India’s EV charging infra needs $30 bn investment to double growth pace

India needs investments worth $20-30 billion to double the pace of growth of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the country, according to industry body India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA).

With over four million electric vehicles sold in India, EV adoption is fast approaching the inflexion point, aided by supportive government policy, and increased consumer awareness, says IESA. However, the need of the hour is to improve the pace of this adoption with the support of public and private investments, it says.

“We all are waiting for the PM E-drive scheme to be floated, which has doubled the charging infrastructure incentive than the FAME-II scheme,” says IESA president Debi Prasad Dash.

Some of the things the ministry is considering before announcing the full scheme is that they are trying to make it state-wise demand allocation this time, considering the density of vehicles in different localities in states and cities, says Dash.

“The ministry has also tried to consider if any state has its own EV policies and gives incentives to the charging space and others, as well as how they can allocate both state and central government schemes,” Dash says.

The PM E-Drive scheme aims to address range anxiety by promoting the installation of public EV charging stations (EVPCS). ₹2,000 crore is dedicated to installing 22,100 fast chargers for e-4Ws, 1,800 fast chargers for e-buses, and 48,400 fast chargers for e-2Ws and e-3Ws. However, the increasing number of EVs raises alarming concern for fast charging units, which are still at their nascent stage in India, says IESA.

PM E-Drive allocation is inadequate to accelerate the public charging infrastructure with that money, says Awadhesh Jha, executive director of charge point operator Glida. “₹2000 crore can be invested in upgrading the electricity infrastructure by providing the funds to the distribution company. If the government supports the distribution company, to create the plug and play and give that to the charge point operator, then it will help the sector much better than instead of spending the money and creating the number,” says Jha.

Power distribution companies play a pivotal role in fostering EV adoption and boosting the energy sector by supplying reliable electricity to the end user. However, high installation costs is still a concern for the industry. To bridge this gap, investments are necessary along with the support of government's initiatives, says IESA.

“The supply of electricity and uptime of power is not there as much. So the moment we get that infra in place, we upgrade our transformers, we upgrade our grids, we will see how the growth of EV will not only be restricted to the urban areas but the rural areas as well,” says Shiraz Khanna, CFO of Exicom.