The Grant Thornton Bharat-Ficci report said that India needs about 400,000 charging stations to meet the requirement for two million Electric Vehicles (EV) that could potentially run on its roads by 2026. The report said in order for India to reach its vision of 100% EVs by 2030, factors such as increasing government support, decreasing cost of technology, and distressing pollution levels would be key to accelerate this transition.
Currently, there are 1,800 charging stations in India as of March 2021 for approximately 16,200 electric cars, including the fleet segment as per the EV industry body – Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles.
The report mentioned that overall, the EV infrastructure is tightly coupled with the EV and charging station characteristics, battery technologies, and electricity markets. More than half of the stakeholders, as part of a survey in the report, have also recommended the involvement of discoms in Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) deployment and classification of EV charging infrastructure as corporate social responsibility. The survey also suggested design simplifications, partnership during the transition, and optimisation of urban mobility as effective cost reduction levers for bringing down EV costs in India.
The report also highlighted that the global manufacturers have spent millions to improve the availability and efficacy of EV chargers, and as a result the fastest ones today take no more than 15 minutes to recharge a vehicle. The global sales of EVs in 2020 increased by 39 per cent y-o-y to 3.1 million units, whereas the total passenger car market declined 14 per cent.
