India’s EV charging infrastructure needs $30 billion investment to double growth rate

According to industry body India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), India needs an investment of $20-30 billion to double the growth rate of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the country.

With over four million electric vehicles sold in India, according to IESA, EV adoption is rapidly approaching an inflection point, driven by supportive government policies and increased consumer awareness. However, the pace of this implementation now needs to be accelerated, supported by public and private investment, the report says.

“We are all waiting for the PM e-drive scheme, which will provide twice the incentive for charging infrastructure than the FAME-II scheme. A few things that the ministry is considering before releasing the full scheme is that this time they are trying to distribute the demand across states, taking into account the density of vehicles in different localities of states and cities,” says IESA President Deby. Prasad Dash.

“The ministry has also tried to look at whether any state has its own EV policy and provides incentives for charging stations and others and how they can distribute both state and central government schemes,” says Dash.

The PM e-Drive scheme aims to address range anxiety by promoting the installation of electric vehicle public charging stations (EVPCS). ₹2,000 crore has been allocated for installation of 22,100 fast chargers for e-4W, 1,800 fast chargers for e-buses and 48,400 fast chargers for e-2W and e-3W. However, the growing number of electric vehicles has raised alarming concerns about fast chargers, which are still in their infancy in India, IESA said.

PM E-drive’s allocation of this money does very little to speed up the development of public charging infrastructure, says Awadhesh Jha, chief executive of charging station operator Glida. “₹2,000 crore can be invested in upgrading the power infrastructure by providing funds to the distribution company. If the government supports the distribution company to create a plug and play system and give it to the charging point operator, it will help the sector much better than instead of spending money and creating a number,” says Jha.

Energy distribution companies play a key role in promoting the adoption of electric vehicles and the development of the energy sector by reliably delivering electricity to the end consumer. However, high installation costs remain a concern in the industry. To bridge this gap, investment is needed along with support for government initiatives, says IESA.

“The power supply and uptime are not that great. So once we install this infrastructure, update our transformers, update our networks, we will see the growth of electric vehicles being limited not only to urban areas but also to rural areas,” says Shiraz Khanna, CFO. Excom company.