Will there be enough charging stations for electric cars in Bengaluru?
The prices of petrol and diesel in Bangalore are rising day by day. Rising prices affect transportation costs in low and middle-income families in Bangalore. To reduce operating costs, they are shifting their interests from traditional to electric vehicles. With the increasing demand for electric vehicles, the need for infrastructure also increases across the city.
A study by the Bangalore Condominium Federation reflects that there is an increase of 5-6% has been recorded in the use of electric cars among its members. This will lead condominium associations to come together and make a plan to expand their charging infrastructure so that they would be able to accommodate the growing demand in the number of electric vehicle charging stations among the resident of the buildings or the apartments. Multi-family homes build communal charging stations that allow multiple vehicles to be charged simultaneously in a common parking space of the apartment.
BESCOM chargers in Bengaluru
BESCOM stands for Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited. It looks after the distribution of electricity in eight districts of Karnataka including Urban Bangalore, Rural Bangalore, Kolar, Davanagere, Chikkaballapura, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Ramanagara. In 1999, Karnataka started a major downdraft of the electricity sector. As a first step, the Karnataka State Electricity Board (KEB) was dissolved and replaced by Karnataka Power Transmission Limited (KPTCL). BESCOM started operations on June 1, 2002, and took over the responsibility for power distribution in the 8 districts of Karnataka.
Bengaluru has 471 electric cars, 29 E-three-wheelers, and 1486 e-bikes and e-scooters across the city. A few months back, Ather energy had 37 charging ports installed at various locations in Bengaluru.
The company recently announced plans to install 40 more Ather EV charging stations in the city. There are around 11 charging stations installed by Kazam EVs available for the use of EV users of Bengaluru.
BESCOM “EV Mitra” helps in locating the EV charging ports across the city
In December last year, BESCOM launched its EV mobile application named "EV Mitra" to help the EV users in Bangalore. It will help the drivers to find all the EV charging stations installed in Bengaluru city. Users can easily download this app from Play Store and App Store. This app will also provide information about the tariffs of using the charging station and billing-related processes. It will give information about how many charging units are operational in Bangalore. You can do an advance booking system of charging units. In this app, navigation of the charging station is available on google map. There are 3 types of charging units to choose from and also you will get to know about how much charging is involved, and its price information. According to BSCOM sources, the station offers two models of chargers: AC001 and DC001. AC001 can charge 3 cars at the same time, and DC001 can charge only 1 car. BESCOM also plans to build an additional 300 electric vehicle charging stations in Bangalore in the coming months.
Bangalore to get 140 EV chargers in next 6 months
In a bid to strengthen the city’s EV charging network, the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) will add 140 EV chargers in the next 6 months. P Rajendra Cholan, MD, BESCOM, informed that tenders have been floated to set up 1000 EV charging stations across Karnataka in a PPP model. Around 50% of the chargers will be installed in 7 big cities in the state with Bangalore getting 140 of them. The remaining will be uniformly allocated across the state in various districts and highways. At present, BESCOM operates 136 EV chargers in Bangalore.
EV charging hub, capable of charging 50 cars together, launched in Bangalore.
The public charging hub will cater to electric cars as well as two & three-wheelers. This hub, set up by Fortum, is located at Forum Neighborhood Mall at Whitefield in the city.
The facility has ten 60KW CCS charging points, four 15KW DC001 charging points, and thirty-six 7.4KW Type-2 AC charging points which allow 50 cars to be charged simultaneously.
