Big Boost For EV Charging Infra In India: Indian Oil, BPCL And HPCL To Set Up 22,000 EV Charging Stations Across The Country

The government on Saturday (19 February) said that India has a total of 1640 operational public electric vehicle chargers at present and it plans to expand the EV infra coverage to various cities in a phased manner.

Further, the government informed that the oil PSUs plans to set up 22,000 EV charging stations across the country.

In a statement, 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.)".

Many private organisations have also come forward to install EV charging stations to develop convenient charging network grid to gain consumers’ confidence, the ministry said.

The Power Ministry has planned that charging stations should be in an area of 3×3 km grid.

"Currently, India has a total of 1640 operational public EV chargers. Out of which, 9 cities (Surat, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai) account for approximately 940 stations," the ministry said.

The Government, according to the ministry, has increased its focus initially on these nine mega cities (with population of over 4 million).

"There has been additional installation of 678 public EV charging stations between October 2021 to January 2022 in these nine cities, which is about 2.5 times of the earlier numbers, during the same period," the ministry said.

This, as per the ministry, has exhibited greater confidence among the consumers to shift towards electric mobility.

The ministry further said that after the saturation of "EV infrastructure in these mega cities, the government has plans to expand the coverage to other cities in a phased manner".

The availability of adequate charging infrastructure had been the key impediments for accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles in India.

In this regard, the Ministry of Power had issued "Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles—Guidelines and Standards," describing the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders at the Central and State level for expeditious deployment of public EV charging infrastructure across the country.

On 14 January, the ministry issued revised these guidelines with the following amendments :

• To provide an affordable tariff chargeable by public EV charging station operators and owners and Electric Vehicle (EV) owners.

• Enable owners of electric vehicles to charge EVs at their residences or offices using their existing electricity connections.

• A revenue sharing model has been suggested for land use to make a public charging station financially viable from an operational perspective.

• Timelines have been prescribed for providing connectivity to the Public Charging Station (PCS) for faster rollout of EV public charging.

• Technical requirements for public charging stations have been elaborated.

The ministry further said that the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have announced the setting up of 22,000 EV charging stations in prominent cities and on national highways across the country.

"Out of 22,000 EV charging stations, 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)," the ministry said.

IOCL has already installed 439 EV charging stations and plans to install another 2,000 EV charging stations over the next year. BPCL has installed 52 charging stations, while HPCL has installed 382 charging stations, it added.