Where Will Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Be 1 Year From Now?

Talking about the current scenario:

Recently, the government of India, acting through the Ministry of Power, issued the timelines for providing grid connectivity for the installation of public charging stations, which is a positive step towards simplifying the process of putting in place this essential infrastructure.

This is just one of the many issues that have been addressed. These recommendations will need to be strictly enforced in both its written and conceptual forms by the state electricity regulating commissions.

The following locational density targets for public electric vehicle charging stations are outlined in the rules that were created:

1. A minimum of one charging station in each 3 kilometre by 3 kilometre grid
2. A charging station approximately every 25 kilometres, located on both the highways and roads.
3. On major highways and roads, there should be one rapid charging station for long-range and heavy-duty electric vehicles every 100 kilometres.
   

There is no denying the importance of electric vehicle charging infrastructure investment and implementation. However, the combination of demand and other unknown factors makes the public charging infrastructure a risky investment that is also undesirable to construct.

In order for an industry to reach scale, debt financing is essential, and there must be a progressive reduction in the company's dependence on policy-driven subsidies. To put it more succinctly, the business case calls for significant improvements. In order to make the business case more compelling to mainstream debt investors, it is essential to have a solid understanding of the levers that may be pulled to raise revenues and minimise costs.

There are substantial commercial, structural, and operational levers that can be pulled to decrease latency, increase revenues, and decrease expenses.

The provision of smart charging services, the advertising of products, the consolidation of retail space, and the interoperability of networks are all potential income boosters.

The ambitious electric vehicle charging plans of the Indian government

The government is making room for expansion at this time. It gave all gas stations order to install a supply of at least one new-generation fuel, such as compressed natural gas (CNG), biofuels, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and charging outlets for electric vehicles.

The government issued a directive requiring all commercial and institutional buildings with a parking capacity of more than one hundred vehicles, such as shopping malls, hospitals, hotels, offices, educational institutions, and movie theaters, among other types of establishments, to designate five percent of their parking spaces as EV charging spots (pdf).

An electric vehicle charging station will be installed every 40–60 kilometres (km) of national highways by the National Highways Authority. Over the next three years, India's largest state-owned oil company will install 10,000 electric vehicle (EV) chargers around the country. Individual governments, such as Karnataka, Delhi, and Maharashtra, are allocating funds and resources specifically to the installation of chargers.

Pioneers are contributing to the revolution too

In the meantime, the private sector is also rising to the occasion and rising to meet the challenge.

Ola CEO Aggarwal revealed that the business will install 4,000 hyperchargers at BPCL pumps and in residential complexes across India by 2022. Thousands of Ola e-scooter buyers will be able to use these charging stations for free until June, he said.

Tata Power has set up 1,000 chargers across the country; Mumbai-based startup Magenta has begun installing streetlamp-integrated EV chargers at railway stations and is targeting 4,500 chargers across petrol stations, hotels, and residences; and Ather Energy is looking to set up 500 chargers this year.

The potential of electric automobiles in the Indian market in the future

Slow progress has been made towards adopting electric vehicles across India. The costs are quite high, the supply chain for batteries is entirely reliant on imports, and there is a severe lack of charging infrastructure.

Even now, India's leading automobile manufacturer, Maruti, does not produce electric vehicles. Tesla's superchargers have been discovered in India, but the company has not yet provided a launch date for its automobiles, which are still three years behind schedule.

The goal of having entirely electric vehicles (EVs) operating on Indian roads by the end of the year 2030 has been scaled back by the country's Minister of Transport, Nitin Gadkari. By the end of this decade, the goal is to have 30 percent of private automobiles, 70 percent of commercial vehicles, 40 percent of buses, and 80 percent of two-wheeled and three-wheeled vehicles be electric.

In light of all the potholes, the finish line for India's electric hopes is still a few laps away at the very least. To summarise, even though progress has been made in the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in India over the past several years, there are still many aspects that need to be improved as well as problems that need to be resolved. Having said that, the future appears to hold a lot of potential.