In order to support the two million electric vehicles (EVs) that may be driving on its roads by 2026, India’s emerging EV market will need approximately 400,000 charging stations across the country of over 1.3 billion individuals — reports Business Standard.
The Grant Thornton Bharat-Ficci report, released Saturday, June 12, said that hefty support from the government, decreased cost of technology, classification of EV charging infrastructure as corporate social responsibility, and fruitful partnerships between the government and EV manufacturers will all be needed to realize India’s goal of having 100% of all vehicles on its roads by 2030 be all-electric of plug-in hybrid electric.
The most recent records show that India has over 300 million cars in operation, so going 100% electric by the decade’s end is a tall task on its own. Add in the infrastructure needed to support all those EVs, and that tall task gets even taller.
According to India’s EV industry body, the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), there are currently 1,800 charging stations in the country that support approximately 16,200 EVs.
“More than half of the stakeholders, as part of a survey in the report, have also recommended involvement of discoms in Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) deployment and classification of EV charging infrastructure as corporate social responsibility,” said the Grant Thornton Bharat-Ficci report.
The Indian government will have to find ways to split its EV infrastructure-building responsibilities with the corporate sector and EV manufacturers if it hopes to have anywhere near 400,000 charging stations by 2026.
Providing EV manufacturers with low production costs and tax breaks like it did with industry veteran Tesla, which is coming to India sometime this year, and facilitating partnerships between EV makers and local corporations are good incentives to start with.
