliver better connectivity,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. It promised to work with Express Wi-Fi partners to “minimize the impact to their businesses while keeping networks running.” 

Microsoft was most likely ready for rigorous anti-trust scrutiny around the world when it decided to purchase Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The deal is the tech giant’s biggest yet, and it’s also set to become the largest all-cash acquisition ever. In the US, the proposed acquisition will be reviewed the Federal Trade Commission instead of the Justice Department, according to Bloomberg. The two agencies are in charge of investigating mergers in the country and typically decide between themselves which one will take charge of a case. 

FTC’s investigation will reportedly take a close look at how Microsoft’s ownership of Activision could harm rivals by limiting access to the developer’s biggest games. Activision owns hugely popular IPs, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush. It’s unclear if Microsoft has plans to release titles exclusive to Xbox and Window PCs in the future, but it’s worth noting Sony is still ahead of Microsoft in terms of gaming hardware sales and that a large chunk of Activision’s revenue comes from PlayStation gamers.

Microsoft expects to close the acquisition by June 2023, and it’s probably not going to be easy for the company. As Bloomberg notes, the FTC vowed to adopt a more aggressive approach towards investigating mergers and acquisitions last year under new chairperson Lina Khan. In December, the FTC sued to block NVIDIA’s $40 billion purchase of ARM over concerns that the deal would stifle competition for various technologies, such as those for data centers and car computers. 

A more recent Bloomberg report said NVIDIA is making preparations to walk away from the deal and that current ARM-owner SoftBank is looking to take the company public if the acquisition falls through. Still, the Microsoft seems to be confident that the acquisition will take place — Reuters says the tech giant committed to paying a $3 billion break fee if the deal fails to go through. 

The former guy’s latest promise gave the “Late Show” host an idea.