Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil, HPCL Will Launch 22,000 EV Charging Stations Across India!

The government said that India has a total of 1640 working public EV chargers at present.

9 Cities In Focus

Out of these, 9 cities (Surat, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai) have approximately 940 stations.

It plans to expand the coverage to various cities in a phased manner.

The Government has increased its initial focus on these 9 mega cities (with a population of over 4 million).

Govt Brings In Public And Private Players

The Ministry of Power said that the government has made “360-degree efforts to enhance public charging infrastructure by involving private and public agencies (BEE, EESL, PGCIL, NTPC, etc.)”.

Private players have also taken the initiative to install EV charging stations as part of a convenient charging network grid to gain consumers’ confidence.

The Power Ministry requires charging stations to be in an area of 3×3 km grid.

Availability Of EV Charging Infra A Big Issue

The availability of adequate charging infrastructure has been a big obstacle holding back the adoption of EVs in India.

To address this, the Ministry of Power had issued “Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles—Guidelines and Standards”.

These guidelines outline the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders at the Central and State level for quick deployment of public EV charging infrastructure across the country.

Guideline Revisions

On 14 January, the ministry issued the following amendments :

• To provide an affordable tariff chargeable by public EV charging station operators and owners and EV owners
• Enable EV owners to charge at their residences or offices using their existing electricity connections
• Revenue sharing model for land use to make a public charging station financially viable
• Timelines prescribed for providing connectivity to the Public Charging Station (PCS) for faster rollout of EV public charging
• Technical requirements for public charging stations elaborated

Oil PSUs Adding To Charging Infrastructure

Oil PSUs have announced plans to set up 22,000 EV charging stations in prominent cities and on national highways.

Of this, 10,000 will be installed by IOCL, 7,000 will be installed by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), and the rest of 5,000 will be installed by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL).