India’s Top 9 Cities Will Require 18,000 Public EV Charging Stations By 2030: Govt

India’s top nine cities, with a population of over 4 Mn each, would require 18,000 public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations by 2030, the Parliament was informed.

Responding to a question on EV charging stations, Minister of Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey told the Lok Sabha, “As per inputs received from the Ministry of Power, preliminary studies conducted for the nine cities, which include Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata, all with a population of over 4 million, indicate a requirement of 18,000 public EV charging stations by 2030.”

The minister said that as per the data available with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a total of 9,113 public EV charging stations were operational in the country with 15,493 EV chargers, as of July 31, 2023.

“As per the VAHAN portal managed by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) 28,17,554 electric vehicles are operational in the country as on 31st July, 2023… Accordingly, the ratio of electric vehicles (EVs) to public EV chargers in the country comes out to be 182,” the minister added.

As per the data provided by the government, Maharashtra led the nation with the highest number of EV charging stations (2,494), as of July 31, followed by Delhi (1,627) and Karnataka (753). 

Pandey said that while there are no fixed targets for installation of public EV chargers in the country, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas is currently in the process of deploying 22,000 public EV charging stations, which are expected to be installed by December 2024.

“Out of these 22,000 public EV charging stations, 7,432 are being deployed under the FAME-II scheme implemented by the Ministry of Heavy Industry,” the minister said.

It must be noted that the Centre has provisioned INR 1,000 Cr for building EV charging infrastructure under the FAME-II scheme. 

The latest development comes at a time when the adoption of EVs is on the rise in the country. The Centre is also trying to promote the use of EVs, and the FAME scheme is a result of this push.

However, FAME-II has been shrouded in controversy over the last year or so, with multiple two-wheeler original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) being probed for claiming subsidies in violation of the norms. 

The government also found Ola Electric, Ather Energy, TVS Motor, and Hero MotoCorp guilty of charging customers separately for their proprietary software and charger and asked the companies to return back a total of INR 288 Cr to the customers.

The controversy surrounding the FAME-II scheme has also hit the sales of two-wheeler EVs in the country. After hitting a 12-month low in June, two-wheeler EV registrations recovered to 54,232 units in July but the scars of FAME-II were still visible.

Meanwhile, the government has reportedly also prepared the draft for the third phase of the FAME scheme, with an outlay of INR 40,000-INR 50,000 Cr.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.